Clay, Myths and uses of (Glossary)

Clay -- composed of fine, hydrated minerals that are cohesive in nature -- plays an important role in myths and traditional healing systems around the world.

Often the first humans are said to have been formed with clay. The Sumerians had such myths, as did the Aztecs, the Dyaks of Borneo and many other peoples. The clay most often used is red or reddish-brown, the color of which in many myths is attributed to tempering with divine blood (see Oppenheimer, 366-7).

Interestingly, modern science suggests that life, not just humans, may have formed in early volcanic clay. Researchers found that methanol — naturally produced when volcanic carbon dioxide combines with volcanic hydrogen gas — is protected from volcanic heat between layers of certain common clays.

Shielded by the clay, methanol reacts with a clay mineral called montmorillonite to create far more complex organic molecules with up to 20 carbons. For more info, see:

Secrets of Life Found in Volcanic Clay?
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051031/clay_geo.html

The living powers of clay may link also with its use in traditional forms of medicine.

Geophagy

Geophagy refers to the consumption of clay or soil for healing purposes, which was very widespread, and in some cases to the use of clay as a condiment or emergency food as in the Philippines, New Guinea, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America.

An amazingly widespread practice was for pregnant women to consume clay during various terms or through the entire pregnancy. Clays like kaolin and montmorillonite have properties that can help with morning sickness. Kaolin, for example, is used in the popular preparation Kaopectate.

It may also be that there is some ancient link between the myths of creation of humans from clay and the use of the substance during pregnancy, the formation of humans in the womb. In an old Bisayan myth, Saman and a daughter of Sicalac were forced to eat yellow clay after traveling to the East, which results in their descendents having a yellow color.

The perceived healing powers of clay found in many cultures is not without scientific merit.

Clay is used today widely as an alternative medicine, and also by orthodox medicine in some cases. Clays like montmorillonite (bentonite) and hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (smectite) are utilized, for example, to detoxify mycotoxins from animal feed.

Naturopathic practictioners also use clay in humans to protect against mycotoxins, heavy metal poisoning and to generally cleanse the body through their absorbent properties. Volcanic clays are particurlarly important because of their wide spectrum of mineral content.

Volcanic clay has a residual negative charge that binds to positive ions, which are toxic to humans.

Mycotoxins are produced by fungi and are heat-stable, thus resistant to practices like cooking. These toxins generally build up in grains and grain-based animal feeds. Mycotoxins from feed will pass into the meat, milk, eggs, etc. of animals that consume the contaminated foodstuffs.

As mycotoxins are very potent carcinogens have have toxic effect particularly on the liver, kidneys and immume system, many researchers now believe they are one of the most important health risks found in the present-day food system.

The European Union has approved clays like Clinoptilolite as binding agents for animal feeds. Although such use of clay binders is not approved by the U.S. FDA, the practice is still becoming increasingly popular in the United States.

Clay jars and the "water of life"

We have explored in this blog, the use of simple, earthenware jars as water, tea or wine pots. In some cases, these rather uncomely jars became exceptionally valuable, sought after by kings and merchants.

The porous earthenware jar allows water to evaporate on its surface. If water is left in such jars for some time container will eventually empty -- the source of "drinking jar" tales.

Evaporation allows the jar to dissipate heat, and thus these vessels are widely known for their "breathing" qualities and their ability to cool drinking water.

Many clays used for such pots contain organic matter and microrganisms, and eventually these water pots become infested with lichens and microrganism colonies, which generally are non-pathogenic, and even beneficial to humans. The jar becomes a living entity to the ancient mind.

If made with certain quantities of volcanic clays (other than kaolinite), the jar becomes badly deformed over time because these clays expand as they absorb moisture.

Such volcanic clays would help purify the water of toxins, and might also mineralize the water through dissolution.

Through these various processes, the water kept in these pots could be easily be recognized as having superior qualities, and indeed that is the case in many cultures.

Living clay from the Magnetic Mountains

Volcanoes tend to abound in natural magnets generated and scattered by an eruption. People living near the mountains could recognize this link and the concept of the magnetic mountain is born.

The magnetic force can be seen as a form of animistic life energy by the pre-modern mind, and thus also anything associated with the volcano including the native clays.

In Borneo, the clays of the Sun and Moon were used to create some of the local sacred jars. The reference here is, I believe, to the original ancient mountains of the Sun and Moon, respectively Arayat and Pinatubo.



Water jar monument from Calamba, Philippines

In legend, these two mountains battle with each other hurling stones through the sky. Science shows that there may be something to these myths. The great Holocene eruptions of Pinatubo show signs of a "mixing" of basaltic stones from the Arayat formation and dacites from Pinatubo. This mixing actually takes place in underground chambers between the two mountains and results in a hybrid ash and pumice. Thus, the eruption of Pinatubo also involves, in a way, Arayat.

This hybrid ash eventually weathers into the volcanic clays around the mountain, a mixture of the elements from the solar and lunar mountains.

Water kept in jars made with this clay, which can be seen as related to the clay used to form the first humans according to mythology, is infused with the same essence as the primordial clay becoming the "water of life."

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Callahan GN. Eating dirt. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2003 Aug [date cited]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no8/03-0033.htm


Galvano F, Piva A, Ritieni A and Galvano G. "Dietary strategies to counteract the effects of mycotoxins: a review," Food Prot. 2001 Jan;64(1):120-31.

Phillips TD. "Dietary clay in the chemoprevention of aflatoxin-induced disease," Toxicol Sci. 1999 Dec;52(2 Suppl):118-26.

Phillips TD, Sarr AB and Grant PG. "Selective chemisorption and detoxification of aflatoxins by phyllosilicate clay," Nat Toxins. 1995;3(4):204-13.

Entheogen (Glossary)

An entheogen generally refers to a mind or mood-altering substance, often hallucinogenic, that supposedly generates profound spiritual experience.

Common entheogens include "psychedelic" mushrooms, cannabis, peyote, morning glory seeds, and other natural drugs that are often illegal today.

Many researchers believe that elixir substances like Amrita, Soma, the Apples of Eden and the like were entheogenic in nature. An opposing view is that the elixir primarily promoted good health and longevity.

In this blog, we have suggested that the elixir, which indeed was linked throughout many cultures, is strongly connected with a specific sacred location -- the cosmic mountain.

In this location, all consumables -- entheogens, herbs, fruits, water, etc. -- were considered sacred and as possessing magical properties or "mana."

Soma/Haoma of the Sea

The tradition of Soma or Haoma coming from the sea is an interesting and puzzling one. Most entheogens involve land-based plants.

According to the Mahabharata, after the ash and debris from the flaming Mount Mandara poured down the rivers into the sea turning the waters white, the Amrita or Soma arose like butter from the churned ocean.

In the Indo-Pacific region, there are numerous seaweeds that contain indole alkaloids similar to those found in other entheogens.

It's difficult to say when seaweed consumption began in this region although it appears very old. Seaweeds were widely consumed in the Pacific when the Europeans arrived. There is even some archaeological evidence of its consumption despite the fragility of the algae from the Latte Period in Guam, which started in the 9th century CE.

The Hawaiians favored seaweed when eating poi, and in the Philippines traditional fresh salads were made with gelatinous seaweeds, while terrestrial vegetables were usually cooked.

Pigafetta found "the sea to be full of grass although the depth of the sea was very great" as he approached the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines.

P. Blanco in his late 1700s book on Philippine flora mentions gulaman a general term for seaweeds used especially to make the gelatinous substance known as agar-agar (Malay jelly). Bergano, from around the same period, mentions cancung as the name of "grass" grown in the water without specifying sea grasses. However he also says that some types of cancung were collected for use in salads ("ensalada"), which suggests that cancung included seaweed, which has been eaten raw in salads for centuries at least.

The Philippines is currently a major producer and cultivator of seaweed including the peculiar Caulerpa species known generally as lato.

"Peppery" seaweed

Caulerpa species are known to contain psychoactive substances such as caulerpin, caulerpicin and caulerpenyne.

Some of these are mild and caulerpin even has root growth stimulant properties.


