John Guy

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade John Guy Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

ometimes, an event occurs which dramatical- a single site. As such, this find makes a unique Sly enlarges the boundaries of our knowledge contribution to our understanding and apprecia- and raises our understanding of the realities of tion of late Tang material culture and its place in the past. The discovery of the Belitung shipwreck international trade. in the Java Sea is one such event. The archae- ological recovery of the wreck and its cargo has The scope and significance of these artefacts are revealed the largest and most comprehensive examined in detail in this volume. The purpose of assemblage of Chinese glazed ceramics found this chapter is to provide an historical setting for to date from late , together with a the Belitung shipwreck and to examine through group of rare gold and silver vessels, and silver the medium of its ceramic cargo the geographi- ingots. This cargo represents the most important cal scope of ’s international ceramic trade hoard of late Tang artefacts ever discovered at at the close of the first millennium.

Fig. 1 Traditional Arab dhow, of lashed and stitched hull construc- tion with lateen-rigged sail. Manuscript painting depicting Arab merchants en route to India, dated 1237. Folio from al-Hariri's Maqamat, by a scribe from Wasit, Persian Gulf (Photograph courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).

58 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade Three critical facts emerge from the archaeologi- cent of the artefacts recovered from the wreck cal investigation and research of this wreck and site, and of these the vast bulk are the iron-deco- its cargo: the ethnicity of the ship, the origin of rated stonewares from the Changsha kilns of its cargo, and date. A study of the ship technology Hunan province. Relatively small quantities of ce- and identification of the ‘ethnicity’ of the vessel is ramics from other regions make up the balance: provided elsewhere in this volume (pp. 6–21, 31– green-glazed Yue wares from Zhejiang together 38), so I will give only a summary of the findings. with coarse green stonewares from the kilns of It became clear early on in the underwater inves- Guangdong (some two thousand pieces), white- tigation of the shipwreck that the hull construc- green earthenwares (some two hundred pieces) tion was not Chinese, lacking as it did multiple and white-glazed stonewares (some three hun- planking, the use of iron nails, or the presence dred and fifty pieces), Xing ware from Hebei and of bulkheads. Rather, the lashed and stitched a coarser ware possibly from Henan. The latter hull construction, which would have been ren- include three dishes decorated with underglaze dered watertight by extensive caulking, points cobalt blue, the first complete Tang ‘blue-and- to a vessel belonging to the Arab-tradition of white’ wares of this kind to be discovered (nos shipbuilding, that is, a dhow (fig. 1). A variety of 107–109). timbers were employed in its construction, some of which are unique to the Indian subcontinent. Maritime Asia was experiencing a revolution This raises the possibility that the ship was built in the ninth century. The relations that China either in the Arabian peninsula using imported had enjoyed over the preceding centuries with Indian timbers (as are known to have been trad- the West were in flux. Use of the sea routes was ed), or (less likely), in India to Arab design. The actively encouraged as the overland Silk Route precise origin of the vessel is less critical to our through Central Asia became prey to insecurity study than the fact that this is the first Arab dhow and disruption. The maritime routes, active al- discovered in Southeast Asian waters. ready for perhaps a millennium, were now to be developed as both China’s gateway to the markets The second and also unique aspect of this of India, West Asia and the Mediterranean world shipwreck is the cargo – the richest and largest and, increasingly, to ensure that China had an consignment of early-ninth-century southern uninterrupted supply of the forest and marine Chinese trade ceramics. These ceramics, some products of Southeast Asia. China was becoming sixty thousand pieces, made up ninety-eight per increasingly aware of the rich potential of these

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 59 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

