MALAY ARCHIPELAGO - KUNLUN

 RESOURCE : SUNGAI BATU 788 BC: THE GREAT KINGDOM OF KEDAH TUA

Kunlun is the name given by the Chinese for those sailors and traders that came from South East Asia and Malay Archipelago particularly. Most of records pertaining Kunlun were obtained during Tang Dynasty (618 - 906 AD) and pre and post of Tang era . Kunlun have craft their name in history as great sailor. Their ships were bigger than others in Guangzhou port. And they gained special attention from port authorithy and even the China Palace appointed the Malay - Kunlun as port agent to take charge of the ships that came from Kunlun region, which is Southeast Asia.

However , it was very difficult to point out the exact region and ethnic the Kunlun people belongs to due to too many description given in the account of Chinese official and explorer.

Anyway, in this posting, we will bring the findings and establish a logical deduction based on four papers by the researchers and scholars. Therefore we will bring the most similar points brought by those researchers.

Kunlun people was characterised with wavy hair and dark skin. During Srivijaya era, they were the people that frequently mentioned in Chinese records in regards of their maritime expert about vessel, skills and navigation. There were sculptures that resembling them kept by museum.

Despite their wide dispersity in Southeast Asia according to China records, most researchers agrees that the Malay region including southern Thailand, the east shore of Sumatera and Malay Peninsula that facing Kalah Bar Sea (Straits of Malacca) were their native place. In one record says that a country by the name Chitu was a place that indicate the people of Kunlun. Synonimously, "Chih Tu" was ancient kingdom in Kelantan. In another record says, that the Persian frequently travel to Kunlun to find gold. The researcher wrotes, Kunlun was a place in Malay Peninsula. Malay Peninsular and neighbouring island was gold rich area country.

Among other places that indicates the presence of Kunlun were Lankasuka, Gantang, Champa, Pan-pan, Watubela and Ceram ( Batubelah ? and Jeram ?)

Kunlun people have the ability to dive and stay under the water for longer than normal people. In fact, we still can find these attributes at those tribes who lives at the shore of East Sumatera and Sabah too. Kunluns were good sailor and shipbuilder. "Kunlun Bo" was a term used to refer to vessel built by Kunlun or belong to Kunlun or sailed by Kunlun or the cargo and goods from Kunlun territory.

To avoid confusion, some China sources wrote about Kunlun slaves. These were actually referred to black skin people. They were the east coast African people brought to China by the Arabs. In some China account, Kunlun simply referred to non-Chinese people who are darker than Chinese Han. In this context, we are not discussing about kunlun slave since they came from different region and function.

I-Tsing (635-713 AD) the Buddhist Monk who lives during Tang Dynasty wrotes in "A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago", the Kunlun people are described as having "wavy hair and dark skin".

The "Kunlun Kingdom" that is engraved in the silver case could well refer to Srivijaya. (see pics)

While recounting his pilgrimage to India in 671 AD, I-Tsing claims to have stayed at Srivijaya for six months. He described it as a well-established kingdom and a renowned centre of Buddhist learning. I-Tsing strongly voiced his opinion that it was necessary to study Buddhist doctrines and Sanskrit whilst staying in Srivijaya.

Then he claimed that he was on board of Kunlun ship travel along the Malacca Straits from Palembang, in Sumatera, stop by at Kalah, Kedah Tua and continue the voyage to port in India before reach Nalanda, the Buddhist learning institute.

Prior to I-Tsing, another Chinese Buddhist monk, Fa Xian who visited India some time in the early fifth century and returned from India to China via the Malacca Strait, was able to obtain direct passage from Sumatra to Guangzhou.

Kunlun was referred to people or region. In other hand, Kunlun Bo referred to ship that built or sailed by Kunlun people. Also mean ship that belong to Kunlun people.

There were many records of Kunlun from Chinese official and explorer. We can't list down all the names and details which make this entry long-winded.

We would like to bring a simple analogy. In present day, Iban people are one of the ethnic lives in Sarawak. But when we look at the people who works on oil platform, exploration rig, barge in Sarawak water, mostly they are Iban people, even though there are many other ethnic in Sarawak.They are the dominant workforce in O&G industry of Sarawak.

Therefore, we can speculate that among the Malays in Peninsula and Sumatera during Srivijaya time, the so-called Kunlun ethnic were dominant in seafaring and maritime.

Their attribute were wavy hair, dark skin, maritime, scattered around Malay Archipelago, wearing sarong that flip up to the waist.

We will discuss more in next posting the roles of Kunlun maritime expertise in Srivijaya Kingdom and how they facilitating the trades between west and east.

Sources:-

1. Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese. Kang Heejung. Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. 2015.

2. Chinese Muslims and the Conversion of the Nusantara to Islam. Alexander David Robert Wain. St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. 2015.

3. Sino-Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century (Sino - Malay Interaction in the First Millennium AD).

4. Derek Heng. Northern Arizona University. January 2009

5. The Magical Kunlun and “Devil Slaves”: Chinese Perceptions of Dark-skinned People and Africa before 1500.

6. Julie Wilensky. Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.

Copy and paste: 2 November 2020 / 17 Rabiulawal 1442H: 9.18 pm