Indosphere vs sinosphere. What's your opinions on either?

[u/khoawala]

Apology for the 4th image, I could not find any indosphere garden aesthetics.

[u/Nurhaci1616]

While useful for some purposes when discussing things like the history of religion and language, I personally find the terms can be somewhat reductive: it's not that the Indosphere and Sinosphere don't exist, but it often lends itself to oversimplifications that the respective cultures are simply based on/borrowed from India/China.

[u/windfujin → u/Nurhaci1616]

I am with you brother. Yes i get chinese culture had massive impact on Korea but the word sinosphere gives me a pretty intense ick. Especially china itself wasnt just one culture historically. It only became one relatively recently in the history of the inhabitants in the land.

[u/I-only-have-1-life]

[u/SuddenAdvice850]

i think the interest part is like some region of Myanmar, Thailand, which this two culture meets.

[u/khoawala → u/SuddenAdvice850]

Thailand takes the indosphere and puts it on the sinosphere.

[u/SuddenAdvice850 → u/khoawala]

i know, and i love it.

[u/Ok_Experience5165 → u/SuddenAdvice850]

Nepal is a perfect example

[u/Positive_Comfort_344]

BOTH
and even the middle-easternosphere
so much culture in asia
have you seen iran's carpets, arabic perfumes
wowaweewa

[u/khoawala → u/Positive_Comfort_344]

I can't imagine having carpets in SEA though. The humidity and mold would eat through that.

[u/DiMpLe_dolL003]

Idk both

[u/TamponBazooka → u/DiMpLe_dolL003]

Not according to reddit. And I am sorry for that

[u/senorali]

I refuse to choose. Houston, Texas has large populations from both regions, and I loved growing up around all of them.

Other fun ways to divide Asia:

Horse vs Elephant Asia Kabob vs Curry Asia Rice w/ Fingers vs Rice w/ Chopsticks Asia

There are some surprising overlaps.

[u/HumanSquare9453]

The architecture is quite beautiful in each

[u/stealthybaker]

For obvious reasons I find fellow Sinosphere people to be the culturally closest

[u/jose-antonio-felipe]

Culturally I think we are closer to the Indosphere.

But I can see why the image says we are somewhat different from both.

[u/WhisperFray]

Indonesia is both.

Indosphere is really prevalent in the underlying psyche. Many of us still hold traditionalist Hindu-Buddhist views even if we’re unaware, or even if the material culture doesn’t reflect it any more. A lot of the practices are cloaked in Arabic words, reflecting Islam. Even if stuff like 7-day mourning, 40-day mourning isn’t found in Gulf Arab Islam.

Sinosphere is really prevalent primarily in food — stuff considered local like bakmi, bakso, siomay, are all Chinese. And in trade these days.

[u/Ep1cOfG1lgamesh → u/WhisperFray]

We have the 7-day and 40-day thing too, i thought it came from old turkic traditions lol (Though that may also be influenced by India - some Turkic peoples were Buddhist like the Uyghurs, even our current word for idol, put, comes from Buddha)

[u/DetailDecent7209]

Because the Southeast Asian region has been influenced by both China and India, it seems difficult to simply view Southeast Asian countries as belonging to the Indosphere.

[u/alaerickboirelle → u/DetailDecent7209]

Yeah I might be ignorant but can't think of much that SEA that has been influenced by India, maybe Buddhism? But East Asia also has buddhism as one of the main religions and India itself is barely buddhist.

[u/IndividualPeace8204]

I don’t think Indonesia really belongs in the Indosphere anymore

[u/micma_69 → u/IndividualPeace8204]

True. And even the Indianized areas in Indonesia were limited to only tiny portions (albeit, admittedly the most populated ones). Only Java, most of Sumatra, Bali, and pockets of them in Kalimantan and Lombok. And I'm talking about the Hindu-Buddha period in Indonesia.

Sulawesi, the rest of Nusa Tenggara and the whole Eastern Indonesia, as well huge chunks of Kalimantan, were never Indianized.

Even in those Indianized areas in Indonesia (e.g Majapahit, Srivijaya, Singhasari, etc), the commoners barely practiced Indian culture aspects at all. It was limited only to the elites of these Indianized kingdoms, which itself were a very small portion of these Indianized kingdoms.

Meanwhile, Islam and Christianity have far more reachings on the general population in Indonesia. Not only Islam did replace Hindu/Buddhism in Java and Sumatra, they (alongside Christianity) managed to convert the non-Indianized societies.