lands as sources of exotic commodities as a result contacts proving, on occasions, too great a strain 1 Suishu, cited in Wheatley of tribute missions from the region. on state resources. Southeast Asian countries 1959, 20. were the chief offenders, with Java repeatedly It is a paradox of Tang China that a country as being counselled to visit less frequently (cf. also mighty as this, with its capital city Chang’an pp. 152–153). perhaps the most prosperous and sophisticated city on earth, had not developed the maritime Attitudes within China to international trade technology to exploit the benefits of interna- also varied widely. The Confucian-driven tional trade. Generally speaking, China seemed court view was increasingly at odds with the content to allow foreign mariners to visit her commercial hunger of Chinese merchants (and southern ports in search of trading opportuni- often of provincial government officials), who ties, although there were times when China ac- sought to profit from this trade. The benefits of tively encouraged international maritime trade. trade proved irresistible, and with some notable Shortly after the reunification of China in the exceptions, the official attitude shifted from con- sixth century under the Sui (581–618), China be- doning to actively encouraging (and taxing) this gan to encourage the exploration of the Southern trade. The charade of trade disguised as tribute Ocean (Nanhai) in search of the ‘strange and the grad ually slipped away in the late Tang period precious’.1 However, throughout much of China’s and in the Southern Song and Yuan periods over- history official attitudes to commerce and trade seas trade was actively promoted. Formal recog- remained ambivalent at best; the court was keen nition of this shift in government attitude came to receive the wondrous goods that distant lands with the establishment of a series of new posts could offer, but Confucian orthodoxy and the to control the movement of foreign shipping Chinese concept epitomized by its self-char- and goods in the southern ports. The Office of acterization as the ‘Middle Kingdom’, required Superintendent of Shipping Trade (shiboshi ) was that foreign trade with the court was explained established at Guangzhou by 714, and equivalent in terms of tribute missions to the emperor. The posts quickly followed at Quanzhou and else- volume of such missions became so great that where. Such moves were a reaction to economic periodically the court had to request foreign reality and the desire of a centralist state to en- countries to show a little less enthusiasm, and force its authority and capitalize on the revenue visit less often – the reciprocal nature of these generated through such trade.

60 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade Over the course of the second half of first mil- temples have been traced.2 These archaeological lennium, the southern port cities of Guangdong, remains point to large foreign communities well 2 Chinese sources make it clear that both Hindu and Buddhist and Zhejiang grew in importance, fuelled sustained over many centuries. merchant communities existed in by the Southern Ocean trade. The cities of both Guangzhou and Quanzhou, though only the Hindu remains Hangzhou, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and The Chinese port most frequently referred to in at Quanzhou can be traced Guangzhou all saw the growth of their expatriate the Arabic literature is Khanfu (Guangzhou) in archaeologically. See Guy 2001. merchant communities. These consisted of Ma- the middle and late Tang periods, with Zaitun 3 Wang Gungwu 1958, 80. lays (that is, peoples of western insular Southeast ( Quanzhou) challenging this pre-eminence early 4 Lo Hsiang-lin 1967, 177. Asia), Chams (from central Vietnam), Indians in the Song period. Instability and corruption and West Asians, each resident in different quar- in southern China caused periodic difficulties ters (fanfang ) assigned to them in the city. The for the foreign merchants engaged in trade with most populous communities were the non-Mus- China. The accounts of these troubles provide lim Persians ( Bosi), including West Asian Jews the only statistical evidence available for the size and Nestorean Christians, and Muslim Persians and cosmopolitan nature of these communities. and Arabs (Dashi ). The latter community was In 758/9 the Arab and Persian community of extended the special privilege of appointing offi- Guangzhou sacked the city as an act of rebel- cials from within their community to administer lion against the levels of local corruption under Islamic justice, rather than be subject to Chinese which they were oblige to trade, and escaped law. Such a privilege demonstrates the economic by sea to Tonkin, from where they continued importance attached to foreign trade by the Chi- to operate. In Hangzhou the sacking of the city nese government, and of the dominance of the by Chinese rebels in 760 resulted in the death Arab Muslims in the expatriate community. of several thousand Bosi and Dashi merchants.3 When a recurrence of such violence occurred in The scale of these expatriate communities can Guangzhou in 878, thousands of Muslims, Jews, be measured in a number of ways. Many left Christians and Parsees perished, according to the evidence of their presence in the form of reli- contemporary commentator, Abu Zaid of Siraf.4 gious monuments – early mosques and Moslem grave stones occur, most famously at Guangzhou The accounts of the Arab geographers who wrote and Quanzhou, as do Nestorian gravestones.At in the ninth and tenth centuries are particularly Quanzhou, the dispersed remains of Hindu informative because they give an unofficial view

