Newsletter December
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Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum Newsletter Editors : Roxanna M. Brown Volume II Number 9 December 2005 Pariwat Thammapreechakorn Reporters : Ceramics identification training Augustine Vinh Berenice Bellina Bonnie Baskin EIGHTEEN PERSONS at- Mr. Pariwat is the author Chang Kuang-Jen tended the Southeast of Ceramics Art in Thai- Chhay Visoth David Rehfuss Asian Ceramics Museum’s land (Bangkok: Osotspa, Dawn Rooney first Thai-language train- 1984). The certificates of Eusebio Dizon completion were awarded Gary Hill ing course on ‘The History Heidi Tan and Identification of Thai in a small ceremony on Jennifer Rodrigo Ceramics’ for two days Sunday afternoon by As- Melody Rod-ari sistant Professor Dr. Boon- Mohd. Sherman bin Sauffi 12-13 November 2005. Pamela Gutman The group included col- rod Vuthisartkul, Vice Peter Burns lectors, museum curators, President for Rangsit Cam- Philippe Colomban Sten Sjostrand, archaeologists and teach- pus, Bangkok University. Timothy Rebbeck ers. The course was The lectures were held in Walter Kassela t a u ght by the museum’s the new Southeast Asian Museum staff : curator Pariwat Tham- Ceramics Museum Annex, mapreechakorn, assisted which was completed in Burin Singtoaj by our Education Officer, early November. The an- Burin Singtoaj. It in- nex includes new offices, two furnished lecture Southeast Asian Ceramics cluded a mixture of lec- Museum tures, and handling ses- rooms, an area for ceram- Bangkok University sions in which the stu- ics conservation and an Rangsit Campus entire third floor to be Phahonyothin Road dents learned the differ- Pathum Thani 12120 ence between the clays, used only for storage. Part glazes and shapes of the of the third will house our Tel.: (66-2) 902-0299 growing Ceramics Ar- Ext.:2892 various production sites Fax.:(66-2)516-6115 in Thailand. They also chive, a collection of site- they will be announced, learned the fundamentals specific shards for the seri- [email protected] once dates are set, on the of kiln firing from exami- ous researcher. museum’s e-mail news- nation of two model kilns More training classes letter list and in the on the museum grounds. will be held in 2006, both Inside this issue: newsletter itself. Letter from the editor Training course 1 IN NOVEMBER YOUR editor attended a planning meeting for a pro- posed conference that would (depending on funding) be held at Hoi Letter from 1 An, Vietnam probably in 2007. The conference would focus on us- the editor ing GIS (geographical information systems) for studies on old trade systems in S. E. Asia. Some members of the group are shown here at Letters to the editor 2 the entrance to the Hoi An Trade Ceramics Museum where the door grill (where my hand touches it) shows the ‘VOC’ symbol for the Dutch East Indies Company that once had an office in Hoi An. Beside me, clockwise, are Caverlee Cary from UC Berkeley, Susan Stone, News briefs 3 Berkeley Art Museum; Shih Ching-fei, National Palace Museum, Tai- wan; and Tran Ky Phuong, a Champa specialist from DaNang. Bird news 4 Incidentally, in regards to old trade ceramics, there is solid mari- time evidence from the time of the Zheng He voyages (1405-24 &1435) that the primary Chinese trade ware was celadon. A recent National Geographic Channel (Asia feed) program on Zheng He mis- takenly cited cargoes of blue and white, for which there is no ar- chaeological evidence in S. E. Asia. An example of a Chinese celadon plate from the beginning of the 15th C. is shown at right. RMB Page 2 Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum Newsletter Letters to the editor Storage jars, terminology Tha Chin, continued [In regards to storage jars in the No- (early 1600s) the river bank on the west vember 2005 issue] Abu Ridho & S. side at the mouth of the Chao Phraya Adhyatman translated tempayan into was used by the Dutch, English and English as ‘martavan.’ In Old Indo- others for fitting out their ships and nesian language it was written as storing goods for export. The Tha Chin martaban. It is a large container jar site, much earlier, may have been used usually used for water, in making by Chinese junk operators, but as part of salty fish, or as a container for selling a different pattern of trade that emerged goods or foods. Most of them are un- in the late 1400s. decorated and glazed a single colour. — Kennon Breazeale, Hawaii We know that they were made in Burma. A tempayan is a container which is Storage jars much more expensive and with more decoration. For a long time ago it was Regarding large Asian storage jars [Nov River ceramics highly valued as