More on Clove and Cinnamon Routes

I want to expand a bit more on the Clove and Cinnamon Routes as these were known on their eastern leg by the Chinese starting in the Sung Dynasty.

Click here for full image.


From the Sung period onwards, the Chinese wrote of two sea routes used for trade towards the South. There was a western route and an eastern route.

The western route, known as xi hanglu 西航路 (western ship route), hugged the coast from Quanzhou in Fujian to Vietnam to the markets of Zhangcheng (Tonkin) and Zhenla (Cambodia). From there, goods went onward to the Malayan penisula, all the time staying west of the Jiaozhi Sea (central South China Sea).

Ships taking the eastern route, known as dong hanglu 東航路 (eastern ship route), sailed due south from Quanzhou, staying to the east of the Jiaozhi Sea toward Luzon. On Luzon was found the kingdoms of Lingyamon (Lingayen) and toward the southeast, Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi, Sambali).

From San-fo-qi, ships went southeast to Toupo (Toubak or Cotabato in Mindanao) where they could access the sources of clove buds and nutmeg in the Moluccas Islands (Maluku).

The central part of the South China Sea was avoided because of the coral islands that were known in early times as Shan Hu Zhou, the modern Paracel and Spratley islands. These islands and reefs were considered dangerous and were skirted by taking either the coastal western ship route or the eastern ship route with the winter monsoon.

Elsewhere I have demonstrated that this East / West segmentation can be related to the existence of two major trade arteries between China to Southeast Asia: the so-called xi hanglu 西航路 (western route) and the dong hanglu 東航路 (eastern route). Ships sailing along the first route went from Fujian and Guangdong to Hainan and Vietnam, passing the Paracel Islands on their western side; from Vietnam they proceeded to the Malayan east coast and finally around the peninsula’s southern tip to Melaka and the Indian Ocean; a further link connected the southern tip of Vietnam to Cape Datu; from there vessels could follow the Kalimantan coast down towards Java. The second route ran from Fujian – via the southern tip of Taiwan – to Luzon; from Luzon one would then go through the Sulu Sea to Brunei or, via the Sulu Islands and Celebes Sea, to Sulawesi, Maluku, Ceram, Timor, and so forth. The existence of this double route system is related to a very special geographical feature: the central part of the South China Sea was considered dangerous due to its many shoals and reefs.

Roderich Ptak, The Sino-European Map (“Shanhai yudi quantu”) in theEncyclopedia Sancai tuhui.

Cloves and nutmeg were taken from the Moluccas, then part of Toupo, to the northwest until they reached Sanfotsi, when the journey then went due north to Quanzhou. From that Fujian port, the spices went westward along the xi hanglu or western ship route.

Cinnamon and cassia, however, sourced from South China and Vietnam, apparently mostly went south along the dong hanglu or eastern ship route. More cinnamon was also available in Mindanao and parts of Indonesia. All this cinnamon eventually went west through Indonesia all the way to Rhapta on the southeast coast of Africa.

One cannot rule out that mainland cinnamon and cassia were traded, at least partly, for the southern insular clove buds and nutmeg.

During Ming times, Lingyamon on the dong hanglu apparently becomes known as the kingdom of Feng-jia-shi-lan 馮家施蘭 (Pangasinan), while I would suggest that Sanfotsi or Sanfoqi becomes Lu-sung 呂宋 (Luzon kingdom). Toupo or the Cotabato empire becomes overshadowed by Su-lu 蘇祿 (Sulu sultanate).

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Nordquist, Myron H and John Norton Moore. Security flashpoints : oil, islands, sea access, and military confrontation, M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1998, 155-9, 168-9.

Ptak, Roderich. The Sino-European Map (“Shanhai yudi quantu”) in theEncyclopedia Sancai tuhui, http://www.humanismolatino.online.pt/v1/pdf/C003-022.pdf.

Reid, Anthony. Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese, University of Hawai`i Press, 1996, 34-5.