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 61 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

of the Asian trading world. In this way they differ of Hebei, and the iron-painted Changsha wares significantly from the only other literary source of Hunan. To this repertoire of ceramic types for the period, the Chinese official histories. The can be added the lower grade ceramics made in Akhbar al-Sin wa’l-Hind (An Account of China imitation of those innovative wares of Zhejiang, and India) was compiled by Sulayman al-Tajar, Jiangxi and Hunan, which were increasingly pro- an Arab merchant, around 851 and absorbed duced in the coastal kilns of Fujian and Guang- into Abu Zaid’s collection of Arabic travel ac- dong, in easy reach of the ports. Distinctive counts, published in 916 as Silsilat at-tawarikh types of storage jars produced in the vicinity of (The Chain of Histories). These writers were Guangzhou occur from the outset of this trade, variously based at Basra and Siraf, centres of the establishing that port-city’s pre-eminent role in Arab–China trade. Their histories were largely China’s early export trade in ceramics. compiled from accounts gathered from mariners and merchants of their experiences; some, such That Persian and in turn Arabic served as a lin- as the traveller Mas’udi, wrote from first-hand gua franca for the Asian maritime world perhaps experience. most clearly demonstrates the pivotal role of West Asians in trade towards the close of the According to the Akhbar al-sin Wa’l-Hind, Siraf first millennium. It is not insignificant that loan was the hub of the Persian Gulf’s China trade, words from both Persian and Arabic entered the with goods from Iraq, Persia and the Arabian Chinese maritime vocabulary in this period. peninsular being gathered in this entrepôt for shipment. However, Siraf was devastated by an The stimulus to growing Chinese interest in the earthquake in 977 and never recovered. The Southern Ocean can partly be explained by a evidence provided by Chinese ceramics at Siraf desire to diversify and supplement the flow of testifies to this terminal date. The authors of the luxury commodities that were entering the Tang Akhbar al-sin Wa’l-Hind also display a surpris- capital of Chang’an from the overland Silk Route. ingly informed, indeed sophisticated, knowledge Tropical Southeast Asia, India and the Arab and of ninth-century Chinese export ceramics. It is Persian worlds had other goods to offer: aro- clear from such sources that different types of matic woods, pearls and kingfisher feathers are Chinese glazed ceramics were admired. Yue and often cited in the Chinese sources of the period, Longquan green wares (proto-celadons) of Zhe- most notably in the Suishu and Tangshu , the offi- jiang province were already enjoying an interna- cial dynastic histories. In exchange China offered tional reputation, as were the white Ding wares its unique gift to the world, silk. By the fifth cen-

62 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade tury both Persia and India were providing large With a favorable wind they proceeded markets for Chinese silk, and trading many of eastwards for three days, and then they 5 Chinese lacquer, possibly Later Han, has been noted at Begram, the luxury goods China demanded in exchange. encountered a great wind. The vessel Afghanistan (Verbal communica- Throughout the Sui and Tang periods silk re- sprang a leak and water came in ... The tion, T. Mikami). mained China’s principal export, but nothing merchants were greatly alarmed, feeling survives archaeologically outside Central Asia their risk of instant death. Afraid that and Japan. Lacquer utensils were also popular the vessel would fill they took their but finds are exceedingly rare.5 bulky goods and threw them into the water. Faxian also took his kundika, with Whilst there is secure evidence that individual some other articles, and cast them into Chinese travelled these southern routes, it is by the sea; but fearing that the merchants no means clear that they did so in Chinese vessels. would cast overboard his [sacred] Indeed, the circumstantial and occasional textual books and [religious] images, he could references suggest otherwise. Chinese Buddhist only think with all his heart of Guanyin pilgrims knew that merchant shipping was avail- [Avalokitesvara]. able to take between the southern Chinese ports and India via a number of staging posts, princi- After proceeding ... more than ninety pally in Southeast Asia. The earliest such account days, they arrived at a country called is that of the pilgrim Faxian whose A Record of Java-dvipa, where various forms of er- Buddhist Kingdoms (399–414) provides the first ror and Brahmanism are flourishing, description of a sea passage from India to China, while Buddhism is not worth speaking with a change of vessel in Java-dvipa, presumably of. After staying there for five months located either on the west coast of Malaya or [presumably to await the change of more probably an early coastal entrepôt in Su- direction in the monsoon winds] Fa- matra or western Java. The detail his description xian again embarked in another large provides warrants quotation at length: merchantman, which also had on board more than 200 men. They carried pro- ‘Having obtained the Sanskrit works visions for fifty days, sailing on 16th of [Buddhist sutras, transcribed during a April, 414 for Guangzhou.’ two year sojourn in India] he took pas- sage in a large merchantman, on board After further misadventures at sea, during which of which were more than 200 men ... the ‘Brahmans’, that is, Indian Hindu merchants,

