Southeast Asia straddles one of the two trade routes linking East Asia and the Mediterranean. For many centuries, merchants traveled through the Straights of Malacca to points further east, bringing spices, gold, and other precious commodities, and with them came religious texts, modes of ritual practice, iconographies, and other religious systems. A consequence of this strategic location is that virtually all of the major religions of the world can be found in Southeast Asia. Today by far the most common religious traditions are Theravāda Buddhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Vietnamese variant of traditional Chinese religion. Yet there are also communities of Balinese and Tamil Hindus, Protestant Christians, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians. Prior to the Second World War there were significant Jewish communities. One can also find a vast array of indigenous religions in traditionally isolated portions of the region that are either upland...