How could Islam and Christianity gain a foothold in Indochina?

Java was not invaded. Majapahit collapsed on its own and its successor states (the most important one, Demak, founded by a Majapahit aristocrat) just happened to be Muslim.

I dispute this opinion. They did not happen to be Muslim and I am under the impression from the sources that we have collected; that the Majaphit gave certain privileges to Muslim merchants at various locations. These merchants following this collapse, formed states that waged war and invaded other Hindu-Buddhist states across the island and by the point of European arrival, the entire populace had been converted to Islam.

This reeks of invasion and the term invasion I use, perhaps is different. Regardless, this is my opinion and the opinion that has been built from proofs on ground, including the complete forgetting of major Hindu-Buddhist sites. If the Hindu-Buddhist populace were converted over time and not invaded and conquered, you would expect at least continual and lingering populaces of these religions and maintained temple sites. However, this is not what we see.

The Islamization of Java, is similar to the Islamization of Central Asia, cohorts of Muslim merchants precede invasion by Muslim armies of some sort.
 
These merchants following this collapse, formed states that waged war and invaded other Hindu-Buddhist states across the island and by the point of European arrival, the entire populace had been converted to Islam.
Except Demak, which was founded by a Majapahit noble who married a Majapahit princess, was the state to finally destroy Majapahit. Not a foreigner. Furthermore, there is no evidence of any sort of rupture between Majapahit and Islamic Java. The same types of books were read, the same sort of culture was enjoyed, the same sort of government was employed. It was just the religion that changed (the law was still based on the Manusmrti, popular culture in Hinduism and local animism).

including the complete forgetting of major Hindu-Buddhist sites.
Borobudur was already abandoned during Majapahit.

The city of Majapahit was not forgotten and some Muslim Javanese wanted to move the capital back there to restore Java’s glory. Javanese Kings used to wear the Majapahit crown until it disappeared during one of the wars against the Dutch.

you would expect at least continual and lingering populaces of these religions
There are still Hindu Javanese around the hills in East Java.

Also, Javanese Hinduism wasn’t exactly a religion in the same vein as Christianity or Islam were. It’s a different case from the Middle East.

The Islamization of Java, is similar to the Islamization of Central Asia
The two are totally incomparable.
 
Except Demak, which was founded by a Majapahit noble who married a Majapahit princess, was the state to finally destroy Majapahit. Not a foreigner. Furthermore, there is no evidence of any sort of rupture between Majapahit and Islamic Java. The same types of books were read, the same sort of culture was enjoyed, the same sort of government was employed. It was just the religion that changed (the law was still based on the Manusmrti, popular culture in Hinduism and local animism).


Borobudur was already abandoned during Majapahit.

The city of Majapahit was not forgotten and some Muslim Javanese wanted to move the capital back there to restore Java’s glory. Javanese Kings used to wear the Majapahit crown until it disappeared during one of the wars against the Dutch.


There are still Hindu Javanese around the hills in East Java.

Also, Javanese Hinduism wasn’t exactly a religion in the same vein as Christianity or Islam were. It’s a different case from the Middle East.


The two are totally incomparable.

So according to your opinion, all the evidences that we have regarding wars between Hindu-Buddhist states and the new Muslim states, which did invoke jihad according to later Islamic sources, are all incorrect? I doubt this, I cannot imagine this change occurred through some peaceful revolution by which Islam simply happens to within a short time have nearly the entirety of Java be part of Islam and that the wars so described in the Sunda region and what have you, to simply have been an illusion.

Of course they are comparable, was the conquest of the Buddhist-Hindu states of western Java an action of peace?

According to what I have read, Borobudur was still known of during the 15th century. This is a stark contrast to later fully Islamized Java, where the temple was simply forgotten.
 
It required invasion and war to do so in Java and in other areas of the Archipelago. Such wars would be less effective in mainland Southeast Asia than they were in Java.

If fragmented enough, it might have effect. Bengal could attack the smaller fragmentef states in Birma for starter. But such wars and campaigns will likely take no less than 100 years if anything goes as planned (which in reality it won't). This, considering the geography of South East Asia and the strenght of the Nations there. And even then, there would be minimal result.
 
For a situations like Indonesia, an earlier Islamic ruled Northern India and Indonesian archipelago is necessary. Like, Northern India is ruled by Muslims by 1000-1050 AD and the Indonesia Archipelago by 1100-1150.

It is still hard but the only way for it to succeed is before Europeans become too dominant.
 
If fragmented enough, it might have effect. Bengal could attack the smaller fragmentef states in Birma for starter. But such wars and campaigns will likely take no less than 100 years if anything goes as planned (which in reality it won't). This, considering the geography of South East Asia and the strenght of the Nations there. And even then, there would be minimal result.

Possibly, it would simply require a fair amount of work.
 
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