.Background music- a rare Indo-Japanese fusion rendition by Pandit Ravi Shankar from the album 'Vision Of Peace'

Note how Indian musical instruments can very well be used to play the
 traditional Japanese music (background music). 
SLIDE 1
 
The Chola empire was based in South India and the emperor was Raja 
Raja Brihadeeshwara. His empire extended till South East Asia. That is
 why you find an unmistakable Tamil (South Indian) influence in countries
 like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bali (Indonesia). 
Here are a few examples of this influence. Tamil is accorded the status of
 an official language in Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Why, in fact, 
the word 'Singapore' comes from the Sanskritised Tamil word 'singam' 
meaning lion and 'poram' meaning city/town.


SLIDE 2

Malaysian hoardings and a newspaper strip in Tamil.

SLIDE 3

Influence of Hinduism in Japan:
Benzaiten Goddess is the Japanese name for the Hindu Goddess 
Saraswati. Both are Goddesses of knowledge, music, water and arts. The 
Japanese name for her father is dragon King Munetsuchi  meaning 'lake 
without heat' and the Hindu name of her father is Anavatapta meaning 
something similar i.e lake in the centre of the world. 
Both Goddesses rest on a lotus and play similar stringed musical 
instruments namely, Biwa (Japanese) and the Veena ( Hindu). The 
temple shown above is in Enoshima, Japan.


SLIDE 4:

Lord Krishna's (Hindu god) depiction in Todaiji Temple in Japan and on a
postal stamp.
Picture for comparison :




SLIDE 5, 6 & 7  -GARUDA

(in Hinduism is the eagle Vahana or the vehicle of Lord Vishnu):
It is believed that some Chinese people had come to India and had taken 
back some of the Indian culture with them. So, it is pertaining to this that 
GARUDA is also religious and national symbol in countries like:

Nepal (religious)
Myanmar ( called 'Grud')
Thailand as national and religious symbol 'Khrut' 
Cambodia and Malaysia as 'Geroda' (national)
Mongolia as ' Garid/khan Garid'(Khan gets added due to the Islamic 
nature of the Nation) &
Indonesia's national symbol and airline flag carrier(Garuda airlines).

Pictures-
Two Indonesian coins in my collection with 'Garuda' as the effigy.

6th slide- 
Clockwise from top right- Thai Garuda, Mongolian 'Garid' and 18 feet
 tall 'Garuda' statue in Bali, Indonesia.

Slide 7-
Golden 'Garudas' in a Thai temple.

Slide 8-
A 20000 rupiah (note that the currency name is also very similar to that 
of India's .i.e- rupaiah / rupee) note from Indonesia depicting the Hindu deity, Lord 'Ganesh' ( encircled ).

Slide 9- 
'Ravana' ( Sanskrit- dashakanth meaning 10 throats/heads) 's statue in
 Thailand where he is known as 'Thotsakan' or 'doshakan'. Note the 
similarity between the words. 

[source- mother (Brehadeesh's) and accidentally jumping from link to link
 on Wikipedia.for example- searching for 'Thailand' for commonalities 
then seeing a link of 'Thailand airport' and then saying 'wow! I did not 
know that the Thai airport has a Sanskrit name!'  ]

Left: Saraswati Right: Bezaiten

picture for comparison.
Left- Krishna, Right - in Japan's Todaiji