Sea grapes, Caulerpa racemosa, Hawai`i, source:
hbs.bishopmuseum.org/good-bad/list.html


Lukay-lukay, Caulerpa taxifola, an hallucinogenic algae, source: http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/STORIES/Caulerpa.html

In the local tradition, food with these substances are said to have a "peppery" taste. Mild seaweeds of this type cause a slight numbness to the tongue and mouth.

Strong peppery seaweeds sting the mouth and are avoided by most people. However, some are predisposed to the stronger seaweeds including the Caulerpa taxifolia species, which can be strongly hallucinogenic in nature.

Psychoactive fish

Certain herbivorous fish consume Caulerpa and similar hallucinogenic algae and concentrate the active substances in their flesh or other body parts.

For example, the blue seachub (Khyphosus cinerascens) is known worldwide as one of the most frequently implicated species in hallucinogenic fish poisoning.

In the Philippines one of the names for the blue seachub is dapog "open fire," which probably suggests the strong "peppery" qualities of this fish when eaten.

Recently, Caulerpa taxifolia invaded the Mediterranean, where it is not native, and was apparently was consumed by a local herbivorous fish known as the Sarpa salpa. Two people reported having hallucinations and nightmares after consuming the fish.

In the Pacific, such hallucinogenic fish species are called "dream fish."

Algae blooms can also cause many common edible species to become toxic and sometimes hallucinogenic.


Blue seachub, Khyphosus cinerascens, known in some parts of the Philippines as dapog is a powerfully-hallucinogenic fish well-known for cases of fish poisoning, source: Robert A. Patzner.

The "red tide" bloom effects shellfish and among some people a substance known as domoic acid found in cases of Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP) causes hallucinations. A similar effect occurs with edible fish species during ciguatera blooms.

Indeed even spoiled shellfish can contain the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, which is believed to be the active substance in the famous Haitian zombie powder used by voodoo practitioners.

It's interesting that many species classifed as hallucinogenic and poisonous elsewhwere are easily available in Philippine markets including Caulerpa taxifolia, Blue seachub, damselfish (ulan-ulan) and goatfishes (saramollete).

While a fresh seaweed salad is considered today a healthy and delicious addition to a meal through much of the Nusantao and Austronesian region, I know of no indication that psychoactive seaweeds, fish or shellfish were used in ritual fashion of any kind.

Betel nut and kava were more commonly used as mild intoxicants with some link to spiritual rituals.

However, the general effect of these "peppery" seafoods is certainly known, and no doubt some people consume them for this specific reason.

In this regard, the tale of bird's nest soup is of interest.

Made from the nests of certain species of Southeast Asian swifts, the bird's nests are considered an elixir of youth in Chinese and Vietnamese traditional medicine. Even today bird's nests are still sold as an expensive health tonic.

The swift birds in the Philippines and the bird's nest itself are known as salangana.

The nest is constructed mostly of regurgitated seaweed eaten by the swift. In ancient tradition, the bird digested the sea foam itself infusing the sea's nutrients into the nest. Most commonly it was the local Ngoso type of seaweed that was involved, but also not rarely the Lato or Caulerpa seaweeds and even the powerfully psychoactive Caulerpa taxifolia was used by the little swift!


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

California Sea Grant, Caulerpa Weed Story, http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/STORIES/Caulerpa.html.

Capuli, Estelita Emily and Kathleen Kesner-Reyes. "Khyphosus cinerascens in Philippines," Country Species Summary, Link.

Meinesz, Alexandre. Killer Algae, University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Simoons, Frederick J. Food in China, CRC Press, 1990, pgs. 428-9.

Velasquez, Gregorio. "History on the Local Uses of Seaweed," Science Review Vol. 8, no. 3 (March 1967), Philippines: National Science and Development Board.

Record-keeping and Mnemonics, Early (Glossary)

In the traditional society of Easter Island, string figures or kaikai and string games known as pata'uta'u were used to memorize esoteric formula/spells, chants, histories and stories.

R. Campbell found that some kaikai chants were in fact identical to songs written in the native script known as rongorongo. Experts believe it may be possible to also match up the texts of pata'uta'u string games with the rongorongo of the Easter Island tablets.

Indeed, a number of rongorongo signs closely resemble Easter Island string figures, and bird symbolism was important in both practices.


Rongorongo inscription, Small Santiago Tablet, source: http://www.rongorongo.org

In a similar manner, Chinese tradition tells us that Fu Hsi used knot records that became one of the prototypes for the future Chinese script.

Some extant texts exist showing the depiction of numbers using black and white knots. The black knots represent even numbers, night, cold, water and Earth. The white knows stand for odd numbers, day, warmth and Sun. These knots represented also the principles of yin and yang, and served as models for the trigrams, which were likewise credited to Fu Hsi.

The Hetu or "River Map" of Fu Hsi, and the Luoshu or "Luo River Writing" of Yu the Great, are portrayed as cosmic maps that depict the universe with sets of connected black and white dots representing respectively even and odd numbers.


The top row shows two extant Chinese tablets with even numbers represented by strings of black dots, and odd numbers by strings of white dots. On the second row, the Luo River Writing (L), which Yu the Great found on the back of a turtle emerging from the Luo Shui River. The Hetu, or River Map (R), found by Fu Hsi written on a "dragon-horse" that arose from the Yellow River. In both cases, the black dots stand for yin and even numbers, and the white dots represent yang and odd numbers.


Possible evolution of trigrams from binary knot system using counting stick images. On the top row is a cord of strings with dark knots representing even numbers and yin characteristics, and white knots: odd numbers and yang characteristics. The center row shows the numbers 1-8 using Chinese counting sticks. The image of the counting sticks is used to form the trigrams with the solid lines standing for the white knots and the broken lines for the yin knots.

Interestingly, the numerals used for the numbers 1 to 3 in many ancient scripts appear related to tally sticks or pebbles, shells, beads, etc. used for counting.

The similarity to tally sticks breaks off with the number four in half the scripts involved suggesting that maybe, if there is some relationship between these symbols, that it involves a base-four counting system.


Numerals from 1 to 3 in various ancient scripts

Base-four numeration is scattered here and there all over the world.

The practice of counting items like yams, coconuts, bananas, taro, fish, etc. by fours is rather commonly found in the Pacific both among Papuan and Austronesian peoples.

In Hawai`i, counting by fours is known as kauna and is still used in some fish markets especially for counting the opelu fish. According to tradition, a fisherman could hold four fish by there tails, two in each hand, or four taros in the same way. The kauna method supplements the ancient Proto-Austronesian decimal system.

kauna -- 4
ka'au -- 40
lau -- 400
mano -- 4,000
kini -- 40,000
lehu -- 400,000

J. Przyluski in studying the ganda guti system of numeration among the Mundas believed the origin to stem back to Austro-Asiatic and even to Proto-Austric.

The gandaka system of counting by fours in other Indian languages is thought by many to have been modeled after the ganda guti numeration.

Ganda monetary system

4 kauri (cowries) = 1 ganda
20 ganda = 1 pan (80 kauri)
4 pan = 1 ana
4 ana = 1 kahan
4 kahan = 1 rupee

That the above system used cowries as a form of currency is seen as evidence of its origin among a maritime people.

In the Philippines, counting by fours is found in systems like the measure based on the ganta still used mainly for measuring rice.

Apatan (divided by four)

4 apatan = 1 gahinan (chupa)
4 gahinan = 1 cagitnaan
4 gatang = 1 ganta (8 gahinan/chupas)

There are other four-based systems like that used in Pampanga for measuring spun cotton: 4 cauing = 1 cabid; 10 cabid = 1 tul (40 cauing).

Counting by fours probably originally involved using the four fingers with the thumb used only as a placeholder. Eventually, this involved into a base eight numeration by using both hands.

The Bagua or octogonal arrangement of the trigrams, instituted by Fu Hsi, can indicate the use of base four systems, one with each hand to form a base eight numeration. Thus, the first trigram in this arrangement (seen above) is the polar opposite of the eighth trigram. The second trigram is the opposite of the seventh trigram, and so on.

Knot records

In the 1700s, George Keate wrote of the encounter of Captain Wilson and the king of Palau, Abba Thulle and his son Lee Boo. The king gave Captain Wilson permission to take Lee Boo with him to England and promptly constructed a knot calendar by which he would track the voyage of his son.

