Cambridge University Press, Singapore, 1999 (1992)
Chapter One, "The Writing of Southeast Asian History", looks at the individuals, organizations and journals interested in the history of the region over the generations with the varying perceptions and goals of colonial administrators, Cold War scholars and academics in newly independent states. It considers the issues of interest to Post War historians: e.g. autonomy and outside influences, Indian, Islamic and European, early history, traditional political theory, new elites, national resistence movements, governmental organizations in newly independent states, etc. There are pages of detail not very relevant to this earliest paperback volume. Page 46 does introduce the reader to Berg's position:
That the so-called historical writings of Java, the fourteenth-century NAGARAKERTAGAMA, the possibly older PARARATON and the later BABAD TANAH JAWI, were not works of history at all and could only be understood if read within the framework of the spirit which produced them. p. 46
It also mentions the view that he overstated his case.
Chapter Two, "Southeast Asia Before History", begins by stating the vastness and complexity of the topic.
Throughout this region were represented, before the appearance of the historical records 2,000 years ago, societies of many socio-economic levels -- from hunters and gatherers, through tribal agriculturalists, to socially ranked chiefdoms fully conversant with the manufacture of artifacts of bronze and iron. Cutting across these socio-economic levels were considerable variations in languages and human biology, all reflecting many millennia of adaptation, innovation, colonization and contact between populations. p. 55
It considers the present environment as well as fluctuations caused by climatic change. One of the most important variations is the coastline.
The Sunda Shelf is the largest area of shallowly submerged continental shelf on earth. When it was almost fully exposed as dry land during glacials it would have formed a subcontinent over four million square kilometres in extent. p. 62 This means that Java and Sumatra may have been joined to Asia for well over half and possibly even 90 per cent of Middle and Late Pleistocene time, Borneo for perhaps less. p. 64
It mentions the presence of Homo erectus and the debate concerning genetic continuity or replacement. It looks at biological and genetic perspectives, reminding the reader of the independence of these from language.
Most of the Philippine Negritos have now adopted sporadic agricultural practices and all have adopted, within recent millennia, Austronesian languages from neighbouring cultivators. The Semang of Malaysia, while still primarily hunter-gatherers and forest collectors-for-trade, have at some time adopted Austroasiatic languages related to ancestral Mon and Khmer. The few remaining Andamanese, some of whom live in virtual island isolation, are the only ones to have retained a relatively pure foraging economy together with their original languages, unrelated to any outside major grouping. pp. 74-75
The chapter refers to skeletal remains;
Nowhere is there clear-cut evidence from them for rapid population replacement, and we must allow for millennia of intermarriage and local evolution. The important concept is that human biological history of Southeast Asia has involved not a swift replacement of some populations by others, but a gradual southwards and eastwards shift in the structure and centre of gravity of a cline between Southern Mongoloids and Australo-Melanesians. p. 76
It examines hunter-gatherers and various sites, often caves, across Southeast Asia. These include the Niah caves on Sarawak.
It has produced edge-ground axes made on pebbles which may be over 10,000 years old; these represent an important technological innovation which also appeared, presumably independently, in Late Pleistocene contexts in Japan, northern Australia and the New Guinea Highlands. p. 83
Here also are flexed or sitting posture burials and:
The cave inhabitants were also able to hunt or scavange meat from no less than fifty-eight species of mammals, including primates, carnivors, and herbivors ranging in size from small rodents to rhinoceros and cattle. p. 84
It mentions Hoabinhian sites across the Southeast Asian mainland and in Malaysia and Sumatra. It also refers to the debate concerning their connection with the development of agriculture and pottery.
In terms of basic archaeological data, evidence for Hoabinhian occupation and burial activities occurs mainly in limestone caves and shelters. There are also a few coastal shell middens dating from after 8000 years ago in northern Sumatra, western peninsular Malaysia and northern Vietnam; any older than this would have been destroyed by rising sea levels. p. 87
It mentions the dog domesticated and introduced from India or China.
