Page 42 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Chapter 3. Ceramic Trade and the Musi Rive

were imported to the Chinese Han Dynasty around 200 Karanganyar, Palembang, has ‘several ‘chicken headed
BC from Java for the use of courtesans to purify their ewer’ on display from the Sui Dynasty. These were
breath when encountering the emperor. Presumably collected from a coastal site slightly north and inland
these cloves were transported from the Moluccas, to from the mouth of the Musi River. Another similar ewer
Java via local Indonesian vessels. (Chinese junks did was seen by us; it was found to the north of Palembang.
occasionally visit the Moluccas directly during the Tang Recent discoveries of ceramics at Karangagung and Air
Dynasty to collect cloves). Donkin (2003) reports that Sugihan and numerous other settlements, particularly
during the Eastern Han period Chinese silks reached near Air Sugihan, and probably associated with the
the Roman Empire via the ocean route. And Manguin trading polities of both Koying and Kantoli, indicated
and Augustijanto (2011) stated that the Han Emperor that both traded with India and China between the
Wu (140–87 BC) sent traders to the south seas to collect 2nd and 6th centuries. Despite the presence as traders
glass beads, which would have reached China via Mantai in several areas of Indonesia, Miksic is correct that
(Sri Lanka), Khlong Thom or Oc Eo. their remains no evidence of any extensive trading in
The first recorded export of Chinese pottery to South ceramics during the Han Dynasty and no pottery seen
East Asia was evidenced at Khao Sam Kaeo, on the Siamo- by us from the Musi can be definitively attributed to the
Malay Peninsula, where Bellina-Pryce & Silapanth (2006) Han. However, there is indeed evidence that Chinese
found shards of Western Han ware decorated with stamped ceramics reached Indonesia before the Tang Dynasty.
designs and dated to the 1st and 2nd century. Miksic (2017)
stated that this region of the Peninsular was already a nexus Tang Dynasty (618–906)
for trade between South East Asia and South Asia in the In addition to Sriwijaya at Palembang, two other ports
4th century BC. Several Han Dynasty ceramic objects in the were key entrepôt for trade during the Tang Dynasty,
Museum Nasional Jakarta were supposedly unearthed in both within South East Asia and with China, India and
Sumatra and Kalimantan but no archaeological evidence the Middle East. These were Siraf, on the northern shore
of such trade has been discovered (Guy 1990:2). Later, of the Persian Gulf, in what is now the Iranian Province
Miksic (2017) wrote that Chinese ceramics from the Han of Bushehr; and Guangzhou on the east coast of China.
Dynasty to Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties periods The latter was extremely important, although it suffered
on display in the National Museum of Indonesia were in setbacks in 758 when it was attacked by Persian and Arabs
fact collected in China and then sold on to Indonesia as in response to perceived unfair administrative practices
though they were collected in Indonesia. by port authorities. Tang troops retaliated and massacred
Miksic (2017) stated that there is no evidence that thousands of the foreign citizens of Yangzhou, the
Chinese ceramics reached Indonesia before the Tang major market of south-eastern China and an important
Dynasty (616–916). He concluded Han Dynasty shards transhipment point for overseas imports. Further, in
found at Khao Sam Kaeo, Central Vietnam and West Java 878 Guangzhou was attacked by the rebel Huang Chao
were too few in number to be considered exports. And killing perhaps as many as 200,000 Muslims, Christians,
that no Chinese traders were active in South East Asia until Jews and Zoroastrians (Leibner 2014). These events
much later. However, recent re-analysis of glass and bronze impacted trading in Sriwijaya, such that throughout the
burial goods at Pacung, north coastal Bali Island, suggest years 755–763, the ‘Celestial Annals’ record only the
strong links to present day Vietnam, which by the late- arrival of one evidently seaborne Sri Lankan mission (in
2nd to 1st century BC had begun to be influenced by the 762) at the Tang court. Overall, since 750 the number
Western Han Chinese. This influence was also indicated of recorded South and Southeast Asian embassy visits to
by pottery at nearby Sembiran on Bali Island, that was China dropped markedly, and did not recover until the
similar to low fired Han-style paddle impressed pottery rise of the Song Dynasty. The first of these was by the Cham
from southern and northern Vietnam. Interestingly, these in 958 and was followed in rapid succession by visits from
Han pottery shards were found in association with other Sriwijaya ambassadors beginning in 960.
wares of possible mainland South East Asian origin, eastern The first evidence of large-scale Chinese trade in
Indonesian pottery, and the highest concentration of fine ceramics in South East Asia comes from the Tang Dynasty
Indian wares. This suggested to Cort et al. (2015) that ship wrecked some three kilometres off the coast of
Bali had multiple and broadly simultaneous contacts with Belitung Island, Indonesia, around 827. This wreck
different regions of the Indian subcontinent, Mainland commonly referred to as the Batu Hitam wreck, contained
South East Asia and eastern Indonesian islands starting approximately 67,000 ceramics objects, gold, silver, iron,
from the late-1st millennium BC. While it is possible that lead, bone, wood, stone, glass, mostly of Chinese origin
the Han Chinese were involved in this early Bali trade and a range of spices. The ceramics included Tang
only vicariously through the Vietnamese, it is more likely Dynasty Yue wares, Changsha wares, green-glazed wares
that Chinese traders were directly involved as China was and north China white wares. This combination of wares
sourcing cloves from the east of Bali via Java as early as on the Batu Hitam led Ming-liang (2010) to conclude
200 BC. that the boat, probably skippered by sailors from Siraf
Miksic (2017) does state that a few shards attributed in the Persian Gulf, loaded the bulk of its merchandise
to the short lived Sui Dynasty (589–617) were found and set sail from ‘Yangzhou, situated at the crossroads
in south Sumatra. The Museum Kerajaan Sriwijaya at of the Grand Canal and the Yangzi River, a converging

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