ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE MALAY PENINSULA
Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h·
Abstract The paper summarises recent archaeological research in southern Thailand and the northern part of the Malay Peninsula where the author has been investigat ing ports and entrepots significant for the early trade between Western Asia, India, Southeast Asia and China. Particular attention is given to the important site of Yarang in Patani Province which has been neglected until recently.
Introduction
ince 1990 we have been interested in the Peninsula from the beginning of the Chris SearlycenturiesofthehistoryoftheMalay tian era. The preliminary results and the Peninsula and have been attempting to rec problems posed by this research are sum oncile old Greek, Indian, Arab and Chinese marized in the paper. texts with the most recent results of ar chaeological research in the region. Ports of trade and Indianization Literary research on the history of the peninsula began more than a century ago Archaeological remains along the coasts of and was synthesized by Paul Wheatley the Malay Peninsula date from between the (1961) in a book which remains important. first centuries of the Christian era and the Archaeological research began at the begin fourteenth century AD. An extensive inter ning of the present century, notably under national trade, concerning many very dif the initiative of the Commission archeologique ferent Asian spheres - the Chinese, the In de l'Indochine, and research continues both dian and the Middle Eastern - was at the in Thailand and Malaysia. In recent years, origin of these remains. For the needs of in collaboration with the Fine Arts Depart merchants, numerous ports of call were ment of Thailand, we have been making an created along the coasts, the importance, inventory of, and conducting excavations rank and destiny of which were very differ at, some of the sites in the region of Yarang ent from each other. Other settlements, in Patani province, South Thailand, which somewhat to the interior of the peninsula, until now have been neglected. This recent were also created in relation to the commer research covered the eastern part of the cial activities on the coasts, in order to fur coast of the Kra isthmus near Nakhon Si nish a supply of local products in demand Thammarat, and has just been completed and also, perhaps, to make easier the trans by an investigation of the northernmost portation of some goods brought by trad part of the isthmus, near Takuapa, Chaiya ers, from one coast to the other, by trans and Chumphon. peninsular routes. Overseas trade was at the origin of the Depending on the period, these trading 'Indianization' of the peninsula. Our inten places-through which an important part of tion is to take into account these differing Indian cultural influence first reached South civilizations in order better to understand east Asia - were more or less independent, developments along the shores of the Malay or controlled by one of the local states, such as Funan and Srivijaya, which had received an Indianized social and political organiza *Directeur de Recherche, Centre National de la tion thanks to their intermediary role. Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France.
Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 121 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h
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Satingpra ••••••••• / Songl ...... \. . \ P. T1oman •...... o· INDIAN OCEAN •.....• Directions of some maritime ways •• •••· between China and India. 0 800km 100" Figure 1. Situation of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia and locality of some archaeological sites. 122 Journal of Th e Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 Archaeological Research in the Malay Peninsula Archaeological research, which had al from the west, that is to say from India or ready started early in the century, devel the Middle East, it was at this latitude, oped further, both in Thailand and in Ma between 6° and 11° north, that the Penin laysia, after the Second World War. One of sula was reached after the crossing of the its most interesting results in recent years in Gulf of Bengal by the shortest route, which Peninsular Thailand is the inventory of the goes north of Sumatra. From the east, if sites - and the excavation of some - in the navigators wanted to sail quickly to the vicinityofYaranginPataniProvince,south peninsula after having passed Cape Camau ern Thailand, sites which until now have and hugged the shores of Champa and Cam been neglected (Yukongdi Pakpadee and bodia, they had to cross the Gulf of Thai Puntokowit Pornthip 1993). land to reach the latitudes of the isthmus. Our work on this subject started in 1990 By coincidence this middle portion of in Malaysia on the archaeological sites of the peninsula is also its narrowest part-an South Kedah (Jacq-Hergoualc'h 1992a and isthmus. This fact helps to explain the main b) and this short paper covers only very location of the entrepot ports and suggests general considerations concerning, firstly, the existence of transpeninsular routes the importance, as we see it, of geography which appeared an alternative to the trans and, secondly, the different kinds of ports portation of goods around the peninsula by of call and places of exchange which can be sea. defined in