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 63 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

threatened to abandon Faxian on an island, the with command of the Malay Straits and, less ef- 6 Wang Gungwu 1958, 99; see ship reached coastal Guangdong after a voyage of fectively, the Sunda Straits. These two passages also in this volume p. 81. some two months. Faxian’s detailed description provided the only practical access to the Indian provided a vivid picture of long distance Asian Ocean from the South China Sea, and their con- shipping in the fifth century. The ships were trol offered great economic potential, as large, carrying two hundred crew and merchants discovered. It is in these waters that the Belitung with their goods for trade. At no point does he shipwreck is located. mention the possibility of Chinese ships for this passage. Even a late Tang dynasty source, the Late in the first millennium two significant Lingbiao Luyi is still able to describe the ships changes occurred in Chinese understanding of of the foreign merchants as not using iron nails the Nanhai trade, which were to alter its char- to secure their planks, but rather are stitched acter and importance thereafter. The first was a together with the fibre of coir-palms and their growing awareness that many of the commodi- seams caulked.6 This description is, of course, ties marketed in China as being of Persian or of ship construction according to the Arab dhow Arab origin (especially the camphor, sandal- tradition. wood, bezoin and other resins) were substitute aromatics procured in Southeast Asia, harvested The situation does not seem to have changed by largely in Sumatra and Borneo. The other factor the late seventh century when another Chinese was simply growing demand. Southern China pilgrim Yijing undertook the same journey in was no longer marginal frontier territory, but 671, on his outward journey from China to India. was emerging as a significant economic region He sailed from Guangdong aboard a West Asian in its own right. As its prosperity grew, largely ( Bosi) merchant ship, which took him to Srivijaya fuelled by servicing this international trade, so (Sanfoqi), the major entrepôt of western Indone- did local demand for the luxury goods of the sia. The location of Srivijaya has gener ated con- Nanhai. During this period the reinvigoration siderable debate and archeological investigation, of Mahayana Buddhism in China (and elsewhere and the current consensus is that it was a loose in Southeast Asia) also generated a heightened federation of interests on both sides of the Malay demand for aromatics for use in temples and Straits and probably west Java. It was most prob- shrines. ably centred at Palembang in south-east Sumatra

64 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade A number of eighth-century sources affirm the Khanfu [ Guangdong] with their mer- dominance of ships from the western Indian chandise and their cargo [before 877/8]. 7 Hourani 1995, 62. 7 Ocean in the China trade. The eighth-century Then [the trader] went to sea to the land 8 Yudi jisheng, cited in Clark Chinese poet Bao He, in his Sending the Esteemed of Killah [west coast Malay peninsular, 1991, 32–33. Master Li to Quanzhou , provides the traditional possibly Kedah or Perak] which is ap- 9 Tibbetts 1979, 37. view of China's oversea's trade and the role of proximately half way to China. Today foreigners: this town is the terminus for Muslim ships from Siraf and Oman, where they The land by the sea lies beyond the meet the ships which come down from realm of civilization… China, but it was not so once … This And in the markets are the people of trader then embarked at the city of Kil- the sacred isles; lah on a Chinese ship in order to go the Grasping jade, they have come to our port of Khanfu.9 land from afar, Offering pearls, they come to offer But Mas’udi was describing the situation in the tribute.8 mid-tenth century, one hundred and twenty- five years later than the Belitung ship, and in the In the course of the ninth and tenth centuries, intervening period we witness China asserting however, we see significant changes in the official itself as a significant maritime presence in the attitude to trade and in the field of Chinese ship Southern Ocean for the first time. design. The technological developments, sup- ported by a relaxing of government resistance to trade, resulted in the appearance of direct Southeast Asia as a market Chinese shipping in Southeast Asian waters. This change is clearly signalled in the Muruj al-Dha- It is clear from the archaeological record that hab, written by Mas’udi (d. 956): by the ninth century the Southern Lands had become more than a source of exotic goods, but The ships from Basra, Siraf and Oman, also a significant market for Chinese exports. India the islands of Zaabaj and Sanf The Chinese records makes clear that plain silk came to the mouth of the river of cloths and silk brocades were the most popular