On Undersea Realms

A reader of this blog has suggested that the hydraulic system of Luzon that I have written about might link up well with the Greek tales of Atlantis with its system of dikes and canals.

I have avoided Atlantis because it comes to us only from a single source. Plato heard the story of Atlantis from Critias the Younger, who heard it from his grandfather Critias the Elder who heard it from Solon, who heard it from an Egyptian priest. So it was passed four times orally before being committed to writing. All other Greek writers depend on Plato's account, thus there is only one primary source for the legend. That's rather strange given the amount of cultural interaction between Egypt and Greece. Furthermore the story told by the Egyptian priest to Solon reportedly took place 9000 years earlier!

Still it certainly is possible that Atlantis was inspired by some Egyptian records. Probably the best suggestion connects the story with the Egyptian "Isle of Flame" known as Ta-Neserser.
There are a few general similarities between the two accounts and some think that the story may conflate the tradition with other material adding in original stories to convey a political message.

Like Atlantis, the Isle of Flame was noted for its dikes and canals used both for irrigation and navigation. The geography of Atlantis given by Plato is rather stylized. For example, he describes a kingdom located on a perfectly rectangular plain, a river delta, surrounded on three sides by mountains -- something that does not occur in nature. The vastness of the canal system is also certainly a product of the imagination.

Plato describes three concentric canals surrounding the royal capital of Atlantis, the outermost ring spanning nearly 2000 kilometers. These rings were cut by transverse canals forming a grid-like system and small islands, and a canal from the outermost ring led to the open ocean.

On the Island of Flame, canals intersected the watery paradise creating islands or fields, i.e., the Sekhet-Aaru "Fields of Reeds" (Elysian Fields). The plan here is also often given in the form of a rectangle with the canals more linear than circular.



Located across the Sunrise Sea to the East (Atlantis presumably is in the West) in the Sea of Two Knives, the Isle of Flame rises and sinks into the ocean in cataclysmic cycles that last millions of years.

Atlantis also represents probably an allegory of a civilization that declines and finally is destroyed in the end also by a cataclysm of fire and water.

Both the Isle of Flame and Atlantis are also linked with sacred peaks. In Atlantis the central mountain is holy to Poseidon, while on the Isle of Flame we find the Primeval Hill.


A ship is often shown on the peak of the Primordial Hill in depictions of the Elysian Fields.


There appears to be a connection between the Island of Flame and the eastern island source of the spices traded at the emporium of Punt. This island is sometimes also called "Punt," but is different than the kingdom located in southeastern Africa that likely later became known to the Greeks as Rhapta. Christopher J. Eyre notes: "There is a direct comparison here with the island in the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor: a place which stands at the edge of the cosmos; where the god survives after cataclysmic fire from the sky; where food and spirit (k3) are found to perfection; where the sailor burns his offerings, and is threatened with destruction by fire; but where he receives assurance of post-cataclysmic order, and a renewal of his life, restoration to the created world following his passage through this place of danger."

Another ancient land noted for its dikes and also a destination for long-distance trade was the island of Dilmun, located somewhere to the east of Sumer, and noted as a land of marshes.

Pure are the cities -- and you are the ones to whom they are allotted. Pure is Dilmun land. Pure is Sumer -- and you are the ones to whom it is allotted. Pure is Dilmun land. Pure is Dilmun land. Virginal is Dilmun land. Virginal is Dilmun land. Pristine is Dilmun land...In Dilmun the raven was not yet cawing, the partridge not cackling. The lion did not slay, the wolf was not carrying off lambs, the dog had not been taught to make kids curl up, the pig had not learned that grain was to be eaten...When he [Enki] was filling with water a second time, he filled the dykes with water, he filled the canals with water, he filled the fallows with water. The gardener in his joy rose from the dust and embraced him: "Who are you who ...... the garden?"

-- Enki and Ninhursag

Indeed Sumerian myth states that humans were created to relieve the gods of the work associated with building dikes and canals.

The ancient Persians and Indians also knew of a land of dikes known as Haetumant "rich in dikes" to the Persians. The same river or region has been identified with the Haraxvaiti of the Persians and the Sarasvati of India, both names meaning "full of ponds."

