No early Buddhist written records have yet to be found from this era, likely due to the perishable nature of the writing mediums, which were bamboo and leaves.

In many of the key South Asian port cities that saw the growth of Esoteric Buddhism, the tradition coexisted alongside Shaivism.

Many of the kings and the chieftains in the islands in the southern seas admire and believe in Buddhism, and their hearts are set on accumulating good action.

Built as a mandala on a hill from 770 to 825 in central Java, the Borobodur stands today as a living testament of the Srivijaya empire's grandeur.

Three generations of the Sailendra kings built the temple that displays a three-dimensional view of the Vajrayāna Buddhist cosmology.

[citation needed] In 1225, China's Zhao Rugua, a superintendent of maritime trade in Fukien province wrote the book entitled Zhu Fan Zhi (Chinese: 諸番志; lit.

'Account of the Various Barbarians'), in which he described trade with a country called Ma-i in the island of Mindoro in Luzon, which was a pre-Hispanic Philippine state.

[15]"The gentleness of Tagalog customs that the first Spaniards found, very different from those of other provinces of the same race and in Luzon itself, can very well be the effect of Buddhism "There are copper Buddha's" images.

In the Vajrayāna tradition, Tara symbolizes the Absolute in its emptiness as the wisdom heart's essence that finds its expression through love and through compassion.

Henry Otley Beyer, the Philippines' pioneer anthropologist-archaeologist, and some experts have agreed on its identity and have dated it to belong within 900–950 CE, which covers the Sailendra period of the Srivijaya empire.

In the archipelago that was to become the Philippines, the statues of Hindu and Buddhist gods were hidden to prevent destruction during the arrival of Islam, a religion which destroyed all cult images.

According to Professor Beyer, considered the "Father of Philippine Anthropology and Archeology", a woman in 1917 found it on the left bank of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan, projecting from the silt in a ravine after a storm and flood.

A golden statuette of the Hindu-Buddhist goddess Kinnara was also found in an archeological dig in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.

[20] Scholars such as Milton Osborne emphasize that despite these beliefs being originally from India, they reached the Philippines through Southeast Asian cultures with Austronesian roots.

[21] Artifacts[verification needed] reflect the iconography of the Vajrayāna tradition and its influences on the Philippines's early states.

The Chinese annal Song Shih recorded the first appearance of a Butuan tributary mission (Li Yui-han 李竾罕 and Jiaminan) at the Chinese Imperial Court on March 17, 1001 CE and it described Butuan (P'u-tuan) as a small Hindu country with a Buddhist monarchy in the sea that had a regular connection with the Champa kingdom and intermittent contact with China under the Rajah named Kiling.

The gentleness of Tagalog customs that the first Spaniards found, were very different from those of other provinces of the same race and in Luzon itself, can very well be the effect of Buddhism.

[35] There are Mahāyāna monasteries, temples, lay organizations, meditation centers and groups, such as Fo Guang Shan, Soka Gakkai International, and an international Nichiren Buddhist organization Such As Nichiren Sho-shu Hokaiji Temple In Cubao, City Of Quezon founded in Japan.

The Philippines currently has the smallest Buddhist population in Southeast Asia, which is home to five Buddhist-majority sovereign nations.

[42][41] In 1956, the entire Buddhist sacred texts of Navayana Buddhism entitled The Buddha and His Dhamma was published in the English language.

[43] In the 1970's, Thailand's Sangha Supreme Council (Mahāthera Samāgama), made contacts with the Philippines to re-introduce Theravada Buddhism, including translating Buddhist texts in the local languages.

No trained Buddhist monks were however assigned to foster and convey the teachings within the translated texts to the general Filipino public.

[44][45] In 2021, translating the Buddhist teachings in the local languages of the Philippines were undertaken by Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan, who adheres to Mahayana Buddhism, and is currently ongoing.

The Tagalog and Visayan belief system was more or less anchored on the idea that the world is inhabited by spirits and supernatural entities, both good and bad, and that respect must be accorded to them through worship.

Bathala or Batala was apparently derived from Sanskrit "bhattara" (noble lord), which appeared as the sixteenth-century title "batara" in the southern Philippines and Borneo.

It is worth noting that in Malay, "betara" means holy, and was applied to the greater Hindu gods in Java, and was also assumed by the ruler of Majapahit.