The use of Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing in a study of the protohistory of Southeast Asia

The proto-histories of Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand previously have been considered in isolation, and have been written predominantly by European researchers. This thesis shows that the history of the Hindu religions, adopted by at least the ruling classes in Southeast Asian countries, had been developed far earlier than previous researchers had acknowledged. By taking a regional view, by considering the religion upon which the ‘Indianisation’ process rested, by using Geographic Information Systems and by not pre-judging possible outcomes, this thesis shows that the ‘Brahmanic’ temples of Southeast Asia were originally established to a pattern which represented the Brahmanic priests’ views of their place in both space and time, which in turn related to the greater astronomical cosmos as well as to their inner cosmos. This thesis demonstrates a need for the re-consideration of the proto-history of Southeast Asia, in particular that of Viet Nam, to better reflect the basis on which the ‘Indianisation’ process was adopted by the indigenous peoples and to better collate the data from the various parts of the central to south Vietnamese coast before providing an alternative meta-narrative to that which has been accepted for over 100 years by much of the archaeological community