Lee Boo also used a series of string records to memorize the name of every ship and country they encountered along the way to England.

Unfortunately as with most early notices of knot records, little information is given on to the precise methods used. However, little bits of information are available here and there from the many cultures that used this type of record-keeping.

In the Ryukyus, a string of knots sent to woodcutters indicated the type of trees to be cut by a leaf inserted in the knot. Knots at certain locations on the string indicated the quantity and dimensions of the timber required. Pawnbrokers on the Ryukyus used knots to record the amount of debts with fractions indicated on subsidiary strings. Different types of knots represented the various months in the payment schedule.

The Santals of India used different colored knots in their census to record the population -- black for adult men, red for adult women, white for boys and yellow for girls.

One of the most detailed accounts was that of a massive tax-recorders cord, nearly a half-mile in length, found by Tyerman and Bennet in Hawai`i in 1822:

The tax-gatherers, though they can neither read nor write, keep very exact accounts of all the articles, of all kinds, collected from the inhabitants throughout the island. This is done principally by one man, and the register is nothing more than a line of cordage from four to five hundred fathoms in length. Distinct portions of this are allotted to the various districts, which are known one from another by knots, loops, and tufts, of different shapes, sizes and colors. Each taxpayer in the district has his part in this string, and the number of dollars, hogs, dogs, pieces of sandal-wood, quantity of taro &c, at which he is rated, is well defined by means of marks, of the above kinds, most ingeniously diversified. It is probable that the famous quippos, or system of knots, whereby the records of the ancient Peruvian empire are said to have been kept, were a similar, and perhaps not much more comprehensive, mode of reckoning dates and associating names with historical events.

On the Marquesas islands in French Polynesia, priests were able to read off their ancestors that were indicated by knots on a string going back to the first man and woman. Referring to a specific knot genealogy discovered by von den Steinen, Cyrus L. Day says:

"...Karl von den Steinen saw a Marquesan knot-genealogy that went back 159 generations or (counting thirty years to a generation) to about 2870 B.C. The Mikado of Japan, he remarks, is a mere parvenu compared with some of the unlettered princelings of the Pacific islands; for the family trees of the Marquesans go back to the earliest colonization of the archipelago, to the gods of Hawaiki (the legendary homeland of the race), and even to the myths of the creation of the universe."

The Marquesan to'o knot records were multi-purpose with one cord pontentially containing genealogies, religious chants, songs and other information.

Symbolic records on totem poles/menhirs, textiles, rafters, tattoos, etc.

The use of symbols to indicate genealogy, heroic accomplishments and the like on ancestral objects like totem poles or the rafters of ancestral houses is found repeatedly throughout the Austronesian and Nusantao region.

As with knot records, interpretation of such symbols was largely a private matter of the recorder or artist and those who were instructed as to their meaning. However, there are also cases of more or less "standardized" symbols that were used for public communication.

The location of the symbols as, for example, the position of tattoo marks on the face of a Maori warrior, often was essential for correct interpretation. In the same sense, the position of drawings on the ridgepole and rafters of the Maori meeting-house, and the position of carved images on the veranda, walls and on support posts, are integral to their meaning. The same symbol in different locations could have different meanings. In this sense, the system was graphic in nature similar to a genealogical tree or a geographical map.

Certainly there could be a relationship between these symbolic systems and the mapping techiques found in the wave piloting stick charts of the Marshall Islands, and the star chart rafters of the Kiribati maneaba.



Symbols and divination

The oracle bone and tortoise shell inscriptions of the Neolithic period to Shang dynasty Dongyi people of Shandong and neighboring provinces used symbols that had no obvious graphic realism.

Some of the glyphs could plausibly relate to figures made of string, stick, rings, etc. hanging from cords as mnemonic devices used in early record and story-keeping.


Oracle bone and tortoise shell glyphs from http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Culture/language-oracle-bone.html with the top row showing simple glyphs, the middle row more advanced composite glyphs, and the bottom, complex composite glyphs. The top row glyphs have some resemblance to present-day Chinese knot wall hangings, and may have represented string figures hanging from larger recording cords.

Knots, symbols and similar devices served the same purposes as scripts later on, to include record-keeping, story-telling, aiding instruction and even use for personal communication.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Cajori, Florian. A History of Mathematical Notations/Two Volumes Bound As One/Notations in Elementary Mathematics,..., Courier Dover Publications, 1993.

Day, Cyrus L. The Role of the Knot in Primitive Ancient Cultures, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1967.

Kanahele, George Hu'eu. Ku Kanaka Stand Tall: A Search for Hawaiian Values University of Hawaii Press, 1993, p. 285.

Manansala, Paul. "Sungka Mathematics of the Philippines," Indian Journal of History of Science 30(1), New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1995.

Przyluski, Jean. Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India, Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1929.

Kangdêz (Glossary)

Kangdêz appears in the medieval astronomy of Abu Mashar of Balkh as the astronomical prime meridian. Muslim writers equate it with the Yamakoti of Hindu astronomy, which they say was the prime meridian of the Yavanas.

The name also appears in the literature as Gangdêz, Gangdiz, Gangdizh, Kangdiz, Kangdizh, Kangdezh, etc.

Among the interpretations of the name are "fortress of youth" from kang "youth" and dêz "fortress, palace." Others relate "kang" or "gang" to the Chinese name for Sogdiana.

Kang/gang has also been suggested as Ganga and thus "Fortress of Ganga," or Gangdizh = Ganga Desha "Land of the Ganges."

According to late Zoroastrian texts, Kangdêz was located beyond Khotan and China, a year's voyage (seven months for Kai Khusrau) to the East by sea from the Baluchi port of Makran.

Persian geography

In the Zend Avesta, the Vourukasha Sea lies in the extreme East from which all waters come with the wind and clouds. It is described as the "deep sea of salt waters." Reference is made to tides, of the "waters rising up and going down" and of a southern sea into which the Vourukasha empties and from which it refills causing the tidal ebb and flow.

In the Vourukasha Sea is Erânvêj, where the peak Hukairya is located. On Hukairya is the world spring and world river known as Ardvi Sura Anahita, the source of water for all the world's rivers, reminiscent of the Abzu and Okeanos. Also on this peak grows the sacred White Haoma.

In latter literature, Siyavush is said to have built Kangdêz on the "frontier" of Erânvêj. In the Vourukasha (Varkash) Sea is also mentioned the giant ox Sarsoak from whose back was taken the three sacred fires including the priestly Farnbag fire which was transported to Khvarizem.

As noted, Muslim geographers identified the Yamakoti of Hindu astronomy, dating to at least the beginning of the 5th century, with Kangdêz as the prime meridian. There may also be a connection with the Avestan idea of the celestial bodies "revolving" over the peak Hukairya i.e. as a prime meridian rather than as a polar mountain as sometimes interpreted.

While the al-Balkhi school used Kangdêz as the prime meridian, others located the fabled location according to Ptolemaic or Indian Ujjain system.

Al-Kashi, for example, in the 15th century places Kangdêz at the extreme East or 180 degrees East longitude, and at the equator (0 degrees latitude). He distinguishes it from Yamakoti (Jamkut) which is located at 176 East, 5 North.

To compare these coordinates with other locations in al-Kashi, Zaiton, the city made famous in Europe by Marco Polo, was placed at 154 East, 18 North. Quanzhou, from which voyages to the medieval kingdom of Sanfotsi embarked, is located at 162 East, 13 North.

Here we can see that al-Kashi's latitudes this far east are depressed south of the correct position.

The fairest spot in this world is Gang-dizh
Where by the Grace of Him Who giveth good
My wisdom and my fortune have not slept,
And I have raised the summit to the Pleiads

--- Shahnama of Firdausi (translated by Arthur George)

The quote above indicates that Kangdêz (Gang-dizh) was also thought by some to be under the Pleiades constellation. Whether this refers to the time of the Shahnama or some earlier generation would make a great difference in calculating what latitude the Pleiades was stationed over at the time.

