Rock Art and the Sacred Landscapes of Mainland Southeast Asia

Across mainland Southeast Asia, rock art sites often coexist with sacred shrines and temples of Buddhism and Hinduism. We examine the coexistence of rock art with religious shrines in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. The rock art of Southeast Asia has rarely been directly dated, but most of them are thought to be from the prehistoric period. The introduction of Buddhism and Hinduism in the early Christian Era (CE) reconfigured these painted landscapes for their own use, where they are still in use today, either in harmony or as indifference to the earlier rock art. Is this coexistence confluence or coincidence? We discuss the various commonalities and differences among these sites and suggest that these sites may always have been regarded as “powerful” or “spiritual” sites in one way or another.