The chapter proceeds to examine the development of agriculture, noting the lack of certainty as to precisely how and why this happened. It states that New Guinea was one place (along with Peru, Mexico, West Asia and China) where hunter-gatherers developed agriculture. However, most of Southeast Asia seems to have received it by diffusion, although the climate of the region may have led to variations, for example, less use of rice and more of millets, tubars, bananas, etc. in the islands.
It continues with reference to sites in Thailand, remarking that previous very early dates for Thai agriculture have been revised. There is a lack of concensus on whence agriculture arrived in such places as Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang, whether from the South China/North Vietnamese coast or from the Gulf of Thailand. There is also a paucity of information on settlements and house plans.
Ephemeral timber architecture rarely survives in readily-identifiable post-hole patterns in the tropics, a circumstance which puts this region at an archaeological disadvantage compared with more temperate environments in China and Europe. pp. 98-99
It describes the rich site at Khok Phanum Di, and states that Burma, Cambodia and Laos provide little useful data here. However, Ban Kao some two hundred kilometres west of Hok Phanum Di has given its name to a culture that reached, "Southwards for 1500 kilometres into central peninsular Malaysia." p. 100 Its remains include tripods.
The southward expansion of the Ban Kao culture, most probably by movement of people rather than by trade or superficial diffusion, appears to have led to three major introductions into southern Thailand and Malaysia; agriculture, Austroasiatic languages, and gene flow of Southern Mongoloid origin." p. 101
It suggests movement from South Coastal China to Taiwan, mentions the similarities of the Yuanshan culture of eastern Taiwan to finds in the Philippines, reiterates the negative consequences of tropical conditions for archaeological remains.
From the central Philippines southwards into Indonesia and east Malaysia the Early Neolithic archaeological record consists mainly of pottery, flaked-stone tools, very rare adzes, and little else. p. 104
Nevertheless, this, along with examination of pollen, leads to the thought,
That pottery-using people, circumstantially with varied agricultural economies, settled large parts of Southeast Asia during the third millennium BC. p. 105
The chapter turns now to language. The presence of several language families in the suggested Austronesian homeland of South China/Taiwan, the widespread extent of Austronesian and its failure to penetrate deeply into New Guinea, already inhabited by agriculturalists, comparative phonological and grammatical research, etc. cause the author to see language as corroborating the archaeological thought quoted in the above paragraph.
Next comes a look at metals, providing a separate Bronze Age on the mainland, but bronze and iron arriving together in the islands after 500 BCE.
Bronze, all over Southeast Asia, does appear to have had a significant correlation with the rise of ranked societies in pre-Indic times, and weapons, vessels and ornaments of the metal were probably exchanged between regional elites for purposes of alliance and inter-marriage. p. 116
There follows a brief examination of sites in northern Thailand (Ban Na Di, Ban Chiang and Ban Chiang Hian) and Vietnam (Doc Chua, Dong-son, Viet Khe, Co Loa)
The early iron-bearing layers in Ban Chiang have also produced the remarkable red-painted pottery with its outstanding repertoire of curvilinear designs, a style which seems to have been absent from Ban Na Di, despite the geographical closeness of the two sites. p. 119
The most impressive archaeological remain from Vietnam is the Dong-son bronze drum. Such drums, described in fascinating detail, seem to have been developed in northern Vietnam and to have been important items throughout much of insular Southeast Asia, until c. 300 CE.
It must not be assumed that these drums were made only for funerary purposes, despite their common occurrance in burials. H. Loofs-Wissowa has recently surveyed a number of possible functions, including the possibility that they were bestowed as legitimizing 'regalia' on local chiefs by a religious authority in northern Indochina. pp 122-123
This section also refers to:
Evidence in Chinese records to the effect that canal-irrigated rice fields were present in northern Vietnam before 111 BC...In addition, a Chinese census of 2 CE records a population of almost one million people in northern Vietnam. p. 125
The author turns to the islands, repeating the caution about the paucity of evidence and inferring from Lapita pottery and linguistics,
Colonization of a 5000 kilometre spread of islands from the vicinity of New Guinea through to Samoa during the late second millennium BC. p. 128
The chapter continues with island megaliths, including those at Pageralam. It surveys the evidence from Sembiran, Bali, suggesting this was an Indian trading post 2,000 years ago.