Legends of Kangdêz appear to have influenced the Shi'ite belief in the Green Island where the 12th "Hidden Imam" waits in eternal youth for the last days. The Green Island is described as located in the midst of a Sea of Whiteness that brings to mind the Indian Milky Ocean and the Vourukasha Sea, that appeared like 'quicksilver.'

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Blochmann, M.A. and H. S. Jarrett. The Ain i Akbari by Abul Fazl Allami, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1873-1907.

Kennedy, E. S. and M. H. Kenneyd. Al-Kashis Geographical Table, DIANE Publishing, 1987.H.

Muller, Max . The Zend Avesta, Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

Warner, Arthur George and Edmond Warner. The Shahnama Of Firdausi, Routledge (UK), 2001.

Chryse (Glossary)

Chryse, the "Golden One," is the name given by ancient Greek writers to an island rich in gold to the east of India.

Pomponius Mela, Marinos of Tyre and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mention Chryse in the first century CE. It is basically the equivalent of the Indian Suvarnadvipa the "Island of Gold." Josephus calls it in Latin Aurea, and equates the island with biblical Ophir, from where the ships of Tyre and Solomon brought back gold and other trade items.

Chryse is often coupled with another island Argyre the "Island of Silver" and placed beyond the Ganges. Ptolemy locates both islands east of the Khruses Kersonenson the "Golden Peninsula" i.e. the Malaya Peninsula. North of Chryse in the Periplus was Thin, which some consider the first European reference to China.

In addition to gold, Chryse was also famed for having the finest tortoise shell in the world according to the Periplus. Large ships brought trade goods back and forth between Chryse and the markets at the mouth of the Ganges.

Chin-lin

In ancient Chinese literature, a mysterious region beyond their southern border in Annam was known as Chin-lin "Golden Neighbor" and the Southeast Asian border was also called the "Golden Frontier."

When China invaded Annam (northern Vietnam) in the first century BCE, the kingdom of Champa fortified villages along the old caravan trail. This path became Route Colonial 9 during the French colonial period, and it was used by the Americans to build the McNamara Line of fortified bases during the Vietnam War.

With this fortified line, the rugged Central Highlands and a policy of constant piracy, the Champa kingdom held the Chinese at bay for a thousand years. After the fall of the Chin dynasty in the 5th century, Cham raids on Tongking became so frequent that the governor appealed to the emperor for assistance. A war of attrition between China and Champa began that lasted until the rise of the T'ang dynasty.

During this time though, China was well aware of the golden lands far to the south. The Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing mentions Chin-Chou "Isle of Gold" in the archipelago south of China on his way back from India.

Zabag and Wakwak

In this blog, I have suggested that the kingdoms of Zabag and Wakwak, famed among the medieval Muslims as rich in gold, referred to the eastern islands of the Malay archipelago i.e. the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia.

Zabag was based in what would later become the kingdom of Lusung.

In this sense, the Philippines fits the bill as a gold-rich realm.

The country has consistently ranked second in the world behind only South Africa in gold deposits per land area. The Philippines has historically been the largest producer of gold in Asia despite its relatively small size and the fact that until 1980 most gold was obtained only through small alluvial deposits.

Although some ancient gold artifacts have been found in this region, they don't match the age suggested by linguistic reconstruction. Gold may have been mostly handed down from generation to generation rather than being used as a burial good item.

In about the second century CE, there arose a practice of using gold eye covers, and then, gold facial orifice covers to adorn the dead resulting in an increase of ancient gold finds. More than a millennium later, the popularity of dental gold to decorate the teeth significantly increased the amount of gold found at archaeological sites.

When the Spanish came they discovered an abundance of gold used among the people of the Philippine islands. Here are some relevant quotes:

Pieces of gold, the size of walnuts and eggs are found by sifting the earth in the island of that king who came to our ships. All the dishes of that king are of gold and also some portion of his house as we were told by that king himself...He had a covering of silk on his head, and wore two large golden earrings fastened in his ears...At his side hung a dagger, the haft of which was somewhat long and all of gold, and its scabbard of carved wood. He had three spots of gold on every tooth, and his teeth appeared as if bound with gold.

--- Pigafetta on Raja Siaui of Butuan during Magellan's voyage

For brass, iron and other weighty articles, they gave us gold in exchange...For 14 pounds of iron we received 10 pieces of gold, of the value of a ducat and a half. The Captain General forbade too great an anxiety for receiving gold, without which order every sailor would have parted with all he had to obtain this metal, which would have ruined our commerce forever.

--- Pigafetta on gold trade in Cebu


Sailing in this manner, for some time, in 16° of north latitude, they were obliged by continual contrary winds, to bear up again for the Philippine islands, and in their way back, had sight of six or seven additional islands, but did not anchor at any of them. They found also an archipelago, or numerous cluster of islands, in 15 or 16 degrees of north latitude, well inhabited by a white people, with beautiful well-proportioned women, and much better clothed than in any other of the islands of these parts; and they had many golden ornaments, which was a sure sign that there was some of that metal in their country.

--- Antonio Galvão in 1555 describing the journey of Bartholomew de la Torre in 1548


"...the ore is so rich that I will not write any more about it, as I might possibly come under a suspicion of exaggerating; but I swear by Christ that there is more gold on this island than there is iron in all Biscay."

--- Hernando Riquel et al., 1574

In this island, there are many gold mines, some of which have been inspected by the Spaniards, who say that the natives work them as is done in Nueva Espana with the mines of silver; and, as in these mines, the vein of ore here is continouus. Assays have been made, yielding so great wealth that I shall not endeavor to describe them, lest I be suspected of lying. Time will prove the truth.

--- Hernando Riquel et al. on island of Luzon, 1574


There are some chiefs in this island who have on their persons ten or twelve thousand ducats' worth of gold in jewels--to say nothing of the lands, slaves, and mines that they own. There are so many of these chiefs that they are innumerable. Likewise the individual subjects of these chiefs have a great quantity of the said jewels of gold, which they wear on their persons--bracelets, chains, and earrings of solid gold, daggers of gold, and other very rich trinkets. These are generally seen among them, and not only the chiefs and freemen have plenty of these jewels, but even slaves possess and wear golden trinkets upon their persons, openly and freely.

--- Guido de Lavezaris at al., 1574


About their necks they wear gold necklaces, wrought like spun wax, and with links in our fashion, some larger than others. On their arms they wear armlets of wrought gold, which they call calombigas, and which are very large and made in different patterns. Some wear strings of precious stones--cornelians and agates; and other blue and white stones, which they esteem highly. They wear around the legs some strings of these stones, and certain cords, covered with black pitch in many foldings, as garters.

-- Antonio de Morga, 1609

"... the natives proceed more slowly in this ,and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. This is considerable, for he must be poor and wrethced who has no gold chains, calombigas, and earrings."

-- Antonio de Morga, 1609

The Portugese explorer Pedro Fidalgo in 1545 found gold so abundant on Luzon the inhabitants were willing to trade two pezoes of gold for one pezo of silver.

When the Portuguese first arrived, most of the gold traded into Brunei came from Luzon. That island was known as Lusung Dao or "Golden Luzon" to the Chinese who also traded for gold in this region.

A golden Garuda dagger handle from Surigao, Philippines.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Legeza, Laszlo. "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug. 1988, pp.129-136. (Mentions gold jewelry of Philippine origin in first century CE Egypt)

Peralta, J.T. "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no.4, p.54.

Villegas, Ramon N. Ginto: History Wrought in Gold, Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas, 2004.

Svetadvipa (Glossary)

Svetadvipa's spiritual importance in Hinduism and especially among the Vaisnava sect is found in its description as the home of Narayana.

Narayana is the manifestation of the god Visnu linked with the avataras, or worldly descents of Visnu. Narayana is said to live on Svetadvipa, and to sleep floating on the Milky Ocean that surrounds the island.

Because of Narayana's location here, Svetadvipa was considered a place of pilgrimage by the sages and epic heroes. Rama comes to the island to make offerings to the ancestors, and the sage Narada came to visit Narayana.

Location

Svetadvipa is always located by Hindu texts in the Milky Ocean.

The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana, Laghubhagavatamrta and Brhat Samhita all mention the location of the Milky Ocean and place it in the general direction of the East.