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 65 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

export goods, and in all probability the Belitung (no. 171). This is an important addition to the 10 China was an exporter of lead ship was also carrying its share of these profitable small corpus of dated Chinese wares from the in this period, so the ingots could be of Chinese origin, though items. This is made even more likely given the ninth century, since it predates the only other their position in the ship's other luxury goods found – gold and silver ves- dated Changsha ware, a bowl inscribed ‘third loading suggest otherwise. sels of a quality never before seen in a Southeast year of Kaicheng’, equivalent to 838. The latter 11 Guy 1986, 11. Asian shipwreck context, and a rarity from land was identified during the excavation of the Tong- sites (nos 1–7, 12–21). The presence of eighteen guan kilns, twenty miles north of Changsha.11 silver ingots (cf. no. 11 a, b) is also highly signifi- cant, representing the largest single find of Tang More immediately, the dated bowl provides an ingots and again strengthening the interpretation invaluable benchmark date for narrowing the of this cargo as a high-value consignment. Yet it date range of the shipwreck and its cargo. It is also contained lead ingots, loaded on top, which reasonable to assume, as is done in the inter- suggests they were taken on board at a later port pretation of other shipwreck material, that the of call, perhaps in the Malay peninsula.10 cargo was newly manufactured when shipped. In the case of ceramics, there is no reason to as- Nonetheless, the largest component of the cargo, sume that the goods were not consigned for sale in volume and number if not necessarily in within one or two seasons of their manufacture. value, is the glazed ceramics as cited above. The The ceramics of Changsha were most probably most pervasive of these wares are the distinc- consigned to Ningbo and on to Hangzhou, in tive underglaze-painted wares of Changsha (see Zhejiang province, which were major ports for below pp. 466ff.). The predominant form is the Tang China. shallow bowl, which appears with a rich variety of painted designs, including flowers, foliages, clouds, landscapes, birds and some rare examples International distribution with a grotesque fish (makara) (see nos 171–217 and appendix I.1). The most remarkable perhaps A distinctive class of wares seen in the earliest are the series of bowls with painted calligraphy. contexts, and associated with a variety of other Most are quotations from poetic passages (nos trade wares, is the coarsely potted storage jars 218–221). Significantly, one Changsha bowl has found in the cargo (nos 161–164). They are engraved on the outer wall its date of manufac- mostly glazed stonewares that have been linked to ture: ‘the sixteenth day of the seventh month in a number of kilns in the vicinity of Guangzhou. the second year of Baoli era’, equivalent to 826 A number recovered from the Zhujiang River at

