Indian Ocean Basin Dbq Essay

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During the classical period, the Indian Ocean Basin was filled with diversity and assortment. The development of cross-cultural exchanges in the Basin brought new ideas, technologies, items, and different ways of thinking. During this evolving new era, multicultural exchanges of trade and religion were the most prominent in the Indian Ocean Basin.
Cross-cultural exchange in the Indian Ocean Basin mainly included trade and religion. Firstly, document one and four explained the cross cultural interaction of the Indian Ocean Basin through trade. Document one, explains how because of the Ceylon’s central position, trade with Persia, Ethiopia, China, Male, Calliana, Sind, and Anatolia were common. For example, China traded silks, cloves,, and other …show more content…

This best illustrated in document three and five. Document three explains that the Seokguram grotto is one of the most meaningful Buddhist sites in Korea. This Buddhist statue shows just how far Buddhism spread from India, its place of origin, to Korea. This displays the multicultural exchanges in the Indian Ocean Basin. Secondly, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, was originally a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. Hinduism spread to Cambodia many through sea routed to Khmer around the first century. The temple was later converted into a Buddhist temple from influences from merchants and missionaries from India; these merchants and missionaries later spread Buddhism to much of southeast and east Asia. These two documents further prove the dynamics of religious exchanges in the Indian Ocean Basin. By examining these four documents one can easily see the diverse exchanges throughout the Indian Ocean Basin by the spread of trade and religion. One can easily compare these exchanges to that of the Silk Road in the post classical era of history. Just as the Indian Ocean Basin helped spread religion to east and southeast Asia, similarly, the Silk Road spread Buddhism to southeast and central Asia. From this evidence, it is clear that the dynamics of cross-cultural exchanges in the Indian Ocean Basin was mainly through trade and