this international trade. But, in fact, despite this attractive nar rowness, the peninsula is not easy to cross The geography of the Malay Peninsula from one coast to the other. The relief is entirely dominated by ranges of mountains The location of the different trading which lie staggered in step formation and places (Figure 1) entirely depends on the cut across the Peninsula on NNE-SSW lines physical and climatic geography of South (Figure 2). Between them possible routes east Asia and, more particularly, the geo are long and risky since it is necessary to go graphical characteristics of the peninsula. from one point to another obliquely, fol The Malay Peninsula appears as a north lowing the direction of the ranges. Never south barrier between the maritime com theless, the river valleys running from the plex of the Indian Ocean and that of the line of the summits to the two coasts, and Pacific Ocean; that is to say between India the low altitude at many points of these and the Middle East on one side, and China ranges, seem to have made possible the on the other. It was possible to sail around existence of short transpeninsular routes. the peninsula during the same expedition It was an attractive suggestion which from the east or from the west and, in either was well accepted but, in our view, even the case, to stop for a while at Palembang shortest of them was difficult to use due to Srivijaya, but probably early navigators geographical conditions (sharp relief, riv considered the peninsula a place where it ers difficult to navigate, heavy tropical for was more convenient to call and wait for est, dangerous fauna, etc.) and we do not commercial partners from the other side of believe that they were much used by navi Asia - or their go-betweens - and to con gators who would prefer, in spite of the duct business with them. distance, to go round the Straits when they This fitted with the rhythm of the mon wanted to reach the other coast (Jacq soon winds blowing alternatively south Hergoualc'h 1998). Moreover, how can one west to north-east from April to October explain the expansion of Srivijaya, at and north-east to south-west from Novem Palembang, if a large part of the interna ber to March. tional commerce avoided the circum-pen All these ports of call were created on the insular route? Nevertheless, these routes isthmus for geographical reasons. Coming were parts of a dendritic network allowing Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 123 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h local tropical products to reach the coast in One of the most interesting and the least accordance with a system well described by known of these archaeological sites is that of Bronson (1977). the ancient city-state of Langkasuka, which The emergence of important city- states was neglected until recently due to political on the isthmus was due to another geo problems. Many things remain to be discov graphic characteristic; the existence at this ered about this site but during the last few latitude - but only on the east coast of the years much has been learnt thanks to the Gulf of Thailand - of coastal plains broad activities of the Thai archaeologists from the enough to make possible the cultivation of Fine Arts Department of Thailand. An in rice on a significant scale and so to permit a ventory of thirty-three archaeological struc substantial population to live there, with tures has been published. All are found in possibilities of more sophisticated social and the vicinity of Yarang, linked to some re political organization than in a chiefdom, as mains of earth fortifications and with a com occurred on the west coast (Figure 2). plex canal network (Figure 3). Three have now been excavated. They Different types of ports of call and places are brick temples of some importance (Fig of exchange created by the international ure 4), the date of which, estimated from the trade on the Malay Peninsula religious artefacts found in association with them (votive stupa, votive tablets, statuettes, In this short paper I can only propose a brief ceramic shards), is as early as the sixth cen description of the different categories of tury AD. Nevertheless this is not so old as places created by international peninsular the supposed date of the second century AD trade. given by the Chinese annals for the founda Atthetop of the hierarchy are the entrepot tion of this city-state. ports associated with the Indianized city The style of these temples is problematic states. These city-states, as noted, arose only if we keep in mind their early foundation. It on the east coast, at the latitude of the me appears to be very close to that of Dvaravati dian part of the peninsula. There, the coastal but, in our opinion, the artistic influences rice-growing plains allowed a significant came directly from Gupta and post-Gupta population to thrive. Commerce, and India, perhaps by way of South Kedah. Af through it the arrival of Indian cultural in ter that, the same influences reached the fluences, led the local chiefs, very early, to Dvaravati lands which started to be formed transform traditional customs into a social, at the same time. For this last area, of course, political, military and religious system based it was not the only source of Indian influ on the Indian model. ences, but Langkasuka was certainly one at We only know three certain