When the Vanara allies of Rama in the Ramayana set out to search the four regions of the world -- East, South, West and North -- for Sita, they visited the Milky Ocean while in the eastern region.

The latter Hindu astronomers like Bhaskara and Lalla also place the Milky Ocean in the southern latitudes. According to the Laghubhagavatamrta, it was placed south of the Salt Sea that surrounded Jambudvipa (Indian subcontinent):

"East of Sumeru (Mt. Meru) is the ocean of milk, in which there is a white city on a white island where the Lord can be seen sitting with his consort, Laksmiji on a throne of Sesa. That feature of Visnu also enjoys sleeping during the four months of the rainy season. The Svetadvipa in the milk ocean is situated south of the ocean of salt."

The southern orientation in relation to the Salt Sea might refer either to the Sunda Strait or the Strait of Malacca, both of which are rather southward in latitude when compared to India.

So the Milky Ocean would then be the South China Sea.

According to the Mahabharata, this sea became colored like milk after a great eruption-like event connected with the churning episode and Mount Mandara.

The name could also refer to the phenomenon of bioluminescence as often occurs in the tropical oceans caused usually by marine mollusks and crustaceans like the salpa and pyrosoma, and also sometimes by the accumulation of dead animal tissue in the sea. This occurrence is called a "milk sea" to this day.

George Bennett while traveling through Southeast Asia in the 19th century describes the phenomenon:

Perhaps the beauty of this luminous effect is seen to the greatest advantage, when, the ship lying in a bay or harbour, in tropical climates, the water around has the appearance of a sea of milk. An opportunity was afforded me when at Carite, near Manilla, in 1830, of witnessing for the first time this beautiful scene. As far as the eye could reach on the extensive bay of Manilla, the surface of the tranquil water was one sheet of this dull, pale phosphorescence, and brilliant flashes were emitted instantly on any heavy body being cast into the water, or when fish sprang from it, or swam about. The ship seemed, on looking over its side, to be anchored in a sea of liquid phosphorus; whilst in the distance the resemblance was that of an ocean of milk.

However, bioluminscence is rather common in all tropical seas, and the Mahabharata links the sea's color with the deposits of ash and debris flowing down rivers from the flaming Mandara into the ocean.

The ash turns not only the sea white, but the surrounding region the same color, and hence the name Svetadvipa, the "White Island." Similar descriptions of whiteness, are given for the isle of the immortals, Penglai, in Chinese literature.

Svetadvipa is also specifically set in the East by the Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana and Laghubhagavatamrta. It is said to be located in the northern portion of the Milky Ocean.

In Iranian literature, the Varkash Sea, where the White Haoma grows, appears to equate to the Milky Ocean.

Muslim geographers placed the regions around the Varkash Sea like Kangdez, the fortress of the immortals, in the furthest East Indies. Al-kashi, in the 15th century even gives coordinates for the locations.

According to tradition, King Indrakyumna found a vata tree log (Ficus bengalensis linn, Ficus indicus) from Svetadvipa from which the first image of Jagannatha was made at the famous temple in Puri.

The idea of the log god Jagannatha floating over the sea from Svetadvipa reminds us the story mentioned above of Narayana (Visnu) sleeping on a bed of snakes in the Milky Ocean during the four months of the rainy season.

It is during the summer monsoons that winds from the southeast bring storms to East India and then across India in a northwesternly direction.


Jagannatha images like this one are now made with trees like the Nimba. The original image is said by tradition to have come from a log that floated across the sea from Svetadvipa to Orissa in Eastern India. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaurangapada/sets/72057594050803121/

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Bennett, George. Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Sumatra, and China., 1834.

Marco Polo (Glossary)

Marco Polo is important for the purpose of this work because his voyages may have resulted in the transfer of mariner's charts and/or related information that helped give rise to the portolan from the East to Europe. At the least, he mentions the use of mariner's charts by navigators in the Indian Ocean during his voyages.

In describing the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon/Seilan), Polo says:

It has a circumference of some 2400 miles. And I assure you that it used to be bigger than this. For it was once as much as 3500 miles, as appears in the mariners' charts of this sea.

Again in relating the number of islands in the Indian Ocean, he states:

It is a fact that in this Sea of India there are 12,700 Islands inhabited and uninhabited, according to the charts and documents of experienced mariners who navigate the Indian Sea.

When Polo describes the eastern portion of the East Indies apparently including the Philippines, the Moluccas, etc. he says about the name of the China Sea:

You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of those parts is called the Sea of Chin, which is as much as to say "The Sea over against Manzi." For, in the language of those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi they mean. And I tell you with regard to that Eastern Sea of Chin, according to what is said by the experienced pilots and mariners of those parts, there be 7459 Islands in the waters frequented by the said mariners; and that is how they know the fact, for their whole life is spent in navigating that sea.

Probably Polo got his Chin from Tsina or Tchina in the 'language of those Isles," opposite Manzi, or South China, from which we derive the current name "China."

The history of this name has ancient roots. Ancient Sanskrit literature including the Mahabharata mentions Cina and Maha-Cina. The Nestorian synod of 410 tells of a "Metropolitan of the Islands, Seas and the Interior of Dabag, Chin and Machin."

Dabag is the same as the latter "Zabag," while Chin and Machin are certainly copies of the Indian Cina and Mahacina. Among the Nestorians, Chin or Sin means "China" while Machin/Masin refers to Southeast Asia.

Cina is China among the Indians, while Mahachina appears to refer mostly to the areas of Assam, Northeast India, eastern Tibet/Himalayas and Burma where Tantric forms of Mother Goddess worship became very popular.

That Polo refers to a word used in the 'language of those Isles' by the 'experienced pilots and mariners of those parts' is important.

Like the latter Portuguese explorers, Polo uses placenames for Southeast Asia that are mostly of local origin. He rarely uses Chinese or Muslim names, and this may indicate the nature of his informants, the pilots and mariners of those seas.

Insular Southeast Asian placenames

For example, Polo uses the form Ziamba (Ramusio) for Champa. This appears to come from the local Insular Southeast Asian Tsiampa, or related words like Ciampa (Javanese Cempa). The Arabic name for Champa was Sanf, while the Chinese called it Lin-yi.

The world Seilan for Sri Lanka might be derived from Javanese sela "jewel, which would match the Hindu Ratnadvipa "Isle of Gems" and the Muslim Jazirat al Yakut "Isle of Rubies."

In Poggio's account of the testimony of Nicolo de Conti, he also gives local names, rather than Chinese or Arabic ones, including the island of Bandam, the source of cloves, the first reference by native name to one of the Spice Islands (Banda).

Polo does use some Chinese names, for example, Mien for the Burmese kingdom rather than the Indian/Malay Barma. He seems to have learned about this kingdom through stories of Kublai Khan's conquest of Burma. The term Lequios used by the Portuguese comes from Chinese Liu-Kiu (Ryukyu).

When Portuguese and other explorers came into this region, they picked up many more regional names that appear to come from Insular Southeast Asian sources, many of which have survived in modified form until the present day:

Siam -- from forms like Cebuano Ciama or Malay Siyam.

Japan -- Japun, Japang, etc. ultimately from Chinese Jih-pen kuo.

Burma -- Barma, the Malay, Javanese and Indian forms.

Pegu -- Malay Paigu from Burmese Bago

Cochin-China -- Kuchi, Kochi possibly from Chinese Kiau-chih.

China -- Tsina, Tchina, from Qin (Ch'in) empire or Jin (Tsin) dynasty?

Champa -- Tsiampa, Ciampa, Cempa originally borrowed by Europeans as Ziamba, Ciamba, etc.

Moluccas -- Maluka a place on the island of Ceram.

Borneo/Burnei -- Brunei.

Luzon -- Lusung, Lusong recorded first by Tome Pires who calls the inhabitants Luções.

Banda -- first noted by de Conti as Bandam.

Informants

When Francisco Rodrigues arrived in Southeast Asia with the Portuguese in the early 16th century he collected information and charts from Javanese and other local pilots. Ludovico di Varthema did the same.

