The Sandalwood Trade

Sandalwood was a trade item of considerable value in antiquity. Chau Ju-Kua (Zhao Rugua) stated concerning yellow (or "white") sandalwood (Santalum album) in the 12th century that "in burning it surpasses all other incenses."

In China and India, and generally among Buddhists and Hindus, sandalwood was prized as an aromatic, for carving, and as a medicine. The wood has been an important material for sacred sculpture among Buddhists and continues to be an important component of incense throughout East and South Asia.


Yellow Sandalwood

Santalum album was the primary sandalwood used in the ancient and medieval trade and was known as yellow or white sandalwood. The species is native from eastern Java to eastern Indonesia and was particularly abundant, in former times, in the islands of Timor and Sumba.

Timor appears to have been the main source of sandalwood prior to European colonization. Pigafetta exaggerated when he said "nowhere else is white sandalwood found" speaking about the island of Timor. De Orta stated that yellow sandalwood grew in Timor "where it is in greatest quantity and called chandam and is known by that name in all the lands around Malacca."

There is some confusion over whether Santalum album is native to South India. Early in the 20th century, C.E.C. Fisher, after studying the distribution and historical diffusion of the species, suggested that sandalwood was introduced into India during the pre-Christian era, and that it had to be reintroduced periodically. Fisher noted that yellow sandalwood in South India grew almost exclusively around villages or abandoned village sites. In other words, the sandalwood trees did not appear to grow in the wild.

Early Europeans like Duarte Barbosa, Cesar Fedrici, Ralph Fitch and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, writing from the early to late 16th century, all agreed that Santalum album while in great demand in India, was generally shipped in from Timor. Barbosa, Fedrici and Rheede's Hortus Indicus Malabaricus all expressly suggest that yellow sandalwood did not grow in India.


Although yellow/white sandalwood is mentioned in both India and China in ancient times, the mention of Timor occurs only during the Sung Dynasty when it was called Ti-wu. Later in Ming times, Timor is known mostly as Ti-wen. This has brought up the question as to whether the ancient yellow sandalwood actually referred to some other wood like fragrant red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus). However, the general lack of any literary evidence suggesting a medieval replacement of the ancient product; the description of yellow sandalwood and its unique properties, and the hoary differentiation of different types of sandalwood support the common view that Santalum album was traded in antiquity.


Medieval trade routes

As mentioned previously, including in the last blog post, Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi) had established something of a monopoly in sandalwood during at least some period of the Sung Dynasty.

However, a number of countries are listed in Sung sources as entrepots, possibly secondary to Sanfotsi, including Fo-lo-an and Tan-tan, both apparently located somewhere on mainland Southeast Asia.

Timor itself according to Sung sources was a dependency of Toupo, so Sanfotsi seems to have mainly acted as an entrepot for countries beyond this region. In Yuan times, both Sanfotsi and Toupo apparently disappear. At that time, Mindanao may have taken over the trade as successor to Toupo if we accept such an identification for the Yuan Dynasty country known as Min-to-lang.

Mindanao, possibly the Maranao and Cotabato nations, Butuan and Sulu were perfectly positioned to trade with areas like Maluku for cloves, nutmeg and mace; and with Timor for sandalwood. In latter times, they appear to have been middlemen for these southern areas in the trade with the northern entrepot of Luzon. From Luzon, these products reached the rest of Asia. This also seems to be the case during the Sung Dynasty with Toupo transferring the southern aromatics to the Sanfotsi entrepot.

During Spanish times, Luzon continued to act as an important sandalwood trading post, but with Santalum album going extinct in Timor, Pacific sandalwood species, particularly from Fiji, came into play in the Manila marketplace.



Sandalwood, princesses and goddesses

Sandalwood has an interesting connection with two goddesses -- Kuan-yin and Tara -- the two deities thought by many scholars to have a common origin.

Both Kuan-yin and Tara are viewed as emanations, forms, or as the female aspects of the god (Bodhisattva) Avalokitesvara by Buddhists. Both goddesses are seen as protectors of seafarers against harm from the ocean. Both have strong Tantric links, and both are specifically connected with stories of their origin in Southeast Asia.

Tara, and to a lesser extent, Kuan-yin are often placed in the island of Potala in the "Southern Ocean." On this island is said to be a famed sandalwood forest. In Tibetan tradition, the goddess is particularly associated with this forest in the form "Tara of the Sandalwood Forest."