examples; an early stage. that is to say locations which have historical This city-state does not appear to have confirmation (mostly through the Chinese had any entrepot ports. Our recent research annals) which can be linked with archaeo with Thai archaeologists in charge of the logical remains of some importance, still in sites and with Professor Thiva Supajanya existence today, or which have been studied from Chulalongkorn University, a special in the past and published about. They are ist in aerial and satellite photographic inter Panpan on the Bay of Bandon, Tambralinga pretation, led us to express the hypothesis in the area of Nakhon Si Thammarat, and that these ports were situated in the western Langkasuka in the vicinity of Patani. Our part of the city on the bank of the ancient research during the last three years was estuary of the Patani River which went very mainly concerned by the forms of civiliza far inland and which has now completely tion found in these city-states (Jacq disappeared (Figure 5). This theory is sup Hergoualc'h et al. 1995, 1996 and in prepa ported by the testimony of local peasants, ration). who speak of very numerous ceramic shards, 124 Journal of The Siam Society Vol85, Parts 1 & 2 Archaeological Research in the Malay Peninsula too• II' GULF OF THAILAND 10' SOUTH CHINA SEA ANDAMAN SEA 7' C]+300 m +500m - + IOOOm Transpcninsular routes o.__~---'---~-'_,00 km Figure 2. Median portion of the Malay Peninsula with archaeological sites and transpeninsular routes. Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 125 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h to Patani Ban Jalae to Yala .- Rivers or ancient rivers1 canals or ancient canals with ~ water all the year or omy during the rainy season, 7 sometimes converted in rice-fields Traces of ancient earth walls 6"4f20.5" •BW20 •BW18 Roads and paths Archaeological sites 0 300m 101 • 17' 47.9" 101" 18' 46.3" M. J.-Kfocit Figure 3. Archaeological sites in Yarang (Patani, South Thailand). 126 Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 Archaeological Research in the Malay Peninsula 9.5m ················································~ Ei A~ : ~f C"i' tt A = :;I ·· ~ · "l F55:! E vi"' 111 ll N 9.5m ······- ·------· -- i3 _ ;;;;;· · ---·--··-···---·--- · ·~ ...-(···· ·· ·· ------·------·· --· · ------·--·--···---·-----···---··-·------·-······----·-······--·------·-····> oi----~----'2=-im Figure 4. Plan and elevation of the Buddhist sanctuary BJ3 at Yarang (Patani, South Thailand). including some from China and the Middle The commercial prosperity of these city East, at a depth of less than a metre where states depended on their capacity to receive canals, coming from the city, join the estu foreign boats, thus on their port installa ary. Excavations, of course, are needed to tions. These, on a coast which silted consid confirm this. erably, were moved several times over the This kind of city-state attested to by re centuries and when nothing could be done mains of temples very close to one or sev to overcome this the trading ships were eral entrep6t ports, also indicated by many obliged to look for a better place to shelter. locations of ceramic shards, can also be The second kind of port of call was the found in ancient Panpan in the vicinity of entrep6t port created in a non-Indianized the Bay of Bandon. Here Laem Pho was at place, probably a chiefdom. Two signifi first the port but, after the ninth century, cant examples are in the area of South Kedah this moved further to the south to Tha Rua, (Malaysia) and the vicinity of Takuapa located near the present town ofNakhon Si (north of Phuket). The first of these loca Thammarat (ancient Tambralinga)-the heir tions today gives the impression of being a ofPanpan. rice-growing area, thanks to the existence Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 127 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h of a rather large coastal plain. But recent advantage-the arrival of foreign merchants studies by Jane Allen (1988) from the Uni along its coasts during the time it was nec versity of Hawaii, on the distribution of essary to wait for favourable winds; the settlements in that early historic period of winds to cross the Gulf of Bengal to reach this part of the peninsula, have demon India and beyond to the Middle East, or the strated that this plain was not in existence at winds to go down the Straits of Malacca to that time and thence that the inhabitants reach Palembang-Srivijaya. living in the region were limited in number; The location on that portion of the west they were nowhere near numerous enough coast seems to have been favoured in the to create a social, political, religious and nanhai network since the archaeological re military organization as in Langkasuka, for mains are as old as the fifth century AD. No example. entrepot port was established at this early Nevertheless, the primitive local orga period but the one which succeeded it, dur nization permitted- because it was to its ing the ninth century AD, Kampong Sungai 101°15' /~- Present shme ,/'' Fonner shme ,....- Rivers and canals. D Y arang archaeological site. ...... _... _.-..-....._ --- .,___ ...., /' ~:::: 0 Figure 5. Geomorphological evolution of the vicinity of Yarang and probable location of its ports entrepots. 