Later when the British began mapping the area, Alexander Dalrymple on many of his charts left notes specifying the sources of indigenous information often by name.

For example, on a chart of Borneo, Dalrymple notes that parts of the southern coast had not been "confirmed by any exact observation but is laid down from a Sketch of Dato Saraphodin and from a Chart of Noquedah Koplo who came up the Coast in 1761." On other parts of the chart he mentions features that were based on "Sketches I received from the Sooloos [Sulu], but chiefly from the information of Bahatol an old intelligent [Sulu] pilot."

The various informants supplied the placenames borrowed by early European explorers and cartographers resulting in many modern geographic names.

In a similar manner, Polo mentions receiving information from the mariners and pilots of the China Sea and Indian Ocean.

If we look at Polo's names for the Andamans, the Nicobars and Madagascar we may get some clues as to the provenance of his informants.

Instead of the Arab Lankabalus for the Andamans and Nicobars, Polo mentions Angaman and Necuveran, which along with Seilan remind one of the common use of the -an suffix for placenames in Insular Southeast Asia.

A short list of the numerous examples are: Dapitan, Palawan, Lingayan, Dagupan, Nunukan, Tarakan, Bataan and Bulacan. Thus, Seilan may be from sela-an, "place of jewels."

The name Madagascar may be confused with Makdashau (Mogadishu), but others would have it as a corruption of Malagasy.

The Arabic word for the island was al-Qumr, or sometimes Wak or similar terms, the latter probably stemming from the belief that the island was populated by the Wakwak from further east.

The mention of mariner's charts by Polo is also very informative. It was after Polo's return to Europe that the first extant nautical portolans appear. Although the Carta Pisana is sometimes dated to "circa 1296" or a year after Polo's return to Venice, and some believe it is even earlier, the first solid date for an extant portolan is the Genoese map made by Petrus Vesconte dated to 1311.

There is a vague reference to use of a sea chart by Raymond Lull in 1270 but it doesn't appear related to the explosion in the use of the portolan some 30 or more years later.

Lull's mention of sea charts and also the magnetic compass, like earlier references by Guyot de Provins and Jacques de Vitry in the early 13th century were probably based on tales from the Indian Ocean. Muslim writers mention fish-shaped floating compasses used by mariners in the Indian Ocean in 1242. These were almost certainly derived from similar compasses described by Shen Kua writing in the early 12th century but mentioning their use as early as 1086.

A south-pointing "fish" or "tadpole" is mentioned in the 4th and 10th centuries, and by the mid-11th century a specifically "floating" fish compass is mentioned in Chinese works.

De Vitry got much information from Arabic-speaking knights in his attempts to learn of the Mongol campaign, while Lull who grew up in Majorca and is said to have written in Arabic better than Latin. Both of these men may have received information from Muslim informants as they had great interest in the Muslim world.

None of the surviving confidently-dated 13th century European maps show signs of nautical application.

Gilbert the author of De Magnete says Marco Polo brought the compass to Europe from China, although Polo never mentions such a device himself. It could be that Polo brought the mariner's compass along with the mariner's chart, or quite specific but confidential information about both items.

Earlier loadstones may have been known in Europe since the 12th century, with stories of their application for navigation coming in the early 13th century from Muslim sources.

But is seems after Polo's time that we see the first hard evidence of the use of both mariner's compass and chart.

Unfortunately, little additional information exists of the Indian Ocean and China Sea charts until the Portuguese arrive in the early 16th century. It was at this time that Rodrigues reproduced Javanese maps covered with rhumb lines, one of which so deeply inpressed Albuquerque that he said, "it strikes me as the finest piece of work I ever saw."

Some years later, the Turkish admiral Piri Reis produced an extraordinary portolan of the world that was much different in its portrayal of the "New World" than other contemporary maps. Piri Reis claimed to use many charts as sources including those of Columbus, and also some Portuguese maps drawn using the "geometrical methods" of China and the Indies (Hind).

The Chinese "methods" probably refer to the rectangular grids that characterized Chinese maps, but what of those of the Indies? Was Reis referring to Portuguese sources like the now-lost Rodrigues chart with rhumb lines showing the navigation of the Indies?

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ozdemir, Kemal, Ottoman Nautical Charts and the Atlas of 'Ali Macar Reis, Istanbul, 1992.

Polo, Marco, Henry Yule and Henri Cordier. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian: Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, Scribner, 1903.

Menzies' maps explained

Below is a copy of a recently sent press article

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Meet Menzies' real mystery map-makers

Gavin Menzies went off-course when he failed to consider Southeast Asia's influence on the age of discovery, contends researcher and sambali.blogspot.com blogger Paul Kekai Manansala.

He is referring to Menzies million-selling book, _1421: The Year China Discovered the World_, that asserts a Chinese fleet led by Admiral Zheng He circumnavigated the globe about a century before Magellan.

"Menzies' book, while filled with much easily-debunked material, makes valid and important points about the appearance of revolutionary maps in the fifteenth century.
The map revolution, in fact, started about a century earlier with the appearance of the portolan maps in the 14th century -- charts used by mariners to navigate the seas," Manansala said.

Zheng He's treasure voyages were impressive and he may well have traveled further than he is normally given credit for, Manansala notes. "Menzies' assertion that the 1420 voyage past the Cape of Good Hope, mentioned by the Venetian cartographer Fra Mauro, refers to Zheng's fleet is not without merit." The vessel involved in the voyage is described as a 'ship or junk' and the Chinese admiral was sailing in the Indian Ocean at the time.

"Menzies though has ignored in his research the influence of Southeast Asia in the appearance of new navigational charts, and in particular Southeast Asia's influence in transmitting these maps to Europe."

Spice trade

The story starts many centuries before the time of Zheng He with the establishment of the spice trade, especially the Cinnamon Route from Southeast Asia to the coast of Southern Africa.

"Trade in spices dates back to ancient times, and Muslim writers mention ships traveling back and forth between Southeast Asia and Africa after the rise of Islam. They were simply confirming what had been written centuries before by Greek authors about the same Indian Ocean trade."

Aloeswood, cinnamon, cassia and other aromatics made their way from Southeast Asia to African ports and then went north to North Africa and the Middle East, and eventually to Europe.

Manansala contends that with the rise of Islam these ancient trade routes were seriously threatened for the first time by Muslim military and economic expansion.

"Sea empires known as thalassocracies in Southeast Asia decided to take a proactive stance against the new development. They attempted to recruit other political allies to help curb Muslim influence in the Indian Ocean, and they often made their appeals on the basis of common religion."

The Southeast Asian kings involved, Manansala says, were patrons of many religions, a situation not uncommon in the region during that period. "They basically became extreme examples of realpolitik and didn't hesitate to alternately represent themselves and their kingdoms as belonging to one religion when talking to one group, but to another religion when approaching someone else."

For example, he says that when the Insular Southeast Asian thalassocracy approached the Tantric Buddhist kingdoms of Tibet and Eastern India they sent Tantric Buddhist emissaries. These emissaries brought a messianic philosophy that placed the Hijra, the date on which Muhammad and his followers fled to Medina, as the beginning of the decline of the ages.

"Basically to the spice trade empire, the loss of their trade routes may have been viewed as apocalyptic in character. To Christian Europe, the Eastern king that controlled the spice trade was known as Prester John, and the latter king portrayed himself and his empire as Nestorian Christians based in a location known to Nestorians as Dabag."

Letters of Prester John

The original Prester John was from the East Indies, but in latter times the emperor of Ethiopia is also considered as "Prester John," Manansala said. However, only the Ethiopian Prester John is usually considered historical while many Western historians dismiss Prester John of the Indies as a hoax.

"Actually, the eastern Prester John sent envoys to the Vatican and to Christian emperors and kings, just like the Negus of Ethiopia, and for many centuries. While many fradulent letters did pop up during this time, most of the hoaxes appeared in published form only. It would have been dangerous to have presented oneself at the court of a medieval Christian potentate with a faked letter."

Emissaries and correspondence from the eastern Prester John were the first part of a strategy to attract Christian kingdoms into the Indian Ocean with the aim of countering Muslim influence. Eventually this evolved into the transmission of geographical and navigational knowledge, including maps.

