Bronze Age: Dong Son Culture (c. 5th–1st Century Bce) | Britannica

10th century to the present

In Cambodia the Khmer empire succeeded to the old territories of Funan-Chenla. About 790 the first major Khmer ruler, Jayavarman II, who was related to the old Funan royal family, went to Cambodia from the Shailendra court in Java. In 802 he set up a religious capital on a hill at Phnom Kulen. He seems to have called in artists from Champa and Java, thus giving to Khmer art a distinct new impetus. At another site, Sambhupura (Sambor), he built temples with sculpture based upon the old Funan-Chenla tradition. At Amarendrapura, about 800, he built a brick pyramid—an artificial mountain—to support a quincunx of temples.

It was Indravarman I (877–889) who laid the foundations of the fabulous temple complex known as Angkor. His plan was based on a rectangular grid of reservoirs, canals, and irrigation channels to control the waters of the river system. Later kings elaborated this original design to a colossal scale. Indravarman built the first great works of Khmer architecture: the Preah Ko, at Roluos, and at Angkor his temple mountain, the Bakong, ornamented with sculpture. Successive kings built their own temple mountains there, including the Bakheng (c. 893), the Pre Rup (c. 961), the Ta Keo (c. 1000), and the Baphuon (c. 1050–66), culminating in Angkor Wat, built in the first half of the 12th century by Suryavarman II. After a disastrous invasion by the Cham, Jayavarman VII undertook the most ambitious scheme of all, the Mahayana Buddhist Angkor Thom and the Bayon (c. 1200). Thereafter, for a variety of reasons, including conquest by the Thai, no more large-scale work was done by Angkor, and the country became Theravada Buddhist. The modern dynasty adapted remnants of traditional splendour, and the craftspeople of Cambodia remained capable of work in the same vein.

Hindu Javanese art continued to be made under the eastern Javanese dynasties (1222–14th century), although their structures were not nearly as ambitious as the central Javanese works. There are many temple enclosures and volcanic bathing places with modest stone-cut architecture. Some of the stone sculptures from these sites, however, are now world famous. In the 21st century the east Javanese tradition still survives, modified by folk elements, in Bali, to which the east Javanese Hindu kings retreated in the 16th century to maintain their religious independence in the face of Muslim expansion. Muslim monuments in the form of mosques and tombs are found in various parts of Indonesia. They adapt older forms of Indonesian art.

In 1056 the great Burmese king Anawrahta decreed Theravada Buddhism to be the religion of his country, replacing earlier cults. He removed the Mon monks and artists from the capital of the old Mon kingdom in southern Burma, transporting them to his own northern capital, Pagan. There they built a city, with many large brick and stucco temples (pagodas) based on Indian patterns, that remains one of the most impressive sites in Asia. The Mongol invasion of 1287 put a stop to work there.

The Mon city-states of northeast and central Thailand were annexed to the Khmer empire in the 11th century, and Khmer imperial shrines were built there. After the decline of the Khmer and the Mongol invasion of 1287, a powerful alliance of Thai kings established the first major Thai empire, retaining Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Thailand was divided into two principal regions, northern and southern, with capitals respectively at Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya, possession of the trade city of Sukhothai being an issue between them. In all the Thai cities, brick and stucco temples were built on variants of Indian and Burmese patterns. Many fine bronze Buddha figures, large and small, were cast in canonical Theravada Buddhist styles. Most of these figures were accommodated in monastery halls built in impermanent materials.

In both Burma and Thailand a very large number of monasteries, usually surrounding one or two principal pagodas, were constructed during the later Middle Ages and into modern times. The major cities of Rangoon (now Yangon), Mandalay, and Bangkok contain the most elaborate examples, although there are many elsewhere. Because the pagodas were repeatedly enlarged and redecorated and the wooden monastic buildings and their many smaller stupas continuously reconstructed and renovated, no absolute chronology has been established for the arts of this epoch.

In Laos and Vietnam, Theravada monasteries, with brick stupas, were similarly built and rebuilt of wood. An outstanding stupa is the That Luang at Vientiane, in Laos, founded in 1566 but much restored in the 18th–19th century. In Vietnam local variants of Chinese styles were adapted during the Middle Ages to the planning and decoration of palaces and of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist temples.

The ancient styles that prevailed in the Philippines were modified by the conversion of various groups—the Moro people, especially—to Islam in the 15th–16th century. When, in 1571, the Spanish took control, Manila became the capital of a Spanish colony, and Roman Catholic Spanish art was adopted via Mexico. A local school of Baroque church architecture and figurative sculpture flourished until the 20th century, when architecture embraced a classical revival. The Philippine Revolution (1896–98), which led to independence from Spain, was followed by an American colonial presence until the end of World War II. Architecture consequently mirrored Western stylistic developments throughout the 20th century. A number of Filipino architects, however, espoused a style that reflected local traditions and culture, and their innovative works reshaped the urban landscape. Meanwhile, cross-cultural Christian iconography and scenes of urban life were just two of the significant themes pursued by artists in the visual arts.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, spontaneous modern art movements were temporarily halted with the Japanese occupation of the entire region during World War II. The occupation led to regional developments characterized by a search for national and cultural identities, as opposed to the modernism associated with Western art. Subsequently, the 1960s and ’70s were marked by intense political crises. Those years represented a period of experimentation and the search for new types of media, styles, and techniques. Visual artists chose to seek out new forms of expression; their works of social realism and activism were an attempt to engage with a wider public. The 1980s ushered in the advent of conceptual art, mixed media, installation, collage, fibre, video, and performance art.

In the late 20th century some parts of Southeast Asia witnessed the emergence of a dynamic contemporary art market, characterized by a rapid rise in international sales and supported by a burgeoning gallery scene. The growth of major regional art competitions and multicultural biennials and triennials around the Pacific Rim in the 21st century provided opportunities for artists to interact and make their mark. Contemporary works from such countries as Burma, Cambodia, and Laos became more accessible, in part because of research publications and the cultural interaction that became a main focus of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an international organization established in 1967.