128 Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 Archaeological Research in the Malay Peninsula NB 1 (9W) l Gunong Jerai (1217 m) s• 45' Strait of Malacca SMM 2 (26w) • SMM 11. • SMM 12 (40m)• SMM 10 (38m) SMM 9 (39m) e--.:~-~1 SMM 8 (37m) 0 2km M. J.-H. fecit EntrepOt ports zones PB : Pengkalan Bujang zone NB : North of the Bujang zone ~ w: a. Wales' numbers (1940) SB : Sungai Bujang zone SMM : Zone between Merbok & Muda m : Muzium Arkeologfs numbers SMK : Sungai Merbok Kechil zone UM : Zone upstream the Muda Figure 6. Archaeological sites in South Kedah. Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 129 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h Mas, was recently discovered and itants (we have in mind, particularly, the Kamaruddin bin Zakaria has excavated location of the most important of all these some places on the site during the last few temples, Candi Bukit Batu Pahat). These years (Nik Hassan and Kamaruddin 1993). religious sites, both Buddhist and Hindu, The silting of this second entrepot port were not systematically linked to settle led to the opening of a third, at Kampong ments which could be considered as cities. Pengkalan Bujang, the fortunes of which Their location makes them appear rather as grew from the end of the eleventh century hermitages, probably established by the until the fourteenth century. Finally, dur piety of Indian merchants or Indian com ing the fourteenth century, a port was cre munities, as at Takuapa where a ninth cen ated briefly at Kampong Sireh before South tury inscription has been found. Kedah was completely abandoned by inter Accordingly, all these temples are small; national traders. their foundations cannot be compared to The location and general appearance of the temples in Langkasuka, for example. some forty archaeological sites (mostly Furthermore, if their plans preserve Indian temples) listed today in South Kedah con prototypes (Figure 7), their elevations were firm this interpretation (Figure 6). The adapted to local construction concepts by archaeological sites appear to be grouped, the use of timber above the lintels of doors. mostly in the area of the two important These beams were supported by stone pil entrepot ports, Kampong Sungai Mas and lar bases. The solid part of the structure was Kampong Pengkalan Bujang, but, in fact, always built with material available in the many of them were completely isolated in a immediate vicinity- granite, laterite, river countryside very different at that time from pebbles or bricks when no other materials how it is now and which certainly could were available. In fact, they appear to be only be reached with the help oflocal inhab- constructions built with some economy be- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 E 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ~ 10 .70 m 13 .40 m 0 4m \ I - I I h Figure 7. Plan and elevation and east profiles of the Candi Bukit Batu Pahat (SMK 1(8w), South Kedah, Malaysia. 130 Journal of Th e Siam Society Vol85, Parts 1 & 2 Archaeological Research in the Malay Peninsula cause their founders were not permanent tion of these feeder points is uncertain and residents or Indianized locals (for more in depends on the products traded. Those, formation on South Kedah, see Jacq inland, which were suppliers of perishable Hergoualc'h 1992). goods, will eventually be traced thanks to Takuapa, more to the north, also has the presence of some objects coming from archaeological remains which are less well an entrepot port (mostly Chinese ceramics). studied than those in South Kedah. Nev Others on the coast could be located through ertheless, what we know aboutthem when tracesofmetallurgy(tiningots,forexample) linked to the local geographical context or other activities, such as the making of enables something very similar to be imag glass or hard stone beads from imported ined. materials. A typical example is Kuala Selinsing on the coast of Perak (Malaysia), Collecting Centres and Feeder Points studied by Evans during the 1920s and more recently by Nik Hassan Shuhaimi (1991). Besides these two types of major ports of This centre probably had close links with call, there are others well described by Leong South Kedah as a feeder point and its con Sau Heng (1990, 1993) of the University of tacts with its entrepot port are attested by Malaya: she calls them the 'collecting cen the discovery of shards of Chinese ceramics tres' and the 'feeder points'. and some Indian objects. Another similar The importance of the collecting centres centre in this category on the same west is in their location in the country or near coast of the Peninsula is Khuan Luk Pad places from where a range of local products near Krabi in south Thailand (Figure 1). can be collected. They constitute departure points for such products all along the trade Summary network using the Straits of Malacca. The best locations became busy centres which In the book we are writing on this subject, could be also places for redistributing some we hope to clarify the history of the penin foreign products in demand in the surround sula from the first centuries of the Christian ing country. Such products- particularly Era to the fourteenth century by providing, Chinese ceramics - have been discovered as far as possible, an archaeological reality locally and show the former activity of the to political entities defined, up to the present, ports; perishable goods which formed the in relation to Chinese texts, and which