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Hinduism originated in India by the Indus River around 1500 BC.
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Around 1300 B.C.E, scriptures were written down by the HIndus known as Vedas. Vedas is scripture that gives them spiritual knowledge of all thi=e things in their lives.
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Hinduism was first spread by merchants and traders who traveled mostly by sea to other countries around 3rd century B.C.E.
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Hinduism came into Cambodia during the beginning of the Kingdom of Funan (68-550). It was the offical religion during this kingdom. Cambodia has a HIndu temple, Angkor Wat, which is the biggest in the world.
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The Champa Dynasty established Hinduism in Vietnam in the 2nd to 3rd century 101 C.E. It was also one of the first countries to be introduced to Hinduism outside of India.
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It is estimated that the Hindus traveled to Malaysian shores at least 1,700 years ago to trade goods. Indian culture and traditions started to spread in these parts resulting in many temples being built.
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HInduism spread to Sri Lanka when Hindu kings from southern and eastern India would try to take over countries by sending men over there to seize those countries.
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In the 3rd century C.E, the Srivijayan kingdom was established in Sumatra, Indonesia which became a very powerful kindom whose main religion was HInduism.
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The Chola rulers invaded Sri Lanka and established a Hindu kingdom there by the 11th century. They built many temples there that soon became centers of Hinduism.
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With the growth of Buddism through out South Asia, Hinduism started to subside and die out of many of its South Asian countries after the 14th century.
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During the 5th through 14th century (400 BC - 1400 AD), many Southeast Asian countries started to embrace Hinduism as a religion.
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Hinduism spread to many countries including Indonesia where it was a major religion until Islam superseded it in the 13th century. The only island that did not change was Bali, which is also now the largest Hindu region outside of India.
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In the Philippines, the statues of the Hindu gods were hidden so that they would not be destroyed by people who eradicated cult images. The "Golden Tara", a 4-pound gold statue of a Hindu-Malayan goddess, was found in Mindanao in 1917 which dated back to the late 13th/early 14th century.
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The Cham people built a Hindu temple named the My Son in Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam, during the 15th century.
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Tamil Immigrants from southern India traveled to Singapore to work for the British East India Company. They brought the Hindu religion and customs with them to Singapore which resulted in the building of temples throughout the island.
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The Sri Mariamman Temple was the first Hindu temple to be built in Singapore in 1827 by Narayana Pillai. He dedicated the temple to the Hindu goddess Mariamman.
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Several Hindu temples in Malaysia were demolished by city hall authorities including the Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur which was in complete ruins after the city hall sent in bulldozers.
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HInduism was established on the islands of Java and Bali where the Prambanan was built, a Hindu temple that was built by the Sailendra dynasty on central Java in the 9th century.
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HIndu kings conquered many kingdoms outside of India. The most noteworthy was the conquer of Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the 10th through the 11th centuries.
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The Hindu-Buddhist empire, the Khmer empire, brought Hinduism into Cambodia from the 9th to the 15th centuries.