When all these finds are put together, they hint very strongly at the oldest direct evidence from Southeast Asia for the trade in spices which linked the Roman empire, India and Southeast Asia in the first centuries of our era. p. 131
Chapter Three, "The Early Kingdoms", briefly examines seven such entities: Vietnam, Champa, Angkor, Pagan, Ayutthaya, Srivijaya and Majapahit. The situation is more complex than may appear from that simple list.
Champa is described as a convenient term for various polities that fluctuated along nearly a thousand kilometres of what is now the coast of Vietnam. Chronologically, it may reach from the Chinese references in the second century CE until Cham under-kings ceased to rule in Thuan Hai in 1832.
The section on Ayutthaya begins with Mangrai starting out in Chiang Saen, moving to Fang, allied with other Thai rulers, including Ramamhaeng of Sokothai. Mangrai founds the state of Lan Na and its capital Chiangmai. In 1351, fifty three years after the death of Ramamhaeng, Ayutthaya is founded. During the reign of Intharacha (1409-1424), "Sukothai was effectively reduced to vassalage." p. 170 Meanwhile, Mangrai's successors developed a prosperous state in Lan Na.
Ku Na (1355-1385)...promoted a scolarly sect of Buddhist monks, that for many generations, became the leading religious, literary, and cultural influence in the region. pp. 171-172
Ayutthaya in the late fifteenth century failed to subdue Lan Na. There was another Thai kingdom called Lan Sang.
It covered a huge area from Luang Prabang in the north to Champassak in the south and most of what is today northeastern Thailand. p. 172
And further complexity is suggested by the reference to the Thai chiefdoms of the Tran-Ninh Plateau posing as vassals of both Dai Viet and Lan Sang.
The section on Angkor mentions the Chinese designations Fu-nan (2nd-6th Cs CE) and Chen-la (6th-8th Cs CE), the archaeological site of Oc-eo.
Oc-eo was an entrepot from the second to the sixth centuries, and is generally associated with the 'Fu-nan' era of pre-Angkorean history. p. 158
It mentions several military leaders, including Jayavarman II, who was proclaimed king on a mountain near the site of Angkor in 802 CE. There were several strong rulers, including Suryavarman II (r. 1113-c.1150 CE) and Jayavarman VII (r. c.1170s-c.1220 CE) involved in vigorous military activity, building and religious interest. Jayavarman VII,
Is also credited with the building of roads, 121 rest houses, and 102 hospitals throughout Angkorean territory. p. 162
However, there generally were difficulties after the deaths of such outstanding personalities and following an increase in the importance of commerce Angkor was abandoned in the 1430s.
Pagan, exerting dominance because of military prowess, then received significant cultural influence from the conquered Mon, Pyu and from sources beyond, including Sri Lanka. This cultural influence matures in the reign of Kyanzittha (1084-1112 CE).
Narapatisithu (c. 1173-1211 CE) purified the monasteries, increased his tax base and ruled over an era of peace and prosperity. Successors were less able to respond to the power of the monks and their weakness led to internal division and external pressures.
Srivijaya is described as, "A generic term for the succession of thalassocracies centred in southeastern Sumatra from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries." p. 173 It attracted hostile attention from India, Java and Thailand, as well as the protective might of Ming China which,
Supported this interest with large naval patrols in the first two decades of the fifteenth century. p. 175
Although the section on Majapahit describes capable rulers, a wise adviser (Gaja Mada d. 1365 CE) and an ambitious political vision ("nusantara", archipelagic hegemony), these are presented in a rich Javanese cultural background that harmonizes outside influences (Buddhist, Hindu and, later, Islamic), that has a tradition of monarchs renouncing the world, that presents the splendid architectural legacies of Borobudor and Prambanan, that from the Tenth Century forward inspires impressive poetry, drama and music.
