Origin of Man in Southeast Asia

Volume 5

Part 1: Indianization of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago

Joachim Schliesinger

Origin of Man

in Southeast Asia

Volume 5

Part 1: Indianization of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago

Copyright © 2015 Joachim Schliesinger. Origin of Man in Southeast Asia 5―Part 1: Indianization of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago (Phnom Penh, 2015) All rights reserved.

Contents

Introduction 1

Early cartography of Greater India 4

Suvannabhumi or the Golden Chersonese 13

The maritime Silk and Spice Routes 19

Early navigations in the Eastern Seas 23

Early maritime contacts between India and the Malay Archipelago 26

The sea voyage from India to the islands in the Malay Archipelago 30

The Indianization of maritime Southeast Asia 34

The Hindu and Buddhist temples (or candi) 43

Photo gallery candi Indonesia 52

Photo gallery bas-reliefs and stone carvings 132

Beyond the Golden Chersonese, the Great Gulf (Magnus Sinus) forms a combination of the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea which is bound by the unknown lands thought to enclose the Indian Sea.

China is divided into two realms—the Qin (Sinae) and the Land of Silk (Serica)—owing to the different accounts received from the early overland and maritime Silk Routes.

The city of Thina was described by Ptolemy as the capital city of the country on the eastern shores of the Great Gulf (today’s Gulf of Thailand), at that time the kingdom of Funan. The main port of this kingdom was Cattigara Sinarum statio (or the port of Kattigara).

The Geography and the map derived from it probably played an important role in the expansion of the Roman Empire to the East. Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was extensive from the 2nd century AD, and many Roman trading ports have been identified in India. From these ports, Roman embassies to China are

Extract of Ptolemy's world map (c. 150 AD) reproduced in the 11th century

Extract of Ptolemy's word map (c. 150 AD) reproduced in the 15th century

10

Candi Badut, East Java (8th century)

Candi Badut, East Java (8th century)

Candi Badut, East Java (8th century)

Candi Badut, East Java (8th century)

Candi Badut, East Java (8th century)

Candi Banyuniba, Central Java (9th century)

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Origin of Man in Southeast Asia 5―Part 1: Indianization of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago is a work about the process of Indianization and the description of the many candi (Hindu temples) and historic objects discovered in this region from that period. This first part of the volume describes the beginning of cartography in this region on the globe from the mid-first millennium BC and the emergence of the early seafarers from India across the Gulf of Bengal to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra and Java in the Malay Archipelago and the process of Indianization in this region of Southeast Asia. The second part illustrates many examples of the more than 180 Hindu temple monuments that were discovered, unearthed and partly restored on Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo islands as well as the recent discoveries of ancient Hindu candi and monuments in the Malay Peninsula. Both parts of this volume are complemented with plenty of illustrations.