Vol 14, No 4 (2022): Political History, Culture and Religion of Asia

The article examines the influence of Buddhism and nationalism on identification processes in Asian countries in the context of political transformations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Significant revitalization of Buddhism (sometimes called “Buddhist Modernism”) in a number of countries coincided with the growth of nationalism (especially in Russia, Mongolia, Tibet, China, and Japan), as well as the growing perception of Buddhist transnational unity. Nationalism and religion collaborated in their reactions to a number of important phenomena: the anti-colonial movement, the resistance against western cultural expansion (India, China, Japan), the aspiration of independence (Tibet, Mongolia), the renovation processes (in particular, among the Russian Buddhists). These phenomena were caused by objective factors, the changes in worldviews, as well as with activity of some individuals (Tagore, Tai-su, Uchida Ryohei, Dalai Lama, Agvan Dorjiev). The high level of civilizational depth allowed Buddhists of various traditions to assert their basic principles as important to identity resources.

Since the beginning of the period of reforms and openness, the PRC has constantly promoted a phased reform of the education system to modernize educational functions, rise new builders of socialism and support economic transformations in the country. Due to the active regulatory and management work, described in detail in the article with the help of instrumental observation, China gradually achieved several important results. State educational policy shifted from focusing on expanding the scope and improving the quality of education to its connotation-based development. The study of the Chinese experience of modernization of the education system has not only theoretical, but also practical significance, since successful Chinese examples of deep and rapid transformation of the national administrative system and state functions, as well as a clear adjustment of the characteristics of educational policy to current national priorities can be considered for partial application in other countries, including Russia. In order to adapt elements of the Chinese experience to the realities of other countries, such as Russian Federation, it is necessary to fully understand the context, features and stages of the educational policy evolution of the People’s Republic of China, which is done in this article.

This article attempts to analyze the cooperation of the Russian Federation (RF) with India and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (PRB) in the field of nuclear energy in the light of its history, current state and near-term prospects. The author states that recently (since 2009-2014) the sectoral interaction has significantly strengthened and implementation of the main joint nuclear projects has intensified which gives a positive effect for the bilateral relations. Mutually beneficial and successful economic projects provide consensus and mutual understanding in the context of the rapid changes in the global geopolitical situation in 2022. The Ukrainian crisis and the large-scale economic sanctions against Russia led to a negative impact on the economies of most countries of the world. The issues of energy security in this situation have become one of the key factors. The continuation and development of contacts in the nuclear field becomes fundamentally important providing the new opportunities for the countries of South Asia (SA) to strengthen their own security and independence. The gathered partnership experience of the relevant cooperation between RF and SA in the nuclear field can contribute to the intensification of political ties between countries which are quite important in the light of fundamental changes in the world order. The relevance of the study implies studying the possibilities of the practical application of the gathered experience and potential of interaction between RF, India and Bangladesh aimed at determination of the optimal ways and directions of cooperation in the nuclear field and its further intensification.

The fall of Angkor in the 15th century marked a turning point in the Cambodian history leading to the downfall of the Khmer civilization and the start of the so-called “post-Angkor period” which is also often referred to as the “Dark Age of Cambodia”. Local epigraphical sources almost completely disappear from the 13th up to the 16th centuries while the Royal Chronicles dealing with this timeframe were compiled much later, mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Therefore, primary sources of this era are very scarce. While it is commonly accepted among the modern researchers that the fall of Angkor was a continuous process and was not a result of a single Siamese attack or a natural calamity (moreover, various reasons for this gradual downfall have been outlined), the perception of this process by other political powers in the region, especially China, has been significantly understudied. In this work the author made an attempt to trace the transformation of depiction of Cambodia in the Chinese sources of the Yuan and early Ming dynasties (both official and private).