Page 25 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Ceramics from the Musi River

benzoin (and probably Gharu wood and sandalwood) Peninsula, had a tax on gold, which suggested that it was
were exported to China prior to Sriwijaya because Chew readily available, if not locally produced. It seems, then,
(2001) reported that Benzoin was a major Indonesian likely that the Indians knew of the production of alluvial
product exported to South China by 500, where it was gold by communities in the Musi River highlands from
principally used as a fumigant. Probably gold also was the earliest times and traded with them, at least around
exported through Palembang long before Sriwijaya. the 1st century.
Certainly, Indians and Chinese traded with South East It appeared that the Musi River Basin has been settled
Asia in the 1st century BC with India beginning links along part of its major waterway and its significant
much earlier. Indians were known to have sourced gold subsidiary rivers continuously from at least the 2nd
in South East Asia after the Romans ceased exporting it century to the present. Palembang was known to have
to them in the early part of the Christian era (Wolters been settled by Hinayana Buddhists from at least the
1967). It is likely, that during the early centuries of the late-6th century, but probably much earlier. It was, then,
1st millennium, Indian merchants knew that alluvial gold a trade centre until the establishment of Sriwijaya in 671.
occurred in the Musi River highlands, particularly because Even the final demise of Sriwijaya in the 13th century
their merchants traded at that time with the settlements of saw the Majapahit continue it as a trading port until
Karangagung and Air Sugihan, at the mouth of the Musi. mid-14th century after which it suffered through a brief
It is probable, as suggested by Bottenberg (2010), that period of pirate control before the arrival of the Chinese
the Batak and Minangkabau living in the hinterlands of admiral Zheng He who selected a Chinese overlord to
Sumatra were incorporated into international trade as administer it. Palembang continued as an active port
soon as India and China discovered South East Asian gold during both the colonial and modern periods.
and non-timber forest products. Recent research in Kedah, There is an enormous deposit of terracotta pottery in
Peninsula Malaya, at the mouth of the Malacca Straits, some locations beneath the Musi River. Examples of this
allows the possibility that some of this international trade pottery are illustrated in Part 2 of this book (beginning
along the Musi River could have been as early as the mid- on page 144). In attempting to identify this pottery
5th century BC (see Chapter 7, Summary & Conclusions). many examples were unique and did not fit readily into
The first Indian Buddhists arrived in Indonesia known forms and decorations from the Sriwijaya or later
between the 1st and 2nd century. They were adherents periods. It is possible that some were produced much
of two separate sects, namely, Hinayana Buddhism and earlier, either by the settlements in the Musi River Basin
Mahayana Buddhism. Apparently, the Hinayanas, who or imported from related trading polities, such as those
occupied the Barisan Mountains, avoided trade with the described briefly in Chapter 3, Ceramic Trade and the
Mahayanas, who established the more coastal Kantoli Musi River.
polity in the late-4th century. To avoid the Mahayanas, the
Hinayanas moved southwards and established a foothold Evidence from Ceramics
in Palembang, where there position strengthened greatly in the early-1970s archaeological excavations were
when the Kantoli polity lost control of the Malacca Straits carried out at Palembang by a combined team from the
trading traffic during the late-6th century (see below). This Indonesian Dinas Purbakala and University of Pennsylvania.
enabled the Hinayanas to establish a King in Palembang Unfortunately, only a few short articles concerning those
who continued to trade with private Chinese merchants excavations were published. They revealed that no pre-
until about 671, when the Sailendras returned and 14th century evidence of human occupation was found,
established Sriwijaya. which led to the conclusion that Sriwijaya could not have
Manguin (2004), argues that Sriwijaya must have been located at Palembang (Bronson and Wisseman
developed a symbiotic relationship with the gold 1976). By the late part of that decade the SEAMEO
producing highland societies in Sumatra, including Project on Archaeology & Fine Arts (SPFA) conducted
those of Pasemah and Pagaralam. A glance at Figure 3 on four workshops on Sriwijaya. Field surveys quickly followed
page 6 indicates that settlements during the Sriwijaya under the auspices of Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional
period are widely distributed in the upper Musi River of Indonesia.
Basin, including a possible settlement at Candirimba in From 1988 to 1991, a series of excavations was
Pagaralam. Indians were trading with South East Asia at carried out in the semi-urban western suburbs of
least from 200 BC. And we know that they were seeking modern Palembang by the Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi
gold there because of a prohibition on export of gold Nasional and the École Française d’Extrême-Orient. Manguin
to India by the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who ruled (1993) summarising findings from this research stated
from 69 to 70 (Hall 1985). Bennett (2009) stated that that it produced some 1,500 surface finds of imported
in the 1st millennium BC Indians referred to a place in ceramics of which 83% were pre-15th century, and 59%
South East Asia called Suvarnadvipa (probably Sumatra) pre-11th century. The trading and manufacturing site
as the ‘Island of Gold’. Bennett (2009) indicated that of Talang Kikim Seberang yielded large amounts of
a network trading in gold linked the South East Asian late-Tang (8th and 9th century) ceramics, some found
mainland and its outer islands, the Philippines and India alongside iron slag and beads. Lorong Jambu produced
by at least the second half of the 1st millennium BC. And a quantity of 10th to 13th century ceramics. Follow up
that the Funan Kingdom, including parts of the Malay excavations in 1990 and 1991 in the yard of the Sultan

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