Early Mapping of Southeast Asia. Thomas Suarez

Wang Kham he [KingMa Ku of Chiang Mail went to sleep [i.e., one overnight stay, or khrao] at Pa Sieo, 12,000 fathoms [i.e., the surveyor had recorded approximately 12,000 flicks of the wa-stick]. From Pa Sieo he went to Phræ, 12,000 fathoms [another 12,000 flicks of the wa-stick], and he stayed in Phræ for 12 days. On the fourth waning of the seventh moon he installed Phraya Chiang Lüak to rule Phræ. From Phræ, he went to sleep at Khrao Ton Hua, 5,000 fathoms [5,000 flicks of the wa-srick]. From Khrao Ton Hua, he came to sleep at the Nam Ta, 9,000 fathoms.⁶⁶

      Interpreting route lists was an art− as was the interpretation of itineraries and pilot guides in medieval Europe (it is no coincidence that the tide of a great Spanish navigational treatise, published in 1545, is Arte de Navigar, literally 'Art of Navigation; implying an acquired skill rather than a precise science). As with European and Arab pilot books, it is likely that even if a map was drawn to illustrate a journey, the guiding data would be the itinerary. The southern Thai map in figure 18 is an example of itinerary text illuminated with a map.

      Caroline Islanders memorized the relative distance between their islands in terms of travel time on the sea. Spanish missionaries recorded this data in the early eighteenth century and entered it on a map engraved for the Philosophical Transactions of 1721 (fig. 13). The Transactions explains that the numbers on that map placed in, and between, the islands are travel times as related by the islanders:

      The figure in the midst of every island, shows how many days' sail it is in circumference. The figure between each island, shows how many days are required to pass from one to the other,

      This local information was subsequently converted into European linear scales, such as leagues of 3 Italian miles on a map compiled by Father Cantova (fig. 20).

      Arab navigators also frequently used units of elapsed time rather than linear distance in their navigational texts; the zam, for example, equalled one watch at sea, or three hours.

      In the later seventeenth century, the French traveler La Loubère observed that the Thai have a linear measurement, "their Fathom, which equals the French Toise within an inch," This unit was used in the surveying of land, "and especially in measuring the Roads, or Channels, through which the King generally passes." Along the road from Ayuthaya to Lop Buri, which lies roughly 70 kilometers to the north, "every Mile is marked with a Post, on which they have writ the number of the Mile."

      The Traiphum

      Literally meaning 'three worlds', the Traiphum (figs. 21 & 22) is a Thai text and map which gives an account of the Creation from the Theravada Buddhist perspective, although the work is ultimately part of Southeast Asia's larger Hindu-Buddhist heritage. An all-encompassing cosmography, the Traiphum charts everything from the mechanics of the universe to the wanderings of Buddha, from earthly geography to relative states of desire. The Traiphum is a map of Existence itself, a cycle of genesis and apocalypse which charts the journey that an individual, or indeed any living creature, may, over many lifetimes, take. Our 'real' world is but one of thirty-one states of existence, in three different worlds, which beings inhabit according to their level of accumulated merit. Mount Sumeru is the central axis of the earth and of the sun, moon, and stars, and accounts for changes in the seasons. Various subjects from the Traiphum are still found in the murals which decorate temple walls throughout Thailand.

      The Traiphum is believed to have originated in the mid-fourteenth century in Sukhothai, Siam's capital before Ayuthaya. The text has been modified and expanded since then, and the earliest surviving fragment dates from the sixteenth or early seventeenth century. There was a renaissance in Traiphum-making after the Burmese pillaging of Ayuthaya in 1767, during the court's decade and a half sojourn in Thonburi before settling in Bangkok. After the centuries-old court was laid to ruins, the remaining court archives were brought to Thonburi, and the deteriorating documents copied. The first king of the new capital in Thonburi had the Traiphum text reconstructed, and both manuscripts illustrated here date from this transitional period during the latter part of the eighteenth century.