cultural heritage. E. 2005 issue], their origin is often a mys- Lo oking at your recent article ‘Ceramics W. van Orsay de Flines wrote that tery as we lack archaeological evidence from Ta Chin River,’ a couple of thoughts most probably the word tempayan is to identify kilns for many jars found in occur to me. First, your article appeared from tapai-an, a jar for fermenting S. E. Asia, and along the sea routes be- shortly after I gave a talk to the Washing- food or rice wine. Large tempayan tween South China and the Middle ton Oriental Ceramics Group on the di- were imported into Indonesia at least East. For Dr. Sila Tripati other good vers of Ayutthaya, the ones with whom I since the 9th C. They were used also references for Asian large storage jars went diving for ceramics in the early as a container for a secondary burial. besides Martavans in Indonesia include 1980s. Some of the blue and white pic- Martaban were made later. De Flines Valdes, Long & Barbosa, Manila, tured in your article resemble sherds that never translated tempayan to be mar- 1992, A Thousand Years of Stoneware I acquired from them. I attach two photos tavan. I believe that tempayan were jars in the Philippines; Barbara Harri- [shown above] similar to several others used a long time ago by the Chinese to son, Singapore, Oxford University we acquired. My first question is whether send their bones or ashes back to Press, 1986, Pusaka--Heritage Jars of you would be interested in having such China if they died abroad. A very Borneo; and Lucas Chin, Sarawak, sherds for the museum's collection. I large (1.5 meters tall) Tang dynasty 1988, Ceramics in the Sarawak Mu- cannot tell you much them, other than Yue jar from the Batu Hitam ship- seum. that they were acquired during 1980-90 wreck (9th C.), now kept on Belitung and most likely came from the Chao Phya island, is large enough for a man to sit In October at the Sackler Gallery of just downstream from its confluence with inside. It belongs to the local govern- Art, Washington, D.C. Japanese archae- the Paa Sak River south of Ayutthaya. ment on Belitung. ologist Asako Morimoto discussed stor- My second question: is anyone studying age jars collected in Thailand and Viet- the various rivers that served as commer- Incidentally, the Indonesian word nam by the Hauges. The jars vary in cial highways? River-borne trade must buli-buli has been translated into size, are mostly unglazed and all stone- have been extensive before the railways English as jarlet. But, since jarlets had wares. Ms. Morimoto found archaeo- and highways were built. I would like to more important uses in South East logical evidence in Vietnam and Japan see the Thai spelling of ‘Ta Chin’ because Asia than in China, it would be better for only a few. Indeed, most do not one reading of the words would be to call the shape buli-buli. Dutch appear in any of the standard works of ‘Chinese port’ or ‘Chinese wharf.’ Also, records mention boreh-boreh, and I storage jars found in Southeast Asia. I merchants at Chatuchak Market in the wonder if that was a mispronuncia- have attached a picture of three of the late 1980s were selling extraordinarily tion of buli-buli. — Willy Atma- unknown jars in the Sackler with Sack- beautiful blue and white wares they said ler Curator Louise Cort. [Photograph came from a river (if memory serves, the Correction, Chinese entries shown below.] ‘Mae Khlong’). I heard that there were Thanks for featuring our China West- — David Rehfuss, Washington, D. C. communities of divers there, but I never ward bibliography on page 4 of your managed to visit them. I would also love November 2005 newsletter. In fact the to know whether anyone has looked at the Chinese research on ceramics is in- bottom of the river systems that link the cluded in the bibliography, but it Suphanburi and Singburi kiln sites with appears in the Chinese entries only. Ayutthaya. Ceramics from both sites were — Guo Li, Hong Kong very commonly found by the divers at Ayutthaya. If you know of any reports on riverine archaelology I would appreciate Tha Chin river ceramics the references. — Robert Retka, USA Your description of the ceramics re- cently found on the river-bed at Tha Editor: Yes, DEFINITELY we would appre- Chin suggests that this site may have ciate your donations for the museum! been an anchorage place for Chinese junks ca. 1500 but that it was not a Your memory about the Mae Khlong frequented site before that time. If river is correct. In a half-page notice, this is the case, it fits neatly into a Bhujjong Chandavij (Muang Boran Jour- theory that I am developing for even- Louise Cort with unidentified jars at nal, 10/2, April-June 1984, p.