Southeast Asian Maritime Trade
Who travelled on them? Trade ideas and religion Singapura’s exports and the evidence
Southeast Asia Trade Routes
Who travelled on these trade routes?
Pilgrims
Traders from different kingdoms of different races
Diplomats and ambassadors
What was exchanged?
• Trade, ideas and religion
Kerala, India
• Ayutthaya (1351-1767)• Myanmar’s Bagan temples (1044-1287)• Cambodia’s Angkor temples (800-1300)• Javanese Borobudur (early 9C) and many
more places in Southeast Asia.
Singapura’s exports
Hornbill Casques
Tin which they mixed with copper to produce bronze
Laka wood for incense
• Batik making/ cloth making
Salt and rice-wine making
Bali: Collecting seawater using a teku (dipper made from palm leaves) which is poured into pans which is then dried.
Rice wine making
Rice is washed for an hour, steamed and then spread in wide-mouthed Chinese jars for 1 or 2 days to make rice wine.
Excavation evidence
Mercury Jars which are broken and some intact but they are dicarded.
Old Parliament House
Decorated pottery of cups, kendis, jars and burners made from local clay
Smelted Iron
• Chinese coins were melted for their copper and used to make small items like fishing hooks and and small statues.
• Small fragments of gold were found in excavations at Fort Canning and Parliament House. This suggests that gold-smith work was done in Singapura.
Singapore climate and perishables
• Many of Singapore’s exports were made up of perishables. They spoil and decay easily because of climate and soil
• Corrosive soil: Items like iron blades, axes and padlocks have been found which suggest that Singapore imported iron and worked on iron items
Excavations and evidence from the Bakau Wreck
Evidence from Bakau shipwreck
• Mixed cargo of Thai, Veitnamese and Chinese ceramics (Longquan green celadons and white Qingbai wares)
Fine Paste kendi Chinese Longquan stem cup Thai Sawankhalok jar
• Thai Sukhothai turtle kendi
The Bakau was probably headed to Tuban in Java where the ceramics would have been exchanged for spices and other natural products for the direct voyage back to China. The Maritime Experential Museum and Aquarium at Sentosa has a display of the Bakauwreck and a mode lof the ship based on information found from the