Page 36 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Chapter 3. Ceramic Trade and the Musi Rive

missions to the Chinese court. Some of the maritime much sought after. They are mostly known from wares
polities along southwest Peninsular Thailand and the exported in C14–C17 to insular Southeast Asia. Especially
Malayan–Sumatran coastlines produced beads and glass vessels produced for Islamic countries in Indonesia and
for regional trade with India by the first half of the 1st westward, and tea ceremony utensils to Japan. Much of
millennium (Manguin 2004). Chew (2014) consided this foreign trade was apparently centred on the port
that this shift of glass and bead production from India of Van Don in Along Bay, offshore from the northern
to South East Asian coastal polities indicated the growing reaches of the Red River Delta. Guy (1997) reports That
dynamics of regional trade between India and South East Javanese and Thai merchants were granted permission
Asia at that time. in 1149 to establish an entrepôt at Van Don, which
remained a focus for foreign trade until it was officially
MAINLAND SOUTH EAST ASIA closed in 1485, but it continued nevertheless until the
Dong Son civilization (7th century BC to 2nd century AD) 18th century. Java had a regular trade with Tonkin from
Dong Son was both an iron age archaeological site in the 12th century with a steady flow of merchant ships
North Vietnam and an archaeological culture associated from Java which traded in sandalwood, pearls and spices.
with skilled production of bronze and iron age artefacts, However, following the decline of Javanese power in the
including drums, axes and other ornate objects, as well 15th century the Chinese took over a more direct role in
as ceramics and beads. The pottery was fired at high marketing Vietnamese wares throughout the Indonesian
temperature and was varied in form. But decorative Archipelago. Vietnamese wares were also traded inland
patterns were much reduced in comparison with pre- to the mountain tribes in the south and west of the Viet
Dongsonian cultures. Dong Son pottery belonged to heartland (Stephenson and Guy 1997).
the Geometric Pottery Tradition of South China, which During the late-8th century, the port of Hanoi rivalled
only appeared in the late-Dong Son when Han culture that of the great southern Chinese ports of Ningbo,
began to exert its influence (Solheim 1967). Vietnamese Quanzhou and Guangzhou for international trade from
archaeologists believe that the Dong Son paid little the Middle East, India and South East Asia. The port of
attention to decorating pottery because their focus was Guangzhou was sacked by the rebel warlord army in 758
on production of their bronze vessels. resulting in the massacre of many foreign merchants,
Over 100 sites have been recorded on the Red River mostly Arabs and Persians, many of whom fled to Vietnam
Plain region of North Vietnam. The broad distribution to continue their trade.
of Dong Son bronze drums is one of the strongest North Vietnam ceramics were exported in large
indicators that trade between Viet Nam and Southeast numbers during the period when the Ming emperors
Asia was widespread during this period. Hundreds of forbade foreign trade in the 14th and 15th century,
Dong Son drums (also called Heger Type I drums) have particularly from 1436 to 1465. During this period Vietnam
been found, including in Lake Dian, Yunnan, China; wares were competitive with those from Thailand and
Peninsula Malaya; Sumatra, including at Pasemah in the China in South East Asia. However, following the Ming
upper catchment area of the Musi River Basin; Java; Bali reversal of their trade embargo on the export of Chinese
and Eastern Indonesia (Miksic & Goh 2016). ceramics, Vietnam pottery could no longer compete
with the high quality mass produced Chinese ceramics, a
North Vietnam (3rd century to modern) situation exacerbated by Vietnamese controls on its own
In this book North Vietnam is delimited as the small export trade during the Le Dynasty.
northern coastal and semi-coastal region of about thirty The Vietnamese revived their export of ceramics
thousand square miles, that included the Red and Ma during the last half of the 17th century, during the
Rivers, the coastal plain south of Than Hoa and Dong upheaval in China caused by the transition from the
Son, and as far as the Hoanh Spur. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. The Dutch East India
3rd century the majority of the population of Tonkin (the Company shipped tens of thousands of a variety of low
16th century name for Hanoi) occupied the Red River quality Vietnamese wares to Batavia, Indonesia. However,
Delta, a trend that continues to this day. The modern Dutch trade with Tonkin ceased in 1700, so that trade
national boundary of Vietnam has resulted from the in Vietnamese bowls to Indonesia and Palembang may
southwards expansion of the Viets from the northern have ceased also at that time (Stevenson and Guy 1997).
part of Vietnam over the last thousand years. The part Miksic (2009) reports that Vietnam pottery shards
of modern Vietnam inhabited by ethnic Khmers was dated to the 15th and 16th century were found at
taken from Cambodia in the 9th century and included Palembang, Lampung and Jambi and a number of other
in Cochin Province which has Saigon as its capital. The sites in eastern Indonesia.
Cham people were a loosely organized polity in what is
now Central Vietnam. Their capital city, Vijaya, was sacked Cham (Champa) (3rd to 15th centuries)
by the Viets in 1044 and 1069. They were assimilated into Glover (2010) noted that the emergence of the historic
Vietnam towards the end of the 15th century after they Cham (Champa) kingdom was generally dated to the mid-
were defeated in the war of 1471. 5th century, but that recent fieldwork at Tra Kieu extends
Until relatively recently Vietnamese ceramics had the life of this urban site back several hundred years. The
been much neglected by scholars, even though they were earliest Cham settlements appeared to have grown from

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