Page 39 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Ceramics from the Musi River

separate occasions: in the 6th century when the Burmese PENINSULA SOUTHEAST ASIA
conquered Thaton; from the 11th to 13th century when In the first seven centuries there were perhaps 10 or more
Khmers controlled the eastern areas; and in the late-13th major settlement sites on the Malay Peninsula including
century when the Dvaravati was absorbed by the Thais. Sungai Batu, Kedah, Satingpra, Khao Sam Kaeo, Khuan
Although subjugated, the Dvaravati Mon retained their Lukpad and Kuala Selinsing (Stark 2006, Chia & Naziatul
customs and a relative degree of racial homogeneity 2011). Sriwijaya controlled southern Thailand and the
under their own rulers. upper Malay Peninsula from the regional centre of Chaiya,
Its capital and trading centre was Nakhon Pathon, near modern Surat Thani. It also controlled the West
where terracotta seals and amulets used by merchants Malay Peninsula from its position of power in Kedah.
have been found. Dong Mae Nang Muang was an However, this influence evaporated after its defeat by the
important regional Dvaravati trade centre in the upper Indian Chola in the wars of 1025 and 1026.
part of this Basin. Chinese Northern Song ceramics, Below is a brief account of Kedah, Khao Sam Kaeo,
green-glazed Angkor-period ceramics, Sassanid Langkasuka and Satingpra.
ceramics, glass and semiprecious stone beads found
there were all obtained through trade connections with Kedah Kingdom & Sungai Batu civilization (535 BC–
sites along the coast or directly through the maritime 17th century AD)
network (Pongkasetkan 2012). In part because of its geography, Kedah became a
The export of Thai ceramics to Indonesia parallels principle focus of global traders because it was: at the
those of Vietnam; they are found in many Indonesian entrance of the Straits of Malacca; in a direct line to
islands, including Sumatra and specifically Palembang. Sri Lanka on latitude 6° N and so easy to navigate for
Both the Thai and Vietnamese took advantage of ships travelling east or west across the Bay of Bengal.
the early-to mid-Ming period when the export of It was also close to Sungai Muda, which was part of
Chinese porcelain, particularly ‘blue and white’ ware, the early trans-Malay Peninsula route used to portage
diminished. Export Thai wares were based on celadon (using raft, elephant and man-carry along the rivers)
and under-glaze iron black decoration. Under-glaze spices and forest products across this Peninsula by Arab,
cobalt blue was not used. In some areas Thai wares were Persian, Tamil Nadu and India-to-China traders. (This
more popular than Vietnamese, such as in Sulawesi, while was apparently used in early times in preference to the
in other areas, such as Java, the opposite was the case. longer route through the Straits of Malacca (https://
Thai glazed exports came principally from the kilns of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kedah.)
Si Satchanalai, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok and Suphanburi Sungai Batu was part of the Kedah Kingdom located
in Central Thailand. While unglazed wares appeared in the Bujang Valley on the northwest Malaysian
to have come principally from east coastal areas of Peninsula coastline. It had a highly developed
Peninsula Thailand. Thai export ceramics continued civilization which began very much earlier than
unabated from about the 14th to the late-16th century. Sriwijaya. It was continuously settled over an area of
some 1000 square kilometres, including a clay brick
Tircul Kingdom (1st to 9th century) monument dating back to 110, making it the oldest
The Tircul Kingdom of central Burma had eight man-made structure to be recorded in South East
fortified and moated cities with a rich material culture. Asia (Saidin et al. 2011, Chia and Naziatul 2011).
Its sphere of influence extended over an area of about The Sungai Batu civilization contained numerous
1000 kilometres east to west and 1800 kilometres north urban architectural structures, including religious
to south (Luce 1985, Hla 1979, O’Reilly 2006, Hudson ones, warehouses with tile roofs and port jetties.
2004, Stargardt 1990). A total of 18 dependencies were And smelters that produced iron products. Professor
under its control and approximately 32 tribes recognized Dato Mokhtar Saidin (2016) in a verbal presentation
it as their overlord. Dominance was exercised by nine updated knowledge of Sungai Batu. He stated that a
garrison towns overseeing at least 300 settlements four kilometre square area had 97 sites of which 52 have
(Wheatley 1983). By the 9th century, the extent of the now been excavated. Surprisingly, smelters producing
control stretched from the Chenla kingdom (successor high quality ‘black’ iron have been dated at 535 BC.
of the Funan state) in the east to eastern India in the While the earliest excavated structure was 487BC. Thus,
west and from Nanchao (Yunnan, a kingdom founded in Sungai Batu is the oldest recorded civilization in the
the 7th century) in the north to the ocean in the south. region and was a principal supplier of high quality iron
While no Burmese pottery was recorded from for the world, at least from the 1st century. By the 5th
Palembang, Brown (2009) reported discoveries from century the dominant religion was Hindu.
shipwrecks which showed that Burmese ceramics were Northwest Malaysia in the 3rd century was also
exported to Indonesia from 1470 to about 1505. Burmese home to the large Jiecha Kingdom. There were
celadon plates have been recorded in Aceh, north other communities on the Peninsula that practiced
Sumatra; and large plates with dark red bodies and agriculture and had skilled craftsmen, and also hosted
watery white glaze were found at Bengkulu, southwest Brahmin and merchant communities. According to
Sumatra (Miksic 2009). the Chinese accounts, they had names such as Takola,
PanPan, TunSun, Chieh-ch’a, Ch’ih-tu, etc. Chew

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