Introduction

In one sense, there are innumerable religions in Asia. Some of these are tribal religions, belonging to relatively small social groups which so far have resisted an integration into wider cultural and social structures. Others are folk religions, relatively amorphous practices and beliefs which underlie the more structured ‘high religions’. But in a different sense, only three or four religions are of primary importance, both in terms of the complexity of their beliefs and of their geographical spread. Thus Christianity found a home in south-western India from the earlier part of the first millennium Ce. From the late fifteenth century, a succession of colonial powers and missionary activities gave rise to sizeable Christian communities in other parts of India and in Asian countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and China. But far greater has been the impact of Islam. From the seventh century Ce onwards, it created a whole string of Islamic countries (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia) and also acquired numerous followers in countries like India, central Russia and China. Nevertheless, both Christianity and Islam belong historically to the Near East, and in spite of their presence further east, they changed relatively little of their basic, ‘semitic’, character. Thus it is primarily Buddhism followed by Hinduism which appear as the older and truly ‘Asian’ religions.