Vietnam is closest to the Chinese. Indeed, it was part of China during Han, T'ang and, briefly, Ming times. The realm of Dai Viet was founded by Ly Cong Van (r. 1009-1029). His son, Ly Phat Ma, published a new legal code in 1042 and led a successful naval strike at the Cham capital in 1044. Phat Ma's son, Ly Nhat Thon (r. 1054-1072),
Was a sophisticated and cultured man who was at once a scholar and a judge, a musician and a warrior, a devout Buddhist and a ruthless dynast. p. 144
His young son, Ly Can Duc (r. 1072-1127) came to the throne as the activist Sung reformer Wang An-shih considered moving against Dai Viet. General Ly Thuong Kiet launched a potent pre-emptive strike and the Sung counter-attack failed, although it resulted in recognition of the Sino-Vietnamese border, "Which has remained essentially unchanged to the present day." p. 147
Ly Can Duc's successors were confronted with the power of the families of consorts. In 1225 Tran Thu Do established a new dynasty whose queens for the first four generations came from the Tran clan. This dynasty adopted the Chinese examination system in the 1230s and defeated Mongol invaders in the 1280s. Ming forces in the early 1400s defeated Ho Quy Le and for a period they occupied Dai Viet. Following their withdrawal in 1428, the Le Dynasty emerged. Perhaps its most memorable ruler was Le Thanh Ton (r. 1460-1497).
This was an unprecedented age of scholarship and literature; important works of poetry, folklore, history, law, and government were written and have survived. p. 151
Regretably, five years after he died the kingdom entered a period of civil wars, but they lie outside the time frame covered by this volume.
Chapter Four, "Economic History of Early Southeast Asia", begins by reminding the reader of the vital importance of this area for world trade, of how Southeast Asians,
Were the nomads of the Southern Ocean, and they played a role in history that in some ways resembles that of the nomads of the northern steppe. p. 186
The chapter outlines the expertise of these pre-literate people in agriculture, metallurgy and navigation. It mentions their transport of cinnamon, bananas and the xylophone in their wide ranging travels that had them colonizing Madacascar by the time of the Roman Empire. They were known as "Kunlun" to the Chinese of the 3rd Century BCE. They likely initiated contact with India and they established colonies far into the Pacific.
Next comes a consideration of Fu-nan (present Oc-eo). This seaport in the Mekong Delta, very favoured by agriculture, a necessity when winds would require travellers to lay over, "For as long as five months," p. 193 had the legend of beginning its importance when an Indian brahmin,
Drank of the local waters...which suggests that he took an oath of loyalty to the local ruler" p. 193
whom he later married.
By the second or third century CE, Fu-nan was both rich and powerful, and foreign visitors were numerous. Not only were there Indians and Chinese, but by the third century Persian Gulf sailors from the Sassanid empire in Persia could also be found in Fu-nan. p. 194
It mentions also the third century report of cities in the islands and of a king in Sumatra who imported horses from northwest India. It refers to the dislocations in China with great migrations to southern China and the closing in 439 CE of the Silk Road.
This China market was irresistable, and the seamen of the Sunda Strait region rose to the challenge, picking up the goods from the West in India and Sri Lanka, bringing them through Southeast Asia and then delivering them to this southern Chinese market. p. 196
This leads to a consideration of the polity of Srivijaya. This section begins by referring to the traditional belief in the divine nature of the lofty mountains, the flat expanse of the sea and the rivers flowing from the mountains to the sea. It mentions the natural advantages of the Srivijayan port of Palembang in agricultural productivity, "A fine natural harbour and a river that was navigable for long distances." pp. 199-200 There is another reference to the Malay water oath. The author states that Srivijaya bought out pirates, hiring them for patrol and transport.
Next comes a look at the Javanese ally of Srivijaya. This impressive state, with its outstanding site at Borobudur, likely contributed to feeding visitors to Palembang. It mentions the committees organizing the sharing of water for irrigation and the religious aspect of this important work.
The behaviour of the gods, like the behaviour of the farmers, was shaped by the human planting cycles, for they came down to inhabit their shrines only on special days, usually related to the planting schedule. p. 205
There is reference to the claims of the king to be supported by the higher gods of the Indian religions, and also how India provided writing and exalted Sanskrit concepts, including "Maharajah", "Great king".