      A journey through the Traiphum illustrated in figure 21, from left to right, begins with sacred Buddhist sites in India, such as revered temples, the bo tree under which Buddha was born, his mother's town, and the bo tree under which he reached enlightenment.⁶⁷ The greatest concentration of sacred places is found in this section. Moving to the right, just before the mid-point of the map, we descend from the previous, more metaphysical realms, to 'tangible' places within the immediate sphere of Siam, although there is never a clear break between the empirical, the mythological, and the sacred.

      This central portion of the Traiphum identifies a number of towns in Lan Na and northern Thailand which are clearly recognizable today, including Chiang Mai and Sukhothai. Strong Lan Na influence is not surprising since Chiang Mai had been important in Siam's affairs for centuries, with close communication between north and south at this time as the two kingdoms set aside their animosities to join forces against Burma, their perennial nemesis. No doubt it was this close contact between Thonburi and Chiang Mai (whose court moved to a camp south of Lamphun in 1775) which resulted in this particular Traiphum's pronounced emphasis on northern features.

      Fig. 21 The Traiphum, manuscript, 1776. [National Library of Thailand]

      Continuing to the right, the mapping of actual towns continues into the territory of Siam, with Ayurhaya prominent (even though it then lay in ruins). Reaching Bangkok and the southern Thai peninsula, the nature of the map changes yet again, now marking the number of days' travel between towns. But the itinerary nature of this section soon fades. To the west (the bottom mainland portion), in Burma, two nagas (waters spirits, represented as serpents) appear in the Narai River, just north of Rangoon. They ask Buddha to leave his footprint upon the land, which would be a holy and fortuitous occurrence.

      Nearby, a monkey is perched at the edge of the mainland, overlooking a chain of little islands which runs along the bottom of the map and leads to a large island, which is Ceylon. We have now entered the realm of the Indian epic, the Ramayana, which tells how

      Rama rescues his wife from captivity on Ceylon by running along a 'bridge' linking it with the mainland; the monkey at the northern end of the bridge is Rama's knight.

      Buddha used the bridge as well, stepping from the mainland over Rama's Bridge to Ceylon after he had attained enlightenment. In doing so he left his footprint upon the summit of Adam's Peak, which is of course the imposing and precipitous mountain on the far right. There is a note referring to this most venerated of all Buddha footprints atop the mountain.

      'Rama's Bridge' is in fact a line of minuscule sand banks dotting the waters between the island and India. The Traiphum, however, depicts a massive chain stretching out to what would seem to be the southern part of the Malay Peninsula. This is probably simple license on the part of the artist, since scale and orientation are Fluid on the map, allowing us to journey from the Indian features on the far left to Malaya, Burma and Rama's Bridge. This image of Rama's Bridge and Ceylon might, however, be alternatively seen as evidence of European influence− for a long time Sumatra was identified as Ptolemy's island of Taprobana (Ceylon) on Western maps. If so, the stepping stones of Rama's Bridge then become the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with 'Lanka' placed in the position of Sumatra.

      The Traiphum's representation of Ceylon itself is clearly based on indigenous sources. The four great stupas of Anuradhapura are marked in the southwest of the island, as are a couple of points along the pilgrimage route to Adam's Peak; Europeans are unlikely to have bothered to map such features, even if they had known of them. The one conspicuous omission in the depiction of Ceylon is the inland city of Kandy. Although Kandy is an ancient city, it gained importance when it became the last (albeit brief) retreat of the Ceylonese kings after the Portuguese took control of the kingdom of Kotte (Colombo) in 1539. The absence of Kandy on the Traiphum in figure 21 could either have been a mistake in the copying process, or because the image was transcribed, without alteration, from a much older model.

      The smaller island to the right of Ceylon is identified as an isle of 'naked people', a characterization generally associated with the Nicobar islands. Though