Silkroad topic is more at home in East asia and Central Asia than in SEA sector.
The Silk road ( or " roads" )was actually of minor importance for SEA, because SEA thrived on the Maritime route. Via the Maritime Route , "western" goods ( middle eastern and South asian ) were exchanged in SEA polities with Far East products ( Chinese silk , Indonesian spices, textiles, wood etc etc ) .
Ships from the west coming from Middle east and India made landfall at the west side of the Malay peninsula (Istnmus centres like Tunsun and Kedah) There the goods were furher transported, normally on Indonesian /Malay ships, to centres like Funan, Sumatra-Java , Champa and ofcourse China. On their turn these islanders were already making long commercial voyages to India, Yemen and east Africa since at least the fist centuries AD and probably earlier.
Example of the importance and influence of the maritime route :
When the trade greatly expanded , circa 600 AD, the Indonesian Srivijaya kingdom took full control over the main tradelane ( Malacca straits ) and thereby controlled most of the maritime trade in SEA and thereby the flow towards China. Its port became SEA 's main entrepot for SEAN/ international traders untill the 1200's. Next to that , it was an renowned buddhist learning centre attracting SEANS, Indian and Chinese. (ibid)
This clearly demonstrates that for SEA , the Maritime Route, not the Silk Road, was the highway for trading and also absorption of religious cultural ideas (Hindu- Buddhism and later Islam ).
Source
L.N. Shaffer, Maritime Southeast Asia to 1500. London, 1996.
Edited by Sander - 12-Jul-2007 at 23:30