Kingdom on the Beach Ridges: A Landscape Archaeology of Tambralinga in Peninsular Siam

Located on the east coast of peninsular Siam, an isthmian tract between the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, Tambralinga had the cosmopolitan openness associated with islands to trade and cultural influences. It was involved in maritime exchange since the late centuries b.c. , and its heartland had the highest densities of bronze drums, early Visnu images, lingas, Hindu shrines, and stone inscriptions in peninsular Siam. During its peak in the early centuries of the second millennium a.d. , according to historical documents, it sent a series of envoys to China and sent an army across the ocean to occupy the northern part of Sri Lanka. However, its early development and landscape have been less studied. This article explores the relationships between land and life in Tambralinga’s heartland, today’s Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, during the fifth to thirteenth centuries a.d. As a pioneering work on this topic in peninsular Siam, this article discusses the distributions of late prehistoric sites and early Hindu shrines in relation to geography using data from GIS-based studies, archaeological surveys and excavations, and ethnographic interviews. The results demonstrate that the landscape of Tambralinga was vital to its development. Its heartland opened out to the South China Sea, where an intensive maritime trade took place, and it had mountains in its backyard that were the source of forest products and tin, valued highly by foreign merchants. The floodplain between the shores and the mountains produced rice and cattle for the population of the kingdom. Tambralinga had beach ridges, running in the north–south direction, as the core of its landscape, which facilitated communications among clusters of communities. Rivers and walking trails provided passageways between various ecological zones and connected the kingdom to the west coast of the isthmus as well

Chinese Glass Paintings in Bangkok Monasteries

Reverse glass paintings, a form of Chinese export art, were extensively traded in the nineteenth century. Several examples are on display in prominent Thai Buddhist monasteries in Bangkok. King Nangklao of Siam, Rama III, encouraged Sino-Siamese trade that brought Chinese objects and images to nineteenth-century Siam. The ideals of accretion and abundance characteristic of Thai Buddhism and the sinophilia of Rama III facilitated the construction of “Chinese-style” Thai temples. Glass paintings with scenes of the Pearl River Delta, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, auspicious objects, and bird-and-flower compositions were installed in temples and inspired new directions in Thai mural painting

Archaeology And Cultural Geography Of Tambralinga In Peninsular Siam

This dissertation has three main research questions. First, how did the Tambralinga Kingdom develop? Second, what was the significance of this kingdom in maritime Southeast Asia? And, third, what was the kingdom's cultural geography? To answer these questions, the author reviewed the previous scholarly work on the topics and conducted a series of archaeological surveys and excavations, ethnographic interviews, and studies of historical records, such as stone inscriptions and old chronicles. In terms of its development, Tambralinga, located in Peninsular Siam between the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, had the openness of an island to trade and cultural influences. It originally emerged as a trade station in the Trans-Asiatic Trade Network in the early centuries CE and became a powerful kingdom with its peak in the 13th century. Its heartland was situated on the coastal lands of Nakhon Province, Southern Thailand. The late prehistoric fishing-trading communities on this coast were active in the exchange network in the South China Sea, suggested by the fact that this area had the highest density of Bronze Drums in the Malay Peninsula in the late centuries BCE. By at least the 5th century CE, Tambralinga seems to have developed into a state-level polity with Visnu images, lingas, and possible stone inscriptions, all of which point to the existence of Hindu shrines. These may have been rather small and made in part of perishable materials. Its heartland has the highest density of the earliest Visnu images of Southeast Asia, called "the conch on the hip group" dated to c. the 5th century CE and reflected the advanced socio-political development in the area. Tambralinga would seem to have been served as a center of innovation of these Visnu images in maritime Southeast Asia. The heartland also has the highest density of stone inscriptions and Hindu shrines in the isthmian tract in the period between the 5th and 11th century CE, the period called "the Early Tambralinga Period" in the dissertation. The locations of the shrines suggest the distribution of communities and communication routes along the coast of Nakhon. Five clusters of shrines are identified in this work. The center of the early Tambralinga Kingdom was likely situated in the area between the Tha Khwai, Tha Chieo, and Tha Thon Rivers. In the late 8th century, Tambralinga was associated with Srivijaya, an entity that could also be viewed as a league of trading polities, which focused on trade and commercial collaboration, rather than agonistic engagement. The peak of the Tambralinga Kingdom seems to be in the 13th century. A large number of Chinese ceramics dated to the 13th to 14th centuries were discovered by the author in the excavations in 2009 at Nakhon City, the capital of the Tambralinga Kingdom in this period. In terms of cultural geography, the heartland of Tambralinga had beach ridges running in the north-south direction as the core of its landscape. This strip of the coastal land offered easy travel and exchange. Compared to a house, Tambralinga had its gate opened up to the South China Sea and had the mountain in its backyard. The mountains were important to the kingdom's trade and development as it was the source of exotic goods, such as forest products and tin, highly valued by foreign merchants. Situated between the shores and the mountains was the flood plain that produced rice and cattle for the population in the kingdom. Rivers and walking trails provided passageways between ecological zones in the kingdom. They also connected the kingdom to the west coast of the isthmus

Buddhism and Hinduism in Champa "Amaravati" through the 9th - 13th century: Study of the Đông Dương site and Phong Lê site in central Vietnam

13301甲第5100号博士（学術）金沢大学博士論文本文Full 掲載予定あ

Ceylon and South-east Asia : political religious and cultural relations from A.D. c. 1000 to c. 1500.

Relations between Ceylon and the countries of South-east Asia go far back in history. Centrally situated in the Indian Ocean, Ceylon commands the entrance to the Bay of Bengal, and due to the extensive sea-borne trade between the east and the west became an important entrepot between the two. Ceylon first came into contact with South-east Asia as a result of the maritime trade involving South-east Asian countries on the sea route between China and the west. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. commercial activities paved the way for political contacts between Ceylon and South-east Asia. The relations of Vijayabahu I and Parakramabahu I of Ceylon with South-east Asia may be understood better in the light of the background of commercial activities in the Indian Ocean. The desire of the Pagan dynasty of Burma to weaken the Cola influence on commerce in the Malay Peninsula resulted in friendship between Vijayabahu I of Ceylon and Anawrahta of Burma. The maritime trade, on the other hand, was the main cause of Parakramabahu's invasion of Burma