There was also a Sandalwood Forest located in or south of Shambhala in Tibetan Buddhist texts, so there may be some conflation or confusion between the locations of Potala and Shambhala.

In the medieval Sadhanamala and the 6th-7th century Astanga Samgraha, a Tantric adept known as Nagarjuna, possibly referring to the great Mahayana philosopher of the same name, is said to have brought Tara and the alchemical mineral mercury from across the sea into India. This Tara, or rather worship of Tara, is known as Mahacina-tara, "Tara from Mahacina."

While the location of Mahacina may have been confused and used differently at times, I have noted earlier in this blog that the evidence points to its primary and most common usage was to describe and area extending through and including Tibet and mainland Southeast Asia. One Tara myth found in Hindu Tantrism claims that the goddess arises from the Milky Ocean -- when that sea was churned by the Gods and Demons. This Milky Ocean was also viewed geographically as far to the east of India. In the Ramayana, when the Varanas search for Sita in the eastern regions they travel through the Milky Ocean and related areas like the Golden Isle.

Likewise, Kuan-yin in her early form is known as Kuan-yin-Nan-hai or "Kuan-yin of the South Seas," a reference to the region of Southeast Asia.

There is even a story that Kuan-yin originated from an actual Buddhist princess that lived in a kingdom south of China called Hsing Lin. The text containing this story dates to the mid-12th century and is derived from materials about 150 years older. The story, however, is said in the text to take place during the time of the 7th century BCE monk Tao-hsüan.

The southern kingdom, according to this account, was said to stretch from India in the West to Fo-ts'i (佛齊)in the East. It was at Fo-ts'i that the princess known as Miao Shan, and also as "South Seas Kuan-yin" and "Kuan-yin with the Horse Head" was born.

The land known as Fo-ts'i 佛齊 may be a shortened reference to what later is known as San-fo-ts'i or 三佛齊.

Sanfotsi, as noted, was an important country in the sandalwood trade. One of the empire's dependencies known as Fo-lo-an was also described as a sandalwood entrepot. Now the Miao Shan story states that the princess became a staunch Buddhist, but had a falling out with her father, the king. She was said to have taken refuge at a Buddhist monastery, which in the Chinese story is located in China.

However, there is some evidence that this location may have been in Fo-lo-an, thus explaining the connection with the Southern Seas (Nan-hai).

According to Chau Ju-Kua, the Sanfotsi princes made a journey to offer incense to a "Holy Buddha" in Fo-lo-an during the Full Moon of the 6th month. The Ming encyclopedia known as the San-tsai Tu-hui describes this "Buddha" instead as two copper goddesses whose birthday was celebrated again on the 15th day of the 6th moon. This same day of the 6th month was said by Chau Ju-kua to be a good day for return voyages to China from places like Fo-lo-an and Poni, i.e., the summer monsoonal winds blew ships toward the north. The goddesses are mentioned as protecting Fo-lo-an from threats, i.e., pirates, that come from the sea.

Now in some locations of China, Kuan-yin's festival was held on the 19th day of the 6th month, so quite close to the date mentioned by Chau Ju-kua and the San-tsai Tu-hui. Also, in some locations of Tibet, like Kham, during the summer retreat known as Yarney that begins on the 15th day of the 6th month, people worship and thank Tara by making the Four Mandala Offering. According to Nagarjuna, "in the sixth month one consorts with the divine women of the gods."


Tara images

The text of the San-tsai Tu-hui also contains two engravings that are said to resemble the form of "Kuan-yin with the Horse's Head." The images have three heads with the horse head placed on a triple crown. De Groot also noted that the goddess figures matched that of Mat-tsu-po, a form of Miao Shan.

Chau Ju-Kua mentions two Buddhas that came flying in to Fo-lo-an, one with four arms and one with six arms. The form of Kuan-yin addressed here is known in two principal forms, four-armed and six-armed, so we can say with some certainity that these goddesses of Fo-lo-an were representations of Kuan-yin/Tara.

Fo-lo-an is mentioned as belonging to the Western Ship Route along with Annam and Cambodia. This would seem to indicate the Upper Coast of Indochina, a noted source of cinnabar and mercury, but other notices may suggest a location further down the coast possibly in modern day Malaysia or Thailand.

