The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade Hsieh Mingliang the Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade

Hsieh Mingliang The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade Hsieh Mingliang The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade he Belitung wreck was discovered south-east further notes that the Kingdom of Heling (now 1 Feng Chengjun 1976, 47–49; Tof Sumatra, less than two miles off the coast Java) was a few days sail from Shilifoshi, while Yao Nan et al. 1993, 69–73. of Belitung Island. According to Tang and Song the Kingdom of Gegesengqi (now one of the 2 Kuwata Rokurô 1934, 210 ff.; dynasty navigational routes, south-east Sumatra Brouwers Islands) could be reached a few days Zhou Zhongjian 1986, 30–37. was the location of a powerful maritime state, after crossing the straits to the west. Writing known from Chinese sources as the Kingdom in the Song dynasty, Zhou Qufei notes in his of Shilifoshi. This state controlled the Straits of Lingwai Daida that: Malacca to the north and the Selat Sunda Strait to the south, and as the guardian of the two main The Kingdom of Sanfoqi (mid-ninth- waterways linking East and West, held a key posi- century term for Shilifoshi) stands at tion in the Nanhai ( South China Sea) trade from the centre of all foreign waterways. the seventh to the thirteenth century. From Dupo in the East, from Dashi and Guling in the West, all have to pass In 671, the famous monk Yijing travelled aboard through its territory to reach China.2 an Arab ship from Guangzhou to Shilifoshi. From there, under the auspices of the King of The sources clearly indicate that Shilifoshi was Shilifoshi, he sailed on a royal vessel through the a major way-station on the trade route linking Straits of Malacca, past what is known from Chi- China, India, the Arab world, and Southeast Asia, nese sources as Jietu (now the Kedah region in and it therefore seems reasonable to assume that Malaysia) and the Kingdom of Luoren (now the the Belitung vessel did not accidentally drift into Nicobar Island area) until he reached Tam- rlipti this area. in the Ganges River delta.1 The Tang dynasty record, Guangzhou Tonghai Yidao, written in The objects salvaged from the Belitung wreck are the Zhenyuan period (785–805) by Jia Dan, also striking in both variety and number, including mentions the Kingdom of Shilifoshi as an impor- such materials as gold, silver, iron, lead, bone, tant location that served as a reference point for wood, stone, glass, a wide range of spices, and the calculation of major navigational routes. It ceramics. Excluding spices and glass artefacts, 76 The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade the largest portion of these remains are Chinese conduct business in Shilifoshi before it sank, in origin. The most remarkable aspect of the the great amount of Chinese goods on the vessel 3 Mikami Tsugio 1987, 335–337. find is the vast number of ceramics it contained: does demonstrate that it sank before reaching its 4 Kuwata Rokurô 1934, 233–275. estimates suggest a total of some sixty thousand final destination. pieces. We may safely conclude from existing scholarly research that these wares chiefly date Whatever the case, Jia Dan’s Guangzhou Tonghai to the ninth century. While the production site Yidao offers valuable clues for reconstructing the of some of these ceramics remains unclear, by vessel’s original route and ultimate destination. far the largest portion of the wreck’s wares were Previous reconstructions based on Jia Dan’s text manufactured at the Changsha kilns in Hunan indicate that the trade route linking the Strait of province, the Yue kilns in Zhejiang province, the Malacca to the Persian Gulf was approximately Xing kilns in Hebei province, and various kilns in as follows (modern locations are given in paren- Guangdong province. thesis): A similar variety of wares has been found at To the north of the Straits was the King- excavation sites in way-stations such as the dom of Luoyue (the southern tip of aforementioned Shilifoshi and Heling. Excava- Malaysia), and to their south, Shilifoshi tions at the site of the capital of Shilifoshi, lo- (south-east Sumatra); at four to five cated at Palembang in south-east Sumatra, have days’ sailing distance from Shilifoshi, yielded Tang dynasty Yue wares, Changsha wares, one reached the Kingdom of Heling green-glazed wares from Guangdong kilns, and ( Java). Three days to the west of the North China white wares. On Java, green-glazed Straits was the Kingdom of Gegeseng- Yue wares have been found in Surabaya, while qi (one of the Brouwers Islands at the Jogjakarta has yielded Yue, Changsha, and green- southern end of the Strait of Malacca), glazed Guangdong wares, as well