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of these gifts were the giraffes (Pl. 3.4) that arrived at the
Ming court in 1414 and 1438. Horses of different grades,
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parrots of various colour and pigeons were also presented by
the representatives of Bengal. Like the giraffes, the horses
presented to the Ming court were not of local origin. Rather,
they were imported either from the Middle East or from
Yunnan and then transshipped to China, a trading link that
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had existed prior to the Ming period. Horses and exotic
animals had also long been important components of foreign
tributary offerings to the courts in China. The gifts offered by
Bengal to the Ming court suggest an awareness of the
tributary traditions of the Chinese court and the demands of
the Chinese markets. Such knowledge may have come not
only from the extensive networks of traders from Bengal, but
also from the ethnic Chinese who seem to have been working
in/for Bengal. The Veritable Records reports of two such
Chinese representatives: Chen Deqing 陳得清, who is
mentioned as the interpreter from the Bengal polity, and Song
Yun 宋允, who is recorded as a person from Bengal and
credited with bringing tribute missions to Ming China.
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While Chen arrived in 1438, Song was at the Ming court in
1439. After the cessation of the Zheng He expeditions,
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networks of private traders became the main maritime links
between South Asia and Ming China. Within this context,
ethnic Chinese traders, most likely those based in Southeast
Asia, played an important role in initiating tributary missions
from South Asia to the Ming court.
Sri Lanka (Pl. 3.5) was the fourth key polity in South
Plate 3.4 Timur receiving gifts from the Egyptian ambassadors,
dated 16th July 1436 (Dhu’l-Hijja 839), Shiraz, Iran. Album leaf, ink, Asia that frequently sent tribute missions to the Ming court.
opaque watercolour and gold on paper, height 17.8cm, width 24cm. Unlike the other South Asian polities discussed above,
Worcester Art Museum, Jerome Wheelock Fund, 1935.26 however, the Ming court was involved in a major military
conflict on the island. Prior to the conflict, the Ming court
conflict between Bengal and its neighbouring Jaunpur was aware of the importance of Sri Lanka in maritime
Sultanate (Pl. 3.3). In 1420, the king of Bengal complained commerce, the sacred Buddhist sites on the island and the
to the Yongle emperor that Jaunpur forces had carried out main ethno-linguistic trading guilds in the region. This
several military raids on its territory. In response to the detailed knowledge about Sri Lanka is evident from the
complaint, the Ming court dispatched the eunuch Hou Xian trilingual inscription composed in 1409 and subsequently
侯顯 (active 1403–27) and others ‘with Imperial orders of taken to the island by Zheng He (see Pl. 2.8). Written in
instruction for them [i.e. Bengal and Jaunpur], so that they Chinese, Tamil and Persian, the languages of the three main
would both cultivate good relations with their neighbours trading groups on the island, the inscription evoked the
and would each protect their own territory’. The entourage virtues of the Buddha, a Tamil avatar of the Brahmanical
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led by Hou Xian arrived in Bengal in August or September deity Śiva and Allah separately in each of these languages.
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1420 and was welcomed with a grand reception. It was Hou The stone tablet, found in Galle on the southwest coast and
Xian’s second visit to the region and this time he seems to now at the National Museum of Sri Lanka in Colombo, was
have brought along Chinese soldiers, who were all presented set up, according to Fei Xin (c. 1385–c. 1436), who travelled
with silver coins by the ruler of Bengal. The entourage then with Zheng He on four occasions, to honour the ‘peaceful
proceeded to Jaunpur to convey the Yongle emperor’s government [of this country] through [our] imperial plan’.
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message and try to resolve the territorial dispute peacefully. 20 The military conflict in Sri Lanka took place when
The rulers of Bengal evidently knew about Ming naval Zheng He arrived in the region to erect the trilingual tablet
power and its interventions in other maritime regions prior during his third expedition, which embarked from the
to lodging the complaint. In fact, Bengal had sent at least Chinese coast in October–November 1409. Passing through
eight embassies to the Ming court before 1420 and traders Champa, Java, Melaka and Samudera, the ships led by
from the region were actively engaged in Indian Ocean Zheng He reached Galle in 1410. The 48 ships in Zheng He’s
commerce. Hou Xian himself had visited the region in armada carried 27,000 people, many of whom were soldiers.
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1415. Thus, by 1420, the rulers, officials and traders in According to Ming sources, the ‘king of Sri Lanka’ had
Bengal must have been very familiar with the Ming court’s ‘insulted’ Zheng He when he reached the island during his
intentions to exert its power in the maritime world. first expedition in 1405–7. For his third voyage, Zheng He
The list of products offered to the Ming court by the seems to have come prepared to battle the ‘king’, named
representatives of Bengal differed noticeably from those Yaliekunaier 亞烈苦柰兒 or Aliekunaier 阿烈苦柰兒
presented by other South Asian polities. The most remarkable ([Vira] Alakéswara or Alagakkonāra). Zheng He defeated

30 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450