The Belitung shipwreck and the maritime silk road

15th March 2017

Harlem under snow, as I looked east, the morning after. 

The morning sun lit up the the maze of concrete that is Manhattan.

Down street-side, and Marion Sims seemed to be disapproving of the slushy mess, as we lurched on in the stop-go traffic besides Central Park.

                                                     









We were headed towards the Belitung shipwreck exhibition at the Asia Society.  (Left to our own devices, we would have stayed at home, played with the dog and had chai, but thanks to my dear sis in law we learnt some history, geography, foreign trade and art!)

Where on earth is Belitung and why is the shipwreck important?

Belitung is an Indonesian island, east of Sumatra, not very large, and colonised by the Dutch at some point, with beautiful beaches and coral reefs.  In the 9th century, much before Vasco Da Gama an Arabian  Dhow returning from China to Africa sank in these waters.

The wreck was only discovered in 1998, and the recovery of the cargo resulted in one of the largest collection of Tang dynasty treasures.  It also was clear proof of a maritime trade route - a rival to the inland Silk Route - between China under the Tang dynasty and West Asia, where the Abbasid Caliphate was in power.

More interestingly, the salvage and restoration was undertaken by a private agency called Seabed Explorations, in association with the Indonesian Government, and the western archeological world has sniffed at what they called a "treasure hunter" approach to the wreck and its cargo.  So much so that  the restored artefacts - which included more than 70,000 pieces of Chinese ceramic ware - were forbidden from being exhibited in the US until recently!

If I have understood it right, in 2005, a significant portion of the restored objects were sold for US$32 million to the Govt of Singapore via a holding company, who now loans them for exhibitions across the world.  I just found it amusing that the global flag bearer of capitalism objected to this private enterprise in restoration.

The cargo

The Belitung wreck had cargo from several kilns across China, each of which had their
characteristic look, glaze and designs. The ship was therefore an aggregator, much like the Amazons
of today.

A well preserved ewer, which is said to be based on the metalware of west Asia

Changsha wares were painted with iron and copper oxide based pigments of brown, green and red.  They were hand painted and quite varied, with themes usually being from the natural world.

Characteristic green pigments of the Changsha ware

These large packing jars had an inscription with a year, which has helped date the entire lot of ceramic ware to 826 AD.

Another Changsha kiln ewer - this one with brown pigment.

A variety of bowls from the Changsha kilns, with motifs that had Buddhist significance

With cloud like formations in the painting.

The Gongxian kilns on the other hand specialised on the cobalt blue and white ceramics.  Painting with blue cobalt is believed to have started with the painters in Basra and then was a specialty of Iran.    In what is reminiscent of today's Made in China label, it seems that the potters of Gongxian took the Iranian method of painting with cobalt onto their own ceramics.

These are the earliest Chinese blue and white pottery known

The Yue Kilns to the east of China specialised in a green glaze with subtle floral designs

The Xing Kilns in Hebei province in northern China produced the fines white ceramics, and the three hundred odd white ceramics on the Belitung shipwreck were probably the most expensive of the ceramics.  The exhibition write ups indicated that the wealthy in the Abbasid caliphate highly valued these white wares.

One of the white ware pieces

Besides these ceramics, the shipwreck also contained some gold and silver objects and mirrors.

It was a gem of an exhibition, and one of those things that you get to see because you happen to be in the right place at the right time, and also one that I was more amazed by upon my return and when I read further about it.

As we left, the icing on the cake was Google cardboard VR headsets that gave you a sense of how it looked under the sea!

More on the exhibition here.

It was back on the streets, with graffiti and slush.