Next comes consideration of East Java which by trading rice for cloves, nutmeg and mace growing a thousand miles east so dominated the trade that foreigners assumed these grew in Java. Airlanng (r. 1016-1049) established the rule of Kahuripari. On his death his kingdom was divided between two sons. These were the two realms of Singhasari and Kadiri. Following a defeat of Singhasari by Kadiri in 1292, Raden Vijaya, son-in-law of the late Singhasari king, founded the new capital of Mahapahit. Mahapahit's rulers extended their influence.
Thus, by 1377 Mahapahit's realm included ports and their hinterlands from the furthest tip of Sumatra in the west to New Guinea in the east and as far north as the southern islands of the Philippines. p. 219
There is considerable description, much of it seemingly drawn from the 1365 epic NAGARAKERTAGAMA, of the prosperity of Mahapahit. Then comes mention of the founding of Malacca in 1402 and its contact with the Chinese admiral Ch'eng Ho three years later. This, combined with simultaneous civil strife in Mahapahit, weakened the dominance of East Java.
The chapter turns to Angkor, its irrigation system, its belief in the ritual connection of king and land, the acquisition of economic resources by temples, even donors shifting goods and services from one temple to another.
Through these actions, a pattern of subordination of one local deity to another as well as one local temple to another began to emerge in Khmer society. Regional temple networks came to be sustained and controlled by a secular, landed elite who transferred income from their lands or donated material goods and services to temples in the network. p. 233
Royal authority and some details of temple organization mentioned, including the rice requirements of the Ta Prohn temple for personnel,
Among whom were 615 female dancers, 439 learned hermits who lived in the temple monastery (asrama), and 970 students. p. 237
The chapter moves on to Pagan where,
Status was defined by how much one gave to the Buddhist Church rather than the wealth one accumulated. Kings received merit and consequently legitimacy in return for their generosity. p. 242The king's one recourse against the Church's wealth and power was the periodic 'purification' of the religious order, by which the king reduced the Buddhist sangha to small, localized, 'other-worldly' groups with a few material resources, which was under the control of a unified sangha elite directly appointed and supervised by the king. p. 244
There follows consideration of Khmer and Burman expansion, the involvement of Sri Langka and the Indian state of Cola, activity in the Malay Peninsula, and the growing importance of war booty for the kings of Angkor. This leads into the section on Champa, "Champa's Plunder-Based Political Economy". There is reference to the similarity between Champa and the islands in riverine networks.
Rather than representing shifts from one dynasty's rule to that of another, the periodic movement of the Cham royal centre (capital) among several river-mouth urban centres bearing Indic titles -- Indrapura (Tra-kieu), Vijaya (Binh-dinh), and Kauthara (Nha-trang) -- correspond to transfer of hegemony from the elite of one Cham river valley system to that of another. p. 253
There is mention of the concept of "Ancestors of prowess." p. 254 Although Chinese sources describe Champa,
As the source of the quick-growing 'floating rice' that the Chinese adopted in southern China,
Champa lacked the appropriate geography that so favoured some of its contemporaries. The chapter describes Champa's plundering by land and sea, even within Champa.
Next comes a look at Vietnam. This section mentions the Han Chinese presence, reinforced by refugees during the reign of Wang Mang.
Because of the high degree of male mobility in pursuit of game, Vietnamese society in the early Han era seemed, from the Chinese perspective, to have no stable family system. The male role in agriculture, or the lack thereof, and the apparent female control of cultivation, were difficult for Chinese administrators to accept. pp. 261-262
The Chinese encouraged private, rather than communal, ownership of land, had their soldiers farming to be self-supporting and influenced more permanent houses to be build both for the living and as ancestral shrines. The chapter looks at developments during Sui and T'ang times and the independence of Dai Viet in the 10th Century. An important trade link since at least Han times, the now independent area continued to play a trading role. Among interesting data on religious concepts,
In 1048, Ly Thai Tong (r. 1028-1054) revived a China-inspired cult of culture, in which the monarch was the highest officiant. As the symbolic source of fertility, the Vietnamese emperor led springtime rites in which he would plough the first furrows, and he also symbolically assisted in the gathering of rice at harvest. At the south gate of the Hon-lu capital, offerings were made to bring rain and to guarantee crops at the Esplanade of the Gods of the Soil and Harvest. p. 268
Chapter Five considers religion. This chapter begins with a listing of primary source material, including a statement of what is lacking.