Haetumant and Sarasvati are generally located by scholars somewhere in the region from Afghanistan to and including the Punjab of India.

However, I have noted that there was a medieval or late ancient Iranian tradition that the Ardvi Sura Anahita, the earlier name for the Haraxvaiti, was located much further east along with other sacred locations like Kangdez and the region of the White Haoma Tree. Indeed these areas were placed in the Sea of China at the very extremity of the known world. In the Indian Rgveda text, the Sarasvati is located in a region known as Sapta Sindhu "Seven Rivers," which in classical works is placed on Sakadvipa island east of India in the Milky Ocean.

Because the related Iranian and Indian manuscripts are not that old, it is difficult to determine the earliest dates for these beliefs. However, as we have noted earlier in this blog by the beginning of the common era even the Greeks knew of this far eastern region as demonstrated in the geography of Marinus of Tyre. Hebrew texts like the Old Testament and Enoch push knowledge of these eastern lands, where cinnamon and aloeswood originate, back at least a few centuries if not several. And, of course, if we date the trade of these spices to ancient Egypt such knowledge may go back at least to the Middle Kingdom period.

Another noteworthy item in reference to the sinking and rising Isle of Flame (and the sinking Atlantis) is the many accounts of undersea kingdoms in ancient writings and myths. The island source of spices in Punt, again sometimes called Punt itself, was said to move around in the ocean and to sometimes disappear -- possibly an allusion to the cataclysmic Isle of Flame.

Chinese legend has the three floating islands of paradise including Penglai, which are often also said to disappear sometimes submerging beneath the waves. Indeed, the Dragon King of the East, who is said to live under the sea, is also said to reside on Penglai. In Japanese folklore, Penglai (Horaisan) is equated with Tokoyonokuni, which again is often placed under the ocean as in the tale of Urashima.

In Dilmun, Gilgamesh dived to the bottom of the sea at a location known as the "mouth of the waters" to an underwater domain known as the Apsu to retrieve the plant of immortality. Iranian myth places this plant -- known as the White Haoma Tree -- in the "middle" of the ocean although not necessarily underwater. Southeast Asian myth tells of the undersea Pauh Janggi, Campanganghi and similar trees at the "navel of the ocean."

These Atlantean kingdoms may owe their origin to traditions of actual sea flooding, volcanic eruptions, etc. in historical contexts and/or to the watery nature of estuarine kingdoms and settlements.


View Larger Map
Notice that the dike and canal region around the northern part of Manila Bay has a similar shading as the shallow waters of Olongapo Bay (left side). This is partly because the area consists of reclaimed mangrove and freshwater marshland, but also because much of the area would be underwater during high tide, and some areas even during low tide, if not for the presence of the dikes.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento


References

Eyre, Christopher J. Cannibal Hymn: a cultural and literary study, Liverpool University Press, 2002, pp. 82-3.

Lee, Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard. Timaeus and Critias. by Plato, Penguin Books, 1971.

Nunes dos Santos, Arysio. Atlantis The Lost Continent Finally Found, Atlantis Publications, 2005

Two new studies on Austronesian expansion, peopling of Pacific

There are a couple of linked articles appearing in the latest edition of Science bearing on the peopling of the Pacific including the Austronesian expansion. I have not read the full articles yet, but have posted the abstracts below.

The first traces the a gut pathogen known as Helicobacter pylori suggesting that different Austronesian language branches are linked with related clades of this bacteria. The second study basically agrees with the first using this time linguistic phylogeny to trace the route of Austronesian speakers. Both studies claim that the Austronesian expansion began in Taiwan.

Opposing claims include an Austronesian expansion beginning in South China; and the two that I find most compatible with the evidence: an expansion from Indochina as espoused by Wilhelm Solheim; or from Sundaland or Insular Southeast Asia as brought forth by Stephen Oppenheimer. The datings also of the new study seem to recent when compared to the archaeological, genetic, and in my view also the linguistic evidence.

