“Buddhism, introduced in Japan as part of Chinese culture, was actively supported by the rulers. This political support furthered the mixing of religious beliefs in Japan, since the emperors were also the highest functionaries in the national religion, Shinto.* Soon it became common to read the Buddhist sutras before shrines of the Shinto kami spirits. It became a common practice to count the kami among those beings who—like humans—could find salvation through Buddhist prayer and ritual. The next stage was to give the title of bodhisattva to these Shinto kami, who were thought to have arrived at an enlightened state through the practice of Buddhism.”

*The traditional religion of Japan, combining elements of animism and ancestor worship Hartmut Rotermund, European historian of Japan, article in an encyclopedia of world religions and mythologies, 1991

a. Explain how the interactions described in the article illustrate the process of religious syncretism.
b. Explain ONE similar example of religious syncretism in a region other than Japan.
c. Explain ONE global process after 1980 that contributed to historians’ increased interest in studying the type of cross-cultural interactions described in the passage.