If we take the story of the princess as historical, then it would appear that a Fo-ts'i, i.e., Sanfotsi princess went to Fo-lo-an to practice Buddhism in a monastery. The latter country was a sandalwood trading partner with Fo-ts'i. Latter on after the death of the princess, Sanfotsi princes continued to come to Fo-lo-an during the summer (6th moon) to offer incense to icons of the ancient, probably related princess.

Tibetans also have a story of a princess known as Yeshe Dawa who embraces Buddhism and later becomes the goddess Tara. In connection with the sandalwood trade, according to a Buddhist story that explains Tara's role as sea goddess, a ship from the Isle of Jewels, loaded with a cargo of jewels, and one from the Isle of White Sandalwood, loaded with white sandalwood, were saved by Tara after a Buddhist layperson on board one of the ships prayed to the goddess. Note that the goddesses of Fo-lo-an also had a protective function against sea threats.

Thus, it can be suggested that at one time during the sandalwood trade when San-fo-ts'i and Fo-lo-an enjoyed a close relationship, a princess estranged from her father, the king, left to practice Buddhism on Fo-lo-an, somewhere on mainland Southeast Asia. In the story, she reconciles with her father later on, thus, explaining possibly the pilgrimage of the Sanfotsi princes to Fo-lo-an to offer incense to the images of the goddess. From Fo-lo-an, i.e., Mahacina, the goddess travels East and West as Tara and Kuan-yin. Nagarjuna is said to be the one that carries this form of worship to India. This goddess becomes closely associated with the Sandalwood Forest, an allusion to the ancient sandalwood trade.


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Beyer, Stephan. The cult of Tārā: magic and ritual in Tibet. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of California Pr, 1978.

Cordier, Henri, Gustaaf Schlegel, Edouard Chavannes, Paul Pelliot, J. J. L. Duyvendak, and Paul Demiéville. Tʻung pao. Tʻoung pao. International journal of Chinese studies. Leiden: E.J. Brill [etc.], 1890, 402-6.

Donkin, R. A. Between East and West : the Moluccas and the Traffic in Spices Up to the Arrival of Europeans. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, 248. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 2003, 13-18, 160-2.

__. Dragon's Brain Perfume: An Historical Geography of Camphor. Brill's Indological library, v. 14. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, 65-6.

Willson, Martin. In praise of Tārā: songs to the saviouress ; source texts from India and Tibet on Buddhism's great goddess. Women's studies. Boston, Mass: Wisdom Publ, 1996, 181-2.

Zhao, Rukuo, Friedrich Hirth, and William Woodville Rockhill. Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-Fanchï. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp, 1966.

Nan'yo and the Search for the Japanese Homeland

Yanagita Kunio, known as the "founder of Japanese folklore studies" and the "father of Japanese ethnography," popularized the idea that the ancestors of the Japanese migrated from the South Seas to Okinawa and then to Japan using the Kuroshio Current.

Reportedly he was inspired when he found a palm nut washed ashore by the Kuroshio while walking on Iragomisaki beach in Aichi Prefecture.

Studying the movement of cowrie shells from the South northward, he linked the shell trade with rice cultivation in his books Takaragai no Koto (The Cowrie) and Kaijo no michi (Ocean Road).

The South Seas were divided into two parts, Uchi Nan'yo (Inner South Seas) consisting mainly of Micronesia, and Soto Nan'yo (Outer South Seas) referring to Southeast Asia and especially the Philippines and Indonesia. Interestingly, the Southeast Asian countries were seen as an expansion of the Pacific island ones, rather than vice a versa.

Cultural anthropologist Shinji Yamashita wrote concerning Japanese conquests in the 20th century that "colonization of the Nan'yo differed from European colonization in that it entailed the return of the ancestors to their homeland" in Japanese minds of that period.

Earlier in this blog, I have written of how the Japanese prized aged earthenware jars from Southeast Asia, and particularly Luzon, since about Sung Dynasty times. This near obsession with old, earthenware jars may stem from ancient beliefs in ancestral homelands like Takamagahara and Tokoyonokuni overseas to the South in Japanese legendary history. It was from the earth of Takamagahara that earthenware, handmade (ta-kujiri) "Heavenly Jars" were fashioned and sacrificed by the first Emperor Jimmu.