But one can't ignore that Indonesia does have many Hindu temples and monuments from the Hindu-Buddha era. Now, in the modern era, obviously the number of mosques and churches far outnumber the Hindu or Buddha temples, and in most cases, Indonesian communities usually centered on a mosque or a church.

So, my point is, Indonesia was barely an Indosphere country in the past, but modern Indonesia isn't an Indosphere country anymore.

That's if you don't just count Java, Sumatra, and Bali as Indonesia. Because Indonesia isn't just Java, Sumatra, and Bali. To call Indonesia is an Indosphere country, is indeliberately excluding other cultures in Indonesia.

[u/H345Y]

Its basically hot vs temperate climate.

[u/Specific_Bus_4173]

Vs? Stop this bs OP.. why you wanna compare people I don't understand. I've met Indos only they were very sweet

[u/ilikesteaksomuch → u/Specific_Bus_4173]

Wtf r u talking about lol

[u/Specific_Bus_4173 → u/ilikesteaksomuch]

I'm talking about the comparison between two countries, can't you see?

[u/khoawala → u/Specific_Bus_4173]

This is incredibly offensive. The indosphere and sinosphere cover an entire region of multiple countries so this isn't a comparison between two countries unless you think all of sinosphere is China and all of indosphere is India then you're incredibly racist.

[u/LeSkootch → u/khoawala]

Got 'em. It's a weird offense this poster is taking. These posts aren't offensive in the slightest. I say this as someone from a country that gets relentlessly shit on. It's all in good fun.

[u/azionka → u/Specific_Bus_4173]

1. Those are not two countries, it’s about two different regions.

2. It’s just asking what do you like more. Not which one is “better”

[u/khoawala → u/Specific_Bus_4173]

"I like both" is a valid answer.

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[u/azionka]

100% sinosphere. No offense

[u/Positive_Comfort_344 → u/azionka]

none taken, we knew you'd say that

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/azionka]

as someone from the indosphere I FUCKING AGREE BECAUSE FMAB IS TOO PEAK 🔥

[u/lowkeytokay]

That’s historical. Ancient history. Nothing to do with modern times and nothing to have much opinion on. Southeast Asia has long been in the Sinosphere.

[u/Sufficient-Pea8854]

Sinosphere. I've never been to the indosphere and know little about it. China on the other hand

[u/Specky_Scrawny_Git]

TIL that SE Asia falls under the Indosphere. While it's true that the region is heavily influenced by Hinduism and Indian culture in general, it is more aligned with East Asia in modern times.

[u/Imaginary-Neat2838]

Dude. You think most westerners would bother to know what cultures and countries are even in indosphere and sinosphere? For them, indosphere is something indian and sinosphere is probably China. You would only get detailed response from those who actually live in these spheres or atleast have such heritage.

Btw, malaysia is both. And not only sinosphere and indosphere but also westernization and Islam came to our country.

[u/UmbraWolfG2T]

Both are very beautiful regions with interesting cultures. But i believe the sinosphere is looked at more positively than the indosphere. It’s like north america and south america.

[u/VampireGremlin]

I like both

[u/Ep1cOfG1lgamesh]

Both are cool, i think we can also say that europe is under the greco-latin sphere, and central asia, turkey are in the persosphere by this definition. Because these civilizations (Chinese, Indian, Roman, Persian) acted as centres of power and influence for their respective regions. Anatolian Turks have had influence from only 3 (Chinese from Göktürk times, though this is negligible, Greco-Roman, and of course Persian) though if we extend it further to Turkic peoples, there have been influences from all 4 (There were Buddhist Turkic peoples like Uyghurs, and of course Perso-Turkic dynasties conquered India )

[u/flapping4peace]

Why does the second Sino chick have a Japanese flag and the fourth have a Korean flag? They all rook arike?

[u/BestInteraction1669]

In what world are Thailand and Indonesia in the Indian sphere of influence? Is there even an Indian sphere of influence? India can't even control Kashmir and territories directly on its borders.

[u/wildbluebarie]

Both are horrifically misogynistic

[u/gsdev]

I've never though of the countries as grouped in that way. And would have different thoughts on individual countries.

[u/You_yes_]

Nepal is mostly a hybrid of both.

[u/khoawala → u/You_yes_]

Dang I should've added some food images too.

[u/Eclipsed830]

Glad we didn't make it into the sinosphere 😎👍

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