In contrast with the rich literary sources for (northern) Vietnam, written in Chinese, we do not possess a single line of literature from ancient Cambodia, nor from Champa or the Philippines. For eastern Java there is a rich literature in old Javanese from the tenth century, and in Burma from the twelfth century, written in Pali, the sacred language of the Buddhist of the Theravada school. For western Malaysia, Sumatra and Thailand, the literary sources begin just before the end of the period under consideration. No literary sources are available for the remaining parts of Southeast Asia. p. 277
Such literary sources, records of observers outside the region (e.g. Sri Lankans and Chinese), epigraphy, archaeological remains and modern animist beliefs are the bases for the attempted reconstruction of early Southeast Asian religion.
The section of this chapter titled "The Earliest Times" begins with a consideration of Indianization. However, it discusses how the Indian religions blended with local concepts: e.g. burial mounds became Buddhist stupa, linga of the Cham territorial gods became linga of Shiva, divine mountains became the abodes of Shiva and Brahma, tree spirits acquired Buddhist aspects and local snake cults merged with Hindu snake worship.
There is reference to a variety of funeral practises in the region, to ancestor worship in Chinese influenced Vietnam and to the absence of evidence for human sacrifice in civilized areas of the region.
The next section of this chapter examines, "Religions of Indian Origin on the Mainland." It looks at the role of the brahmin, even in Buddhist courts, "In astrological and ritual functions." p. 287 It considers the cults of Shiva and Vishnu and then Buddhism.
Next comes a consideration of the islands. Here mention is made of Austronesian beliefs mingling with those from India and ceremonies, etc. that harmonize both.
Some typically Austronesian deities or supernatural powers are a crocodile with the name of Si Pamunguan and another aquatic monster called Tandang Luah, perhaps a river spirit, for luah = river...There is a crocodile by the name of Manalu, and there are different snakes (ulasarpa) and different fires (nala and apuy)...Some rivers were sacred...as were some mountains. p. 310
There follows some lengthy consideration of Indian influenced temple sites, some quite complex, in Southeast Asia. Next comes a look at the concepts of the divinity of kings and the religious synceticism of Southeast Asia. The author mentions the inexactitude of theories of royal divinity, if the word divine is understood in the monotheistic absolutist sense.
Third, even if kings were considered to some extent divine, they would have shared this 'divinity' with many other creatures, including some priests and cows, or even snakes and trees. p. 327
He also cautions against hasty syncretic interpretations of such things as Kertanagara (r. 1268-1292) being called Shiva-Buddha.
This is a unique occurrence...It is more likely that the king's memory was worshipped in a temple with both a Siva and a Buddha image.
He proceeds to mention of a temple with these images on two different floors, a sign of being in one building, but separated.
Next he introduces the arrival of Islam. He notes that the rise of Islam coincides with the decline of powerful Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms. He mentions the conversion of the king of Malacca, the spread of Islam to ports connected with Malacca, the legend of nine Muslim teachers to Java and the adaptation of Islam to the ways of the islands. He states that the arrival of Europeans may have fostered in some regions the growth of Islam, perceived as a powerful force to resist the intruders.
This is a tremendously fascinating read, highly recommended, especially to those less conscious of the vast scope of the region's geography, economy, culture, religion, history and pre-history. The single greatest deficiency, in my opinion, is the absence of a section on the literature of the Southeast Asians during this period. Mention is made of such works, especially in the last chapter. However, a separate and more comprehensive treatment both as primary historical sources and as literature would have enhanced this fine modern text. Solarguard Southeast Asia