Early Mapping of Southeast Asia. Thomas Suarez

Southeast Asian terrain, is discussed because the exploration and mapping of its islands was closely linked with that of the Philippines. Taiwan, though usually grouped with China rather than Southeast Asia, is touched on because of its role in Southeast Asia's history, being pivotally positioned between the Philippines and China. Finally, Sri Lanka will be included through the sixteenth century because of its long history of confusion with Sumatra; it is not possible to understand the early mapping of one without the other. Having a good modern atlas or map of Southeast Asia handy is recommended in order to follow the text more easily. The index also serves as a glossary for quick reference to the identity of peoples and places.

      I have tried to present my subject in a way that will be useful to a wide audience− anyone who would like to explore this most inspired of earth's creations through the looking-glass of the early map. But I would like to note two specific flaws in my writing. Because I attempt to give a broad, generally continuous overview to a story which necessarily combines various epochs, cultures, disciplines, and histories, many themes have become strewn over otherwise unrelated pages. For example, the retracing of the peregrinations of such primary sources as Marco Polo and Antonio Pigafetta is scattered over several maps, according to the cartography of each. Secondly, for this book, the history of the mapping of Southeast Asia has meant for the most part the European mapping of the region, which in turn bestows an exaggerated role- at least through the mid-eighteenth century-to Europe's presence there. I accept these deficiencies and hope the reader will understand the book in this perspective.

      Note: Wherever applicable, quotations have been changed to modern English spellings, except for place names, which when directly quoted have been left in their original form.

      Fig 3 Terra java, from the Vallard atlas, 1547; south is up. [Courtesy of the Henry E. Huntington Library]

      Part I

      Southeast Asia

      Chapter 1

      The Land and Peoples

       of Southeast Asia

      The vast world of islands, peninsulas, rivers, and mountains which is Southeast Asia was begot from the powerful union of the earth's Indian and Pacific Ocean plates. Though the term 'Southeast Asia' usually conjures up images of lush jungles and fertile rice lands, the region varies from the rolling pastoral landscape of northwest Vietnam, to Burma's dry plains, to the lower Himalayas and the snow-covered peaks of Irian Jaya. From the Himalayas sprouts a chain of mountains which forms the spine of continental Southeast Asia and which pierces the southwest Pacific to fashion the many islands of Austronesia. This immense natural threshold between the Indian and Pacific Oceans contributed to the individuality of the Southeast Asian peoples, and also to the rise of India and China as two vastly different and independent civilizations. Thus a parallel can be drawn between land and people− Southeast Asia as a geographic region is brimming with grand diversity, and it has spawned cultures which, though different in their particulars, nevertheless share many fundamental traits. Southeast Asia's geography and topography, and its position relative to India and China, have been fundamental forces in the birth and history of its many civilizations.

      Rivers, alternating with mountains or forests, are a primary motif in Southeast Asian geography and in Southeast Asian life. The Sanskrit and Pali words for 'continent' are dvipa and dipa respectively, which consists of dvi = two, and apa = water, thus forming the mental image of a landmass as something between two waters, whether seas or rivers.¹ One of the native Vietnamese terms for their country is Non nuóc, meaning 'mountain and water.'² Because the shapes and courses of rivers, mountains and islands determined the movement of Southeast Asia's people, a map of daily human life in the Southeast Asian mainland and Indonesian islands can be visualized as endless 'vertical' and 'horizontal' lines. For the peninsular and inland people, life was shared with rivers and their generally north-south movement, while the trans-island or coastal travel of the people of insular Southeast Asia was largely east-west. Whereas the islands have multiple river systems, the mainland is dependent upon major river arteries and their fertile plains. The ancient kingdoms of Pagan, Angkor, and Vietnam were all rooted in fertile rice plains (Irrawaddy River plain, Tônle Sap, and Red River basin, respectively). River systems were also, as we shall see, the arteries of political power, since the nature of Southeast Asia's topography made direct political control over distant populations difficult.

      Differences in agriculture have also made their mark upon the map. Some of these differences result from adaptation to environment, such as the farming techniques which hill peoples employ to survive in the mountains of Laos, Thailand, and Burma. Others are largely cultural, producing topographical contrast within the same environment. The Vietnamese and Cambodian sides of the Mekong Delta are an example of this; the eastern side is almost entirely devoted to rice paddies producing two crops a year, while the western side is more varied and wild.

      Origins and Influences

      The dates, locations, and circumstances of the advent of various skills among the peoples of Southeast Asia have long been debated. It is generally agreed that the domestication of animals, rice cultivation, and pottery making were developed indigenously, and that early Southeast Asian islanders were advanced ship builders and navigators. Although Southeast Asian peoples possessed the ingredients for sophisticated civilizations from early times, urbanized societies did not become the Southeast Asian style until relatively recently.

      The Bronze Age in Southeast Asia has been a contentious topic.³ Bronze metallurgy unearthed in the northeast of Thailand is thought to be among humankind's earliest, and some scholars propose that the earliest bronze working in the world occurred in Southeast Asia. Other researchers trace the beginnings of Southeast Asian metallurgy to the southward expansion of rice cultivation in the Yangtze Valley; the bronzework then was influenced by the region's growing importance in the trading networks of China, India, and the Roman Empire. Southeast Asian Civilization, as it so invariably did with all external influences, modified metallurgical technology to its own requirements.

      These early mysteries aside, external influence in Southeast Asia came mostly by sea travelers via the coastal regions, because the eastern Himalayas, which form Southeast Asia's northern frontier, discouraged migration from the north and west. The geography of Southeast Asia also worked against any great consolidation of kingdoms or regions because of the ruggedness of its mountains, rivers, valleys, and rapids, and the vast expanse of ocean over which the various archipelagoes are scattered.

      The geography of Southeast Asia insulated the evolving cultures of India and China from each other; at the same time, to varying degrees the civilizations of Southeast Asia borrowed from both, adapting and modifying Indian and Chinese ideas to suit their needs. Chinese influence was strongest in Vietnam, but did not extend to southern Indochina until the eighteenth century. Southern Indochina, comprising Champa and Cambodia, was culturally more similar to the rest of Southeast Asia.

      The oft-discussed 'Indianization' of Southeast Asia, which, began as early as the first century A.D. was never a blind embracing of Indian values, but rather the evolution of Southeast Asian culture drawing from the experience and inspiration of Indian civilization. So interwoven were local and Indian beliefs that sociologists have often been at odds over whether a given tradition or god was indigenous, Indian or indigenous but with an Indian name or veneer. Outlying regions, most notably the Philippines, experienced little or no influence from India because of their sheer geographic distance.

      Nor was Chinese culture embraced for its own sake; even the traditionally strong influence of China on Vietnam was more limited among common people than royal institutions. For example, while the Vietnamese people adopted the use of chopsticks from China and abandoned elevated houses, raised on posts, Vietnamese music borrowed the Chinese scale structure only within the court's doors. Indeed, the failure of the early elite of the Red River Delta to create a viable state was due in part to their reluctance to incorporate indigenous traditions