Prester John's first letter to Europe appeared in the 12th century, but it wasn't until centuries later after Mongol conquests enabled European voyages to the Indian Ocean that we see the start of a map revolution.

The Portolan maps

In the early fourteenth century, a Venetian named Marino Sanuto submitted a book entitled "Secretum Fidelium Crucis" to the Pope outlining a plan for a crusade to capture the Indian Ocean trade routes. In this book was contained a world map by Pietro Vesconte, whose mariner's charts are the oldest surviving examples of portolan map-making.

"The historian Joseph Needham in his massive work on Chinese science has suggested that the portolan chart came as part of a package along with the magnetic compass, sand clock, stern rudder, zig-zag tables known as marteloio and other nautical inventions. The Chinese do appear to have invented many of these technologies but that doesn't mean they were necessarily the ones that transmitted them elsewhere. And the Chinese never used portolan marine charts."

The portolan is distinguished from modern maps, with their orderly grid arrangement of longitude and latitude, by a hodgepodge of crisscrossing directions known as rhumb lines. The rhumb lines radiate from circular wind compasses dispersed at various locations on the chart. They were the first European maps widely used as mariner's charts.

"Wind compasses were used by indigenous navigators in both Insular Southeast Asia and the Pacific in a manner similar to rhumb sailing using portolans. They were used by Pacific islanders -- the Melanesians, Micronesians and Polynesians -- to explore and settle the Pacific. In both Southeast Asia and the Pacific, wind compasses have survived until modern times."

Needham had suggested that Chinese maps showing directional instructions in text form near map destinations later involved into rhumb lines.

But were mariner's charts marked with rhumb lines ever used in the East? According to Manansala, such maps were mentioned and at least one with rhumb lines occurs in a 16th century Portuguese account.

"Marco Polo twice mentions the use of mariner's charts in the Indian Ocean in his famous travel journal. Marco Polo was a contemporary of Sanuto and Vesconte -- the two people linked with the earliest portolan maps."

When Portuguese explorers began plying the waters of the Indian Ocean nearly two centuries after Polo's account, they came upon a few important indigenous mariner's charts.

"Three charts encountered by the early Portuguese were deemed worthy of mention. One each from India and Brunei or Buru in the East Indies had rectangular grid systems similar to modern maps. The other was from a Javanese pilot written in the Javanese language which was covered with rhumb lines," Manansala said.

Some years after the Javanese world map was discovered by the Portuguese pilot Francisco Rodrigues, he notes, an exceptional portolan map of the world was presented by the Turkish cartographer Piri Reis to Sultan Selim I in Cairo. According to Reis, his new chart was constructed using many different maps including "four new Portuguese maps drawn using the geometric methods of the Indies and China."

The borrowed "geometric methods" mentioned by Reis would include, according to Manansala, the rhumb lines as shown on the Javanese chart.

Maps drawn mainly for foreigners?

Pilots in Southeast Asia during that time did not normally use charts as they had more ancient methods that were effective and not so costly, Manansala avers. "It's possible that some of these maps were drawn specifically to present to Europeans and others they wanted to attract to the region."

"When the British cartographer Alexander Dalrymple came to chart these regions centuries later for the British crown, he encountered suddenly many maps, and informants willing to draw maps. This occurs though after voyager after voyager before him reported that local pilots in the region used neither chart or compass. So, basically it was only during the periods when the Portuguese, and later the British, first appeared on the scene looking for assistance that we see these indigenous maps crawl out of the woodwork."

"Unfortunately, the lack of practical map use in the region may be why none of the early Insular Southeast Asian charts have survived into the present. The map discovered by Francisco Rodrigues, though, can be partially reconstructed using the book of rutters, or sailing directions, written by Rodrigues."

When the Portuguese first began their explorations on the sea, they apparently uncovered some hidden and very revealing maps. These charts mentioned by Antonio Galvão in the 16th century form part of the basis of Menzies claims on the circumnavigation of Zheng He.

Some scholars have claimed that Galvão's account of a world map in the possession of Dom Pedro, the brother of Prince Henry the Navigator, is confirmed by an official document of King Alfonso V of Portugal.

"The problem with Menzies claim is that the Galvão maps are dated to 1408 and 1428 and could not have been delivered to Dom Pedro by Nicolo de Conti as claimed by Menzies. De Conti was still traveling in Asia in 1428 according to all accounts," Manansala said.

He believes the maps may have actually been Templar charts that they obtained through Prester John before the Templar order was destroyed in the early 14th century. The Templars are closely associated with Prester John in medieval literature.

"There was a group known in Muslim writings as the Sayabiga, who are believed to have come from Insular Southeast Asia. Many of the Sayabiga became Shi'ites in the Middel Eastern region, and I think it is through them that Prester John of the Indies made contact with the Templars. Some Sayabiga may have penetrated into order of Assassins who were known to have direct relations with the Templars."

"When the Templar order was banned, many Templars along with their possessions took refuge in Cistercian monasteries. The 1408 map mentioned by Galvão was found in the archives of the Alcobaza, a Cistercian abbey where they also discovered a copy of the Templar oath."

In Portugal, the local Templars were found free of guilt after the banning of the order and the group was renamed the Order of Christ, which inherited all the Templar possessions. Later, the monarchy of Portugal was invested with the Grand Mastery of the Order of Christ, and Prince Henry the Navigator himself became a Grand Master. Dom Pedro, Henry's brother who discovered the other Galvão map in Italy was also a member of the Order of Christ.

New view of the world

The maps mentioned by Galvão were said to show a world much different than that of previous European maps.

The Cape of Good Hope was shown as passable, and even the Strait of Magellan in the "New World" was supposedly displayed a century before Magellan. "Up until that time, Europeans did not believe one could pass into the Indian Ocean by sea."

However, in the East, the Mongol Atlas and the still-surviving Kangnido Map from Korea do show a very accurate and passable continent of Africa. They don't display anything though that would correspond to the "Western hemisphere."

The first Asian map to show something from the Western hemisphere was the afore-mentioned Javanese map of Francisco Rodrigues. Alfonso de Albuquerque said the Javanese map 'was the finest thing he had ever seen' and apparently the chart contained much information unfamiliar to the Portuguese in 1512.

"Many scholars have interpreted the Javanese map as an example of how the news of European discoveries was penetrating even to far-off Java, but the chart might instead explain the earlier mysterious Galvão charts," Manansala said. "Those charts were said to contain navigational information for sailing the Indies, that is, they were mariner's charts, just like the Javanese map. They may have been marked with rhumb lines like the Javanese chart."

The 1428 map of Dom Pedro may have helped encourage the early Portuguese navigations, but those voyates proceeded only with extreme caution. The maps were dusty and disconnected from reality according to Manansala. The Portuguese apparently interpreted notes on Prester John as relating to Ethiopia rather than the Indies.

It was not until a European witness returned from traveling in the Indian Ocean had confirmed this earlier information that the most daring voyages occured. This European witness was Nicolo de Conti.

"After de Conti returned to Europe you began to see maps and globes appearing reguarly showing the Western Hemisphere. This information probably did not come out of nowhere. Fra Mauro mentions a journey by a ship or junk from the Indies through the Cape of Good Hope around 1420. Supposedly that voyage covered a total of 32,000 kilometers. There probably were other similar journeys around the same time, if not well before."

One of the key pieces of evidence used by Menzies to prove that Zheng He sailed around the world is a stash of artifacts known as metates and manos found in a ship wreck off the coast of the southern Philippines. Menzies claims the metates and manos were exclusive to the Americas.

"Menzies' critics often respond that metates and manos were also found in very ancient Paleolithic and Neolithic China, but these arguments are really out-of-sync. The appearance of these artifacts in the Pandanan wreck is very unusual and definitely worthy of investigation. As evidence, they are really the only hard artifacts that Menzies offers presumbly from the New World but located in the Old World."

The location of the Pandanan wreck is telling according to Manansala because it was near his suggested base of operations of Prester John during the Ming dynasty.

"Yes, Prester John was still active at that time and Nicolo de Conti claimed not only to have met him but that he was married to a woman of that country by the king! During the Ming dynasty, Prester John kingdom was known as Lusung, from which we get the name of the modern island of Luzon in the Philippines."