The hidden Christians of Japan came to regard Luzon (Roson) in the Philippines as a sacred land apparently conflating Christian and Shinto beliefs after the government crackdown on foreign missionaries. The fabled Southeast Asian Namban jar trade dissipated probably due to the response of Christian colonial governments in Southeast Asia.

When Japan took over Taiwan in the latter part of the 1800s, interest in Nan'yo began to blossom anew. Writers like Suzuki Tsunenori and Shiga Shigetaka ventured into the Pacific islands and their journals captured the public imagination. The new interest in the Pacific and Southeast Asia went against the grain of the Meiji Era idea of datsua nyuo or disassociation with Asia in favor of Westernization.

One researcher rebelling against these new ideas was Kimura Takatora who fiercely rejected any association with South Sea Islanders, Koreans, Chinese, etc., but instead argued that the Japanese were a "Graeco-Latin" race whose homeland Takamagahara was in Armenia.

However, these ideas did not catch on much not only because of the difficulty in distance and culture, but in the near complete lack of evidence mustered by proponents of a Japanese Caucasian race theory.

In comparison, the Nan'yo theory was logical and quite a bit of convincing evidence could be mustered up to support the idea. Nan'yo was more harmonious with the descriptions given in Japanese traditional origin texts. And the cultural milieu, especially with reference to rice culture was quite similar in a number of ways.

Rice was a key element in beliefs found in Japan and Okinawa concerning the 'divine visitor' as seen in the folklore of the Marebito and "Miroku's boat" (Maitreya's boat).

Especially in coastal regions of eastern Japan, special dances and songs were performed to drive away evil and welcome the cult-like cargo of Miroku's boat that was prophesied to bring enough rice to initiate the millenarian Miroku no yo "Age of Miroku." These beliefs appear linked with celebrations of the divine ancestors who first brought rice agriculture to Japanese shores from the South.

Just before and during the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese government began a huge campaign aimed at promoting Southeast Asia as the Japanese ancestral homeland. Attention was also focused on Micronesia, and the sentiments of Takano Rokuro, a Ministry of Welfare bureau chief, 'We are Nan'yojin (South Sea Islanders)," carried much weight among nationalists.

More than 7,000 books and articles were published on the subject of a Southeast Asian homeland in 1942 alone, and between 1942 and 1943 a series of government sponsored lectures brought the new ideas directly to the Japanese public.

Japanese capitalists were enthusiastic about promoting such ideology. Nan'yo Boeki (South Seas Trading Company) which dated back to early trade with the Spanish colony in the Philippines, and Nan'yo Kohatsu (South Seas Development Company) founded in 1921 were deeply involved in Japanese imperialistic ventures.

In 1943, under the guidance of Masao Oka, the Institute of Ethnology was opened dedicated to studying the cultures of Southeast Asia. Important researchers were sent into the field, for example, Tadao Kano became head of museums in the Philippines were he played an important role in saving historical artifacts from destruction during the war.

Reading the works of Yanagita Kunio and some of his followers, it is not difficult to believe that at least some Japanese did in fact believe that the expansion and development of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," was nothing less than the liberation of the original Japanese homeland.

Interestingly, the formation of the first Kamikaze Group was at East Mabalacat Airfield, between Mt. Arayat and Mt. Pinatubo. "Kamikaze" or "shin-pu" both represented by the same characters refer to the "Divine Wind," the typhoons that saved Japan from Mongol invasions. The Kamikaze storms helped develop the idea of Japan as Shinkoku "Divine Land," and it might be taken that the Kamikaze pilots of World War II believed they were also defending another divine land in addition to Japan -- the Nan'yo homeland of the South.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Clarke, Peter Bernard. Japanese New Religions, Routledge, 2000, p. 134.

Nakasone, Ronald Y. Okinawan Diaspora, University of Hawaii Press, 2002, 48-50, 57-60.

Oguma, Eji and David Askew. A genealogy of 'Japanese' self-images, Trans Pacific Press, 2002.

Yamashita, Shinji, Joseph Bosco and Jeremy Seymour Eades. The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia , Berghahn Books, 2004. See especially "Southeast Asia as Japan's Homeland" by Yamashita starting on pg. 104.