Eastern religions
religions that originated in East, South and Southeast Asia
The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western and African religions. Eastern religions include:
East Asian religions such as Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion, Shinto, and Korean shamanism
Dharmic religions or Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism
Southeast Asian religions such as Vietnamese folk religion and Kejawen
The East-West religious distinction (just like the East-West culture distinction, and the implications that arise from it) is broad and not precise. Furthermore, geographical distinctions have less meaning in the current context of global transculturation.
While many Western observers attempt to distinguish between Eastern philosophies and religions, this is a distinction that does not exist in some Eastern traditions.
Dharmic religions
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism originated in the Indian subcontinent and share similar concepts (e.g., dharma, karma, moksha).
Hinduism
Hinduism originated on the Indian subcontinent and was related to many other religious traditions outside the subcontinent, in places like ancient Central Asia and ancient Iran. It is considered by some to be the world's oldest extant major religion. Some consider Hinduism to originate from the Indus Valley civilization along with animism of the pre-Harappan migrants as well as the Indo-Aryan migrants. Hinduism contains a vast body of scripture, divided as revealed and remembered, expounding on dharma, or religious living. Hindus consider the Vedas and the Upanishads as being among the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Eastern religions” is religions that originated in East, South and Southeast Asia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Eastern, religions and originated, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “religions that originated in East, South and Southeast Asia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3250393. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Eastern religions”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Eastern religions primary sources, Eastern religions archive and Eastern research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Eastern religions” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.