From other press releases, it appears that the authors are suggesting an initial expansion from Taiwan and then a secondary one from the Philippines. The second demographic movement might be linked with the divergence of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, which if true I would find agreeable at least in terms of geography (but not chronology).

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Science. 2009 Jan 23;323(5913):527-530.

The Peopling of the Pacific from a Bacterial Perspective.

Moodley Y, Linz B, Yamaoka Y, Windsor HM, Breurec S, Wu JY, Maady A, Bernhöft S, Thiberge JM, Phuanukoonnon S, Jobb G, Siba P, Graham DY, Marshall BJ, Achtman M.

Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie, Department of Molecular Biology, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

Two prehistoric migrations peopled the Pacific. One reached New Guinea and Australia, and a second, more recent, migration extended through Melanesia and from there to the Polynesian islands. These migrations were accompanied by two distinct populations of the specific human pathogen Helicobacter pylori, called hpSahul and hspMaori, respectively. hpSahul split from Asian populations of H. pylori 31,000 to 37,000 years ago, in concordance with archaeological history. The hpSahul populations in New Guinea and Australia have diverged sufficiently to indicate that they have remained isolated for the past 23,000 to 32,000 years. The second human expansion from Taiwan 5000 years ago dispersed one of several subgroups of the Austronesian language family along with one of several hspMaori clades into Melanesia and Polynesia, where both language and parasite have continued to diverge.

Science. 2009 Jan 23;323(5913):479-483.

Language Phylogenies Reveal Expansion Pulses and Pauses in Pacific Settlement.

Gray RD, Drummond AJ, Greenhill SJ.

Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.

Debates about human prehistory often center on the role that population expansions play in shaping biological and cultural diversity. Hypotheses on the origin of the Austronesian settlers of the Pacific are divided between a recent "pulse-pause" expansion from Taiwan and an older "slow-boat" diffusion from Wallacea. We used lexical data and Bayesian phylogenetic methods to construct a phylogeny of 400 languages. In agreement with the pulse-pause scenario, the language trees place the Austronesian origin in Taiwan approximately 5230 years ago and reveal a series of settlement pauses and expansion pulses linked to technological and social innovations. These results are robust to assumptions about the rooting and calibration of the trees and demonstrate the combined power of linguistic scholarship, database technologies, and computational phylogenetic methods for resolving questions about human prehistory.

Sayabiga and Rice Agriculture in the Middle East

The recent posts on irrigation provide an opportunity for a segue to the question of the Sayabiga that has been discussed earlier in this blog.

M. J. de Goeje in 1894 first suggested that the Sayabiga, mentioned in medieval Muslim texts, came from the kingdom of Zabag in Insular Southeast Asia. De Goeje was later followed by and expanded upon by G. Ferrand in 1934. I have located the kingdom of Zabag in the same pampang area discussed in some recent postings.

Now, the medieval records state that the Sayabiga were living along the Persian Gulf coast during the reign of the Sassanian king Bahram V (420-38). After the Muslim conquest, the Sayabiga along with a group known as the Zutt, who were probably related to the modern Jats of Sindh, were relocated by the Caliph to the marshlands around the present-day Shatt-al-Arab. The Zutt and Sayabiga, along with the Zanj from coastal southern Africa, worked on draining the swamps in this area.

The two groups, the Zutt and Sayabiga, were said to raise water buffalo that put the "lion to flight," and to have introduced rice farming into the area. Rice became popular in the area at the time and came to form the staple in the Shatt-al-Arab and nearby areas from that period until the present day. Later on, because of the problems with lions in Antioch, the Zutt and Sayabiga along with their water buffalo herds were moved to that region to rid the area of lions.

What is interesting is the rice agriculture system present today along the Shatt-al-Arab.



View Larger Map

The area around Basra and the Shatt-al-Arab in southern Iraq where the Zutt and Sayabiga were settled.