have bulk of this trade, have left no discernible remained vague both geographically and trace. One typical example of this kind of culturally. place is Tioman Island (Pulau Tioman) near This will include the examination of the the southeast extremity of the Peninsula. sites not mentioned, or barely touched on, The last category constitutes the feeder in the texts but which have an archaeologi points. They form part of the trade network cal importance which has recently been and act as suppliers oflocal products for the demonstrated (that is to say, the collecting collecting centres and the entrepot ports. centres and the feeder points). They are not necessarily found at strategic This trade, as is well known, was at the places on the long distance international origin of the 'Indianization' of the penin trade routes but at points where they could sula; an ambiguous term, but serving to easily relate to resource areas or supply designate the forms of civilization which zones. Consequently, the most numerous developed locally. The trade was exten locations are the confluences of rivers drain sive and involved such far-removed ing a large resource base (centres of types D, worlds as the Middle East, India and E and Fin Bronson's 1977 model); but they China. Our intention is to take into ac can also be found on the coast, in the vicin count these differing civilizations in or ity of tin mines, for example. The identifica- der better to understand the cultures Journal of The Siam Society Vol85, Parts 1 & 2 131 M. Jacq-Hergoualc'h which developed along the shores of the civilisation de ports-entrepots des Mers du Malay Peninsula. We also wish to deter Sud: leSudKedah (Malaysia). ve-XIVe siE!de, mine the destiny of the peninsular entrepot Arts Asiatiques XL VII: 40-8. ports and the city-states in the history of Jacq-Hergoualc'h M. 1998. Les voies trans peninsulaires en Peninsule Malaise. ve-XIVe Southeast Asia proper, dominated or in siecle, in Aller et venir en Asie orientale. Paris: fluenced at different times by diverse po CREOPS, Presses de l'Universite de Paris litical entities, including Funan, Dvaravati, Sorbonne (in press for February ). Srivijaya, the Khmer Empire and Central Jacq-Hergoualc'h M., Pakpadee Yukongdi, Java, whose own Indianization owed Pornthip Puntukowit & Thiva Supajanya much, in the first instance, to the staging 1995. Une cite-etat de Ia Peninsule malaise: le posts which were con-situated on the pen Langkasuka, Arts Asiatiques L: 47-68. insula at the beginning of the Christian Jacq-Hergoualc'h M., Srisuchat Tharapong, era. Supanjanya Thiva and Wichapan Krisanapol 1996. La region de Nakhon Si Thammarat (Thailande peninsulaire) du ve au XIVe siecle, Acknowledgements Journal Asiatique 284 (2,): 361-435. Jacq-Hergoualc'h M., Srisuchat Tharapong, The work described here was made pos Supanjanya Thiva and Wichapan Krisanapol sible thanks to the collaboration of archae (in preparation). L'isthme de Kra au Ix.e siecle. ologists from the NationalMuseum at Kuala Leong Sau Heng 1990. Collecting Centres, Feeder Lumpur, among them Adi haji Taha, Points and Entrepots in the Malay Peninsula, Othman Mohm. Yathim and Kamaruddin 1000B.C.-A.D.1400,inJ.Kathirithamby-Wells bin Zakaria, Curator of the Kedah sites, and & J. Villiers (eds), The Southeast Asian Port and to Professor Nik Hassan Shuhaimi, from Polity. Rise and Demise. National University of Singapore, Singapore University Press, pp.17- Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. This re 38. search was continued in Peninsular Thai Leong Sau Heng 1993. Ancient Trading Centres land with collaboration of members of the in the Malay Peninsula, Jurnal Arkeologi Ma Fine Arts Department of Thailand, espe laysia 6: 1-9. cially Tharapong and Amara Srisuchat, Nik Hassan Shuhaimi bin Nik Abdul Rahman & Pakpadee Yukongdi and Pornthip Kamaruddin bin Zakaria, Recent Archaeo Puntukowit, as well as many others. We are logical Discoveries in Sungai Mas, Kuala greatly indebted to these persons for their Muda, Kedah, Journal of the Malaysian Branch collaboration, and our published research of the Royal Asiatic Society LXVI (2) 1993: 73-80. Shuhaimi Nik Hassan 1991. Recent Research at on the subject owes much to them. Kuala Selinsing, Perak, in P. Bellwood (ed.), Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin, 11: References 141-52. YukongdiPakpadee&PuntokowitPomthip 1993. AllenJ.1988. Trade, Transportation and Tributaries: Report on the Archaeological Site of Yarang. Exchange, Agriculture and Settlement Distribu Bangkok: Fine Arts Department (in Thai). tion in Early Historic-Period Kedah, Malaysia. Wheatley, P. 1961. The Golden Khersonese, (1980 University of Hawaii, Ph. D. Dissertation. reprint) Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Bronson B. 1977. Exchange at the upstream and Malaya. downstream ends: notes towards afunctional model of the coastal state in Southeast Asia, KEYWORDS - TRADE, PENINSULAR in K. L. Hutterer (ed.), Economic Exchange MALAYSIA, THAILAND, INDIANIZA and Social Interaction in Southeast Asia: Per spectives from Prehistory, History and Eth TION, PORTS, KRA ISTHMUS nography. Ann Arbor, University of Michi gan, pp.39-52. Jacq-Hergoualc'h M. 1992a. La civilisation de ports entrepots du Sud Kedah (Malaysia) ve-xrve siecle. Paris: L'Harmattan. Jacq-Hergoualc'h M. 1992b. Un exemple de 132 Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2