66 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade Guangzhou confirm that they were used for the Zhe jiang and Jiangxi were transported by a shipping of goods (presumably preserved foods) variety of land, riverine and coastal shipping 12 These examples are displayed 12 in the Guangdong Provincial loaded there. routes to the ports of southern China. Ships de- Museum, Guangzhou. See also parted each season with the prevailing winds and Ceramic Finds 1985. Random finds of Chinese trade goods, most made their way for Southeast Asia, presumably 13 Jiang Hua 1984. See also Ruan notably glazed ceramics, have been noted from taking on provisions at landmark ports, such Pinger 1994, 8. sites widely distributed across both mainland as Tonkin, Champa and Pulau Tioman, a fresh 14 Southeast Asian Ceramic Society 1985. and insular Southeast Asia and at numerous water island off the east coast of the Malay pe- sites further west. It is now clear that the archae- ninsula. Large quantities of Song export ce ramics ological trail can be traced from the Changsha have been found on that island's beaches and kilns of Hunan, to the ports of Hangzhou and hinterland, but none can be securely dated to the Ningbo. Excavations in the Tang quarters of late Tang.14 This is surprizing, given the evidence Hang zhou and Ningbo have revealed quantities of the Belitung cargo, which establishes bulk of all the major types of ceramics recovered from trade in ninth-century Chinese ceramics passing the Belitung shipwreck: Changsha, Yue, white through the Java Sea area. Prior to this discovery wares.13 In the case of the Ningbo material, the the assumption had been (based on the evidence bulk of the wares recovered appear unused, sug- of a number of land portage and entrepôt sites) gesting that these finds represent the wastage that Chinese goods were unloaded on the east from the warehousing and packing of ceramic coast of the Isthmus of Kra, then transhipped goods for export. No doubt Ningbo also sup- to the west coast for onward journey to West plied Hangzhou, for domestic use and for re- Asian markets. Those lesser quantities destined export to Japan. From these ports the ceramics for Southeast Asian consumption were assumed were shipped directly to overseas markets, with to have been distributed through a network of Hangzhou focusing on the East Asia trade. Both secondary trading. ports supplied goods to feed into the Southern Ocean trade conducted out of the ports of Fujian The riverine site of Laem Pho at Chaiya, near and Guangdong. Nakhon Si Thammarat, peninsular Thai- land, demonstrates the pattern. Chaiya was To trace the trade route and distribution pattern an im portant trading centre and probably re- of Changsha, Yue and Ding ware is to revisit the presented the westerly limits of Srivijaya’s influ- most extensive maritime trade route undertaken ence. In earlier times this area appears to have in the medieval world. The ceramics of Hunan, come under Funan’s hegemony, so the region

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 67 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

had a long history of participation in interna- trade. They appear to have been revived at times 15 Surveyed by the author, jointly tional trade. Surface surveys of the beach and when piracy made the sea passage through the with the Thai Department of Fine Arts, in 1986; Guy 1987, 14–15. river estuary reveal large quantities of ninth- Malay Straits too hazardous. The ninth-century century underglaze-painted Changsha wares, ceramic evidence from Laem Pho-Chaiya area, 16 For a review of Indian mer- chant-guild activity in Southeast together with the storage jars associated with contemporary with the Belitung shipwreck, indi- Asia see Guy 2001. kilns around Guangzhou. 15 A selection of these cates that both routes were active at this time. finds are exhibited in the National Museum at Nakhom Si Thammarat. Investigations on the The archaeological record suggests that the other side of the peninsula, at Takuapa, have volume traffic in late Tang ceramics was west- revealed a similar pattern: Chinese ceramics ward. Examples of the ceramic types represented have been found, together with Islamic glass, by the Belitung cargo are recorded next in Sri traces of processed gold (residue of smelting Lanka, a major trading partner in early East– or gold-working activity), Hindu sculpture and West trade. Sri Lanka was a prosperous Buddhist a Tamil inscription recording the activity of a kingdom, strategically located to service Indian south Indian merchant guild.16 These land routes Ocean shipping. It also had immense reserves of across peninsular Southeast Asia have been used precious and semi-precious stones, spices and, since the very beginnings of maritime East–West most famously of all, pearls of matchless size and

Fig. 2a, b Storage jar fragments. Chinese green-glazed stoneware. Provincial imitation of Yue ware, associated with kilns in the vicin- ity of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Excavated from the foundations of the Great Mosque, Siraf, built in the first quarter of the ninth century. Note incised (below glaze) Arabic inscription on shoulder of Figure 2b (right) (Photograph courtesy of David Whitehouse).