as white wares and to its north, the Kingdom of Geluo with green décor.3 Shilifoshi was also an impor- (in the vicinity of present-day Kedah, tant production and distribution point for many Malaysia); to the west of Geluo was the of the commodities, such as spices and medicine, Kingdom of Geguluo (the south-west found aboard the Belitung wreck.4 Although portion of the Isthmus of Kra). Next, we are presently unable to prove with absolute at four to five days sailing distance certainty that the ship did indeed anchor and from Gegesengqi, came Shengdengzhou The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade 77 The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade (in the vicinity of present-day Deli, Tianzhu (southern India). Four days north of Medan on the north-eastern west of Shizi was the Kingdom of Molai coast of Sumatra). From there it was (Quilon in southwestern India), from five days west to the Kingdom of Polu where the route turned, passing several ( Langaba lous), another six days to small kingdoms before reaching the Qielanzhou (the Nicobar Islands), and western regions of Poluomen ( India). then four more days to the Kingdom of From Poluomen, it took two days of Shizi ( Sri Lanka). One hundred miles sailing northwest to reach the Kingdom across the sea from Shizi was southern of Bayu ( Broach, north of Bombay), Fig. 1 Map of trade routes between Tang dynasty China, the Indian Ocean, and the Middle East (after Zhang Xun 1986). iver Folici River Yangzhou Fuda tou R Chang’an Wula Xin Suzhou Tiluluohe Moluo Mingzhou Huoluofu Wenzhou Fuzhou Tiyu Quanzhou Chaozhou Danmolidi Guangzhou Bayu Liuqiu Jiuzhoushi Jiamolangjia Xiangshi Zhanbulaoshan Duhebodi Lingshan Mendu Molai Bentuolangzhou Geguluo Juntunongshan Shizi Qielanzhou Geluo Polu Shengdengzhou Luoyue Gegesengqi Navigational routes after Jia Dan Foshi Other navigational routes Poli Heling 78 The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade and then ten more days to the King- where the Fulila River ( Fuhrat, now the dom of Tiyu ( Daibul in Pakistan) at the Euphrates) flowed into the Gulf from 5 Zhang Xun 1986, 42–43; Chen Yan 1996, 84–85. mouth of the Xintou River (the Indus). Dashi (the Arab countries). Two days From there it took twenty days of sailing sail up the Euphrates brought one to through the Persian Gulf to reach the the Kingdom of Moluo (now Basra), a Kingdom of Tiluoluhe (vicinity of major stronghold in Dashi. From there, present-day Abbadan). One day further one travelled overland to the northwest to the west was the Kingdom of Wula to finally reach Fuda ( Baghdad), the ( Al-Ubollah, now Ubulla in Basra), capital of Dashi.5 Fig. 2 Large green-glazed lugged Dusun-type jar. From the site of Banbhore, Pakistan (after Sasaki Tatsuo 1987, 240, pl. 8:38). The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade 79 The Navigational Route of the Belitung Wreck and Late Tang Ceramic Trade Of the maritime stations recorded by Jia Dan, the to the east of Karachi.8 Late Tang ceramics 6 Mikami Tsugio 1985, 9–10. harbour of Mantai in Shizi ( Sri Lanka) has been from this site include painted Changsha bowls, 7 Yu Haoliang 1978, 77–78. the site of archeological excavations. The port has brown-spotted Changsha daibazhuhu ewers yielded not only Islamic wares, but also a large with moulded floral appliqués, green-glazed 8 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1965, 188–189. number of late Tang painted Changsha wares, Yue bowls, white bowls from Northern kilns, 9 Sasaki Tatsuo, for example, has green-glazed Yue wares, white Xing wares, white and large green-glazed lugged Dusun-type jars developed this theory further in wares from the Gongxian kilns, white wares with (fig. 2). Although the large green-glazed jars in Sasaki Tatsuo 1987, 247. green décor, and large green-glazed jars of so- this latter category are sometimes identified as 10 Zeng Guangyi et al. 1963, 222, 9 pl. 4:8. See Xue Jianhong 1990, called Dusun ware (named after the inhabitants ninth to eleventh-century Yue-type wares, the 27, pl. 3. of a region of Kalimantan, where such wares fact that they served as storage containers for 6 11 For another argument in were discovered). The variety of late Tang wares most of the painted bowls found on the Belitung support of the Guangdong origin represented at the site is thus comparable to that wreck (cf. no. 161 and figs 30, 31 on p. 23) indi- of this type of lugged jars, see Mikami Tsugio 1974–77, 20. of the aforementioned way-stations of Shilifoshi cates that they cannot date from later than the 12 Sasaki Tatsuo 1987, 251–252. and Heling, as well as the ceramic cargo of the early ninth century. Furthermore, since some Belitung wreck.

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