Nicolo de Conti (Glossary)

Nicolo de Conti (ca.1395-1469), a Venetian merchant, traveled either 36 or 25 years, depending on which account you believe, throughout much of the Indian Ocean and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa.

De Conti's great impact on history is seen through his account to papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini declaring that the Indian Ocean was a wide open sea and not enclosed by land as Europeans had thought since Ptolemy's time.

With good reason it is believed that de Conti's views influenced such persons and cartographers as Fra Mauro and Paolo Toscanelli. The latter in turn either directly or indirectly influenced both Columbus and Magellan in believing that one could venture to the East Indies from the East (traveling West from Europe).

African journey?

Gavin Menzies, in his controversial work on the voyages of Zheng He's fleet, has suggested that Conti had sailed with Zheng toward Africa, and beyond.

Menzies rightfully notes that Conti had great influence on cartographer Fra Mauro, a fellow Venetian. Mauro's map of the world uses place-names, and sources for spices, that appear directly copied from Conti's interviews with Bracciolini. Mauro also is the first to chart the difference between Taprobana (Sri Lanka) and Sumatra, something again first revealed in Conti's testimony.

Mauro also displays the Indian Ocean as an open sea with passage possible both in the East and the West.

The African connection comes from notes made by Fra Mauro concerning the voyage of a junk or ship from the Indies around the southern tip of Africa:

About the year 1420 a ship or junk of the Indies passed directly across the Indian Ocean in the direction of the Men-and-Women Islands beyond Cape Diab, and past the Green Islands and the Dark (Sea), sailing (thereafter) west and south-west for 40 days and finding nothing but air and water. According to the estimate of her (company) she travelled 32,000 km. Then, conditions worsening, she returned in 70 days to the aforesaid Cape Diab.

Fra Mauro continues in another passage again suggesting the continuity of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the former believed to be completely surrounded by land up until that time:

Moreover I have had speech with a person worthy of belief who affirmed that he had passed in a ship of the Indies through a raging storm 40 days out of the Indian Ocean beyond the Cape of Sofala and the Green Islands more or less south-west and west. And according to the calculations of her astronomers, his guides, this person had sailed 32,000 km.

Now, according to Menzies, the 'person worthy of belief' mentioned by Fra Mauro can be none other than Nicolo de Conti himself.

Conti had told Poggio, the papal secretary, that he left Italy in 1419 and using his chronology of events in that account it appears he made his way to India and left from there either in 1421 or 1422 i.e. very near the 'about the year 1420' mentioned for the African journey by Fra Mauro.

Menzies believes that Conti departed India with Zheng He's fleet. The next thing we hear from Poggio's account, though, is that Conti is in Sumatra and there is no mention of an African journey.

Scholars have suggested that Poggio censored Conti's account (see Rubiés, p. 121), and that may have some confirmation when we see the difference between Poggio and Tafur's versions of Conti's journeys.


Three Indias

Conti divided India into three parts as was common in his time. The first India was found from Persia to the Indus River, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, and the third included all the lands beyond the Ganges i.e., India extra-Gangem.

He described India beyond the Ganges as "far surpassing others in wealth, kindness and magnificence, and equaling us in customs and civilization" ("...est opibus, humanitate, lautitia longe praestantior, vita et civili consuetudien nobis aequalis.").

It also should be noted that Fra Mauro describes the African voyage ship that Conti supposedly traveled on as a 'ship or junk of the Indies.'

That's an interesting description because at this time, Southeast Asian ships often were of a hybrid type showing both junk-like characteristics such as transverse bulkheads, and Southeast Asian typology including wooden joints and tropical hardwood materials rather than the fir commonly used to construct Chinese junks.

Even the word "junk" or "zoncho" (Portuguese junco) appears derived from Old Javanese jong and Javanese djong, a name for an ocean-going ship.

Conti himself in his testimony to Pero Tafur had stated that he spent most of his time in the Indian Ocean in the service of "Prester John" of "Greater India."

One interesting discovery has been highlighted by Menzies as proof that ships at that time were circumnavigating the world. The Pandanan wreck off the coast of Palawan in the Philippines is dated to the 15th century and is loaded with andesite metates that Menzies claims must have come from Mesoamerica or South America. The cylindrical stone manos of the metates are rather unusual and do resemble those of the contemporary period "New World."


15th-century Pandanan wreck metate and mano. Source:
http://users.telenet.be/joosdr/amerika/eeuwamerika228.htm

The lusung/lusong mortars and pestles in the Philippines are generally made of wood. In Guam, the Chamorro lusong is stone, but the pestles are wood. Nothing quite similar to the Pandanan metates is known to have been manufactured in this region during the historical period.

Like other ships of that time and in the same region, the Pandanan wreck shared characteristics of both Southeast Asian and Ming-era Chinese ships.

Fra Mauro's map shows junk-like vessels with high stern and square bow plying the Indian Ocean, along with details of what apparently is the island of Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope.

Mauro describes the ships that crossed the Indian Ocean in these terms:

The ships or junks that navigate these seas carry four or more masts, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They navigate without a compass, but have an astrologer who stands on the side and with an astrolabe in hand, and gives orders to the navigator.

This does not appear to describe Zheng He's fleet or other Chinese merchant ships at the time, which did use the compass for navigation. Arab ships also began to use the compass by the 12th century at least. As noted earlier most ships of Southeast Asia did not use the compass when the Europeans arrived on the scene, but the "astrolabe" mentioned above was not commonly used either. The single tiller brings to mind the axial rudder as found on junks or hybrid ships.


Junk-like ship with four masts from Fra Mauro's map positioned west of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Tracing from: De Santarem, M. Visconde. Atlas Compse de Mappemondes et de Cartes Hydrographiques et Historiques, Maulde and Renou, Paris, 1895.

Prester John

Conti tells Tafur that he had personally witnessed Prester John send two missions to 'Christian princes' but had not heard whether these had met with success. The king was also said to have been making preparations for a visit or conquest of Jerusalem. These reports indicate that Conti's Prester John was involved in long-range maritime missions.

Unfortunately Conti's account gives us little information useful in locating this Prester John of the Indies. In his interviews with Poggio, he is aware of the then-existing claims of both an "Indian" and an Ethiopian Prester John. Tafur makes it clear that the Prester John of Greater India is distinct from that of Ethiopia, when he talks of the varying complexions of people in both regions.

Conti mentions a Nestorian king who lived somewhere near Cathay along with the Ethiopian king, and Poggio is said to have interviewed emissaries from the East after his discussions with Conti.

Poggio describes the eastern ambassador as coming from "Upper India" as an envoy of a Nestorian kingdom located 20 days journey from Cathay.

'Upper India' during Poggio's time meant the same as 'Greater India.' With Lower, Middle and Upper India corresponding to the West to East order and Upper India referring to the region beyond the Ganges.

We have seen during this period that the kingdom of Lusung was practicing a policy of attraction with the Ming dynasty, and at the arrival of the Portuguese they were well-dispersed throughout Southeast Asia and eager to provide navigational assistance to the newcomers.

Toscanelli, a friend of Poggio, also met with the Eastern ambassador but he confuses his kingdom with that of Marco Polo's "Great Khan," which by this time had faded into history.

Columbus in his annotated copy of Historia rerum with his own notes copies Toscanelli's letter to Martins referring to Nicolo de Conti's testimony.

Magellan, when faced with a doubtful crew near the tip of South America, told them of a chart he had seen made by Martin Behaim displaying a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Behaim also appeared to have been strongly influenced by Toscanelli as his famed Behaim Globe is nearly a copy of Toscanelli's reconstructed chart.

As Toscanelli himself was indebted to Conti (and also possibly to the Eastern ambassador), it can be said that few persons so influenced the European age of discovery as Nicolo de Conti.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 9.

Rubiés, Joan-Pau. Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, 1250-1625, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 93.

Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered America, HarperCollins, 2003.

Vignaud, Henry. Toscanelli and Columbus: The Letter and Chart of Toscanelli on the Route to the Indies by Way of..., Sands & Co., 1902.