68 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade quality. Excavations at Mantai, near Jaffna, have beneath the floor of the Great Mosque, built in confirmed the location of Sri Lanka's principal the first quarter of the ninth century. The Siraf 17 Carswell 1992. 17 port in this period. Chinese ceramics, including mosque foundation excavation yielded signifi- 18 Published Guy 1986, fig. 6. Changsha wares with both painted and applied cant quantities of green-glazed Chinese storage 19 Subbarayalu 1996, 113; see decoration, have been revealed during excava- jars (sixty-five per cent), Changsha wares (twen- also Carswell 1978. 20 tions in the vicinity of Abhayagiri monastery ty-five per cent), and white wares (five per cent). 20 Tampoe 1989; see also and stupa at Anuradhapura, central Sri Lanka.18 Two fragments of these Chinese jars have Arabic Rougeulle 1996, and in this volume pp. 80–81. Other examples have been excavated at Mantai, names incised beneath the glaze, suggesting that the port through which the capital was supplied. Arabic- speaking merchants placed the order for 21 Adhyatman 1983, pls. 10, 13. these jars, and perhaps that the names served as 22 Songshu, cited in Schafer 1967, 75. Despite a number of surface surveys in coastal a record of ownership. They also confirm that southern India, no pre-Song Chinese ceramics these jars were expressly produced for the Arab 23 Feng Xianming 1986, 47. Larger quantities have been have been identified to date: thirteenth- and trade (fig. 2a, b). Jars of this type with ‘pseudo- found at Yangzhou, but in Song dynasty contexts; cf. in this fourteenth-century wares have been the most Arabic’ inscriptions on the shoulder have also volume p. 88. prevalent.19 Given the traffic flowing west to the been found in Palembang (Sumatra), and Cen- markets served by the Persian Gulf ports, this tral Java, confirming the place of the western seems surprizing. Nonetheless, it is to the ports Indonesian ports in this trade.21 and cities of the Abbasid period (750–870) that we must turn for the largest concentrations of Islamic turquoise-glazed earthenware was also late Tang ce ramics linked to the Indian Ocean recorded at the Siraf excavation. These are of sea trade. Basra (Iraq), Siraf (Iran) and Sohar special interest in that they are found, in small ( Oman) were the main ports, Baghdad (Iraq), quantities, scattered along the same West-East Shiraz (Iran) and Samarra (Iraq) the major trade route, and clearly formed a part of the markets. Islamic reciprocal trade. Twenty ‘Tajik’ [ Arab] vases formed part of the tribute sent in 961 by the The most detailed excavation record is that Cham king Jaya Indravarman I to the new Song provided by the Great Mosque excavation at emperor.22 The acceptability of Islamic pottery Siraf, and the percentages of wares provide an in China is confirmed by the discovery of three inter esting ‘measure’ for the composition of green-glazed Persian earthenware jars of this the Belitung cargo. The Siraf excavation is dis- type in the tomb of Liu Hua, on the outskirts of tinguished for its concentration of Changsha , Fujian province.23 The tomb, dated 930, painted wares and green glazed jars recovered belonged to the wife of , the ruler of

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 69 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

the (909–945), whose wealth was tenth century. Other contemporary urban sites in 24 Khan 1969; see also in this built on the profits of international trade. Clearly West Asia received Chinese ceramics, principally volume p. 80. these Islamic imports were the products of this from Siraf which continued to serve as the ma- trade, and highly valued. jor redistribution centre for the Iran hinterland until it demise in 977. These included Shiraz, So pervasive have the white-glazed bowls with a Kish, Gurgan, and Nishapur in Iran, and Fustat rolled rim and recess-carved foot been in West in lower Egypt which was served by the Jeddah– Asian sites that they were dubbed ‘Samarra ware’ Siraf trade. Other sites border the Ara bian Sea, in earlier literature, inspired by the quantities such as Banbhore in Pakistan.24 Evidence exists recovered at the city of Samarra, founded on for Chinese ceramics to have been carried to East Sassanian foundations as the Abbasid capital in Africa along with the spread of Islam, as far south 836 and abandoned as a royal centre by the mid- as Zanzibar.

Fig. 3 Fragments of Changsha bowls. Underglaze-painted stoneware, Hunan province. Excavated in the vicinity of the Hindu temple complex of Lara Jonggrang (Prambanan), in 1936.The temples were built in the second quarter of the ninth century, and dedicated in 856. The ceramics may be presumed to date from the site’s use in the second half of the century (Pho- tograph courtesy of the National Museum, Jakarta).

70 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade Late Tang ceramics are widely reported in have been recovered during temple restoration Southeast Asia. This is undoubtedly a direct work on the Dieng plateau, which may date to 25 Adhyatman 1983, pl. 36. result of the sustained level of archaeological the eighth century. Excavations in the vicinity of activity that has gone on in the region in recent Prambanan temple, near Jogyakarta, has yielded decades. The distribution predictably mirrors quantities of painted Changsha ware, including trade routes, the sites of historical entrepôts, bowls and covered boxes such as are represented and religious or urban centres. Finds of Chang- in the wreck cargo (fig. 3). Green-glazed storage sha wares and green-glazed storage jars recur at jars have also been recorded from this region, sites in Java, principally those associated with the in cluding Candi Sojiwan.25 Sailendra kingdom. Excavations in the vicinity of Central Javanese temple sites have consist- Tang ceramics have been reported from Ma- ently yielded examples. Yue-type storage jars laysia, confirming the importance of the port

Fig. 4 Excavation and restoration of a Hindu temple platform, Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat, Merbok, Bujang valley, Kedah, Malaysia. This riverine site, with access to the estuary of the Merbok River, was one of the early centres for intermediate trading on the West Asia–China route (Photograph courtesy of the Museums Department, Malaysia).

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 71 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade

known to the Arab geographers and navigators The recovery of a few personal artefacts (which 26 Exhibited at the site museum, as ‘Kalah’. The Bujang valley in Kedah, which were not part of the cargo) gives some clues as to Lembah Bujang, Kedah. See also Shuhaimi and Yatim 1990, 72. has sometimes been equated with Kalah, has where the ship may have stopped on its journey. yielded small quantities of Tang ceramics, associ- Most of these personal items are Chinese, which ated with the temple sites (fig. 4).26 No sites com- can be interpreted as suggesting some Chinese parable in their ceramic concentrations to Laem presence on board – witness the recovery of an Pho in peninsular Thailand have been located in inkstone (no. 309), and a Chinese sword handle Malaysia, which may point to the ‘Kalah’ having fitting (no. 325). Other Chinese items could have been located further north in the Isthmus region. been purchased for personal use at the Chinese Takuapa, on the west coast, may be a candidate port-of-call by the crew and accompanying for this identification. merchants. Given that the ship’s company was probably a mix of Arab, Indian and Malay sea- man and merchants, with some Chinese traders, Conclusion perhaps accompanying the high-value goods, it is curious that two Persian Gulf turquoise-glazed The Belitung ship sank in the west Java Sea, close earthenware jars (nos 292, 293) are the only ma- to the Sunda Straits and well within the zone of terial evidence of Arab presence on the dhow. Srivijaya’s control. There is no firm evidence to resolve questions surrounding its ports of call, The recovery of a few items of Southeast Asian though some clues are provided by traces of provenance however, does provide a clue to the other cargo goods and finds of items for personal most likely immediate port of call before the ves- use by crew or on-board merchants. The vessel sel sank. A grinding stone and roller of distinctly may have been sailing to west Java to collect Southeast Asian type (no. 302) suggests the tak- spices before using the Sunda Straits to access the ing on of Malay crew at some point in the jour- eastern Indian Ocean. No Southeast Asian spices ney. A scale bar (no. 301) and weights (no. 300 have been recovered, though traces of aromatic a–c) are the accoutrements of a merchant, as is a resins were found (no. 322), such as could be ac- single Javanese gold coin (of the ‘piloncito’-type, quired in Sumatra. These could however also be no. 10). This latter find could indicate the pres- the legacy of an outward cargo already delivered ence of a Malay merchant who joined the ship at to China. a port in Sumatra, most likely Palembang (where

72 Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade this style of coinage was in circulation), or a high- value coin received by an on-board merchant in 27 Hourani 1995, 62. exchange for goods sold in Sumatra. 28 Guy 1998, 48.

The sheer volume of the ceramic cargo, and the presence of a small number of high-value precious metal objects, suggests that the ship had been on its way to West Asia, where it would have generated considerable wealth for its owners. The Persian Gulf–China route was a long and hazardous one: an Indian sailed from Sri Lanka to Palembang in 717 on a convoy of thirty- five Persian ( Bosi) ships, most of which were lost at sea.27 But for those who returned safely, the rewards were great. One of the few Arabic merchants involved in the Indian Ocean– China trade for whom we have contemporary records is Abu’l Qasim Ramisht.28 He is remembered for gifting, at great personal expense, Chinese textiles to serve as a cover for the Ka’ba at Mecca, the holiest of Muslim shrines. This wealth flowed from the ships that successfully completed the longest sea journey of its day, from the Persian Gulf to China, and back. The Belitung ship was part of that great enterprise.

Late Tang Ceramics and Asia’s International Trade 73