The irrigation system here is controlled by a system of mud dikes. The areas furthest from the river remained relatively dry and is planted with wheat and barley. The middle area, which was irrigated by the tides, is cropped with millet and maize. The area closest to the Shatt-al-Arab remains wet all the time and is planted with rice i.e. wet rice agriculture.




View Larger Map

Close-up of diked fields, some in disuse, along the Shatt-al-Arab. This area has been famous for its canals since medieval times.

Another interesting area of research here would be to compare tidal fishing methods to see if there is any sign of Sayabiga influence. Some of the fish traps like the valve room trap, the mud dam trap and the milan trap (see: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/MarinaMesopotamica/2006/pdf/2006OL_0101pp001037.pdf), look quite similar to methods used far to the east in Pampanga.

There has also been a suggestion that oculi or boat's eyes painted on the bow as amulets and found on medieval Arab dhows were brought to the region by the Sayabiga (see Peabody Museum of Salem, The American Neptune, p. 42; also Waruno Mahdi "The dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean," IN: Roger Blech, Matthew Spriggs, Archaeology and Language: Artifacts, Language and Texts, Routledge, 1999, 162.)

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Rice Terrace images on Google Earth

Google Earth has new images of the rice terraces region in Northern Luzon, or least this is the first I have noticed them.

Some of the Kiangan region rice terraces, a UNESCO world heritage site, are visible. But even more spectacular are the rice and vegetable terraces along the Halsema Highway through Benguet.

The ride up this highway from Baguio to Bontoc or Sagada is one of the most spectacular that I have experienced. The Halsema Highway is the highest elevated major highway in the Philippines. While the mountain range here does not come close to comparing in elevation with the highest mountains in the world, it is still very rugged with many steep and at times sheer cliffs appearing as endless drop-offs to vehicle passengers. The vegetation is a beautiful blending of tropical and alpine types and the mountains are often covered in a surreal mist that shrouds the well-constructed terraces.



The Halsema Highway in Benguet. Click image to enlarge.



The area near Apunan. Click image to enlarge.

Unfortunately, Google still does not have high resolution photos of the most noteworthy rice terraces like those at Banaue. The native Igorot peoples have modified the landscape in this region to a scale unequaled prior to modern times. The terrace walls of Banaue alone would stretch half way around the world if strung together according to one estimate, and the combined terrace walls of the Igorots would extend around the whole globe.


Source: WOCAT http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/wocat/.

Some researchers have speculated that the terraces were filled using canals that brought sediment downstream from higher elevations. However, some early researchers found that the terraces they examined were mostly filled with gravel that was sourced from locations at lower elevations than the terraces. Gravel does not move that easily in flowing water and especially when going uphill, so there still remains some mystery as to how they moved so much earth into these vast structures.


Muyong, indigenous forestry


Source: http://www.unu.edu/hq/Japanese/gs-j/gs2005j/shimane-yamaguchi1/yap.pdf

The rice terraces of the Ifugao group among the Igorots are divided into water districts (himpuntonā’an) led by a district head known as tomona.

Each district has a woodlot known as a muyong -- an example of indigenous forestry practice. The muyong are usually not wild forest, but old swidden land converted into specialty forest. While some harvesting of the muyong occurs, it is generally protected as it constitutes the main perennial source of water for the irrigation system used with the rice terraces. The trees of the muyong hold moisture from running off too rapidly, and natural organic compost that collects in the forest is washed down the canals replenishing the fertility of the terraced rice ponds. The people were divided into work groups with a women's

ubbu assigned to planting, harvesting, and weeding terrace walls and with swidden farm (uma) maintenance. The men’s ubbu is charged with constructing and maintaining terrace walls. A third male work group, the baddang, was responsible for maintaining the canal system.

Yale anthropologist Harold Conklin had described these rice terraces as "one of the soundest soil and water conservation structures ever built by humans."

The dike and pond system of Pampanga is similar in many respects to the terrace system.

However, in the case of Pampanga the Pinatubo watershed and the mountain source of the Pampanga River act as the "muyong" of the system. During the flood season, the muddy waters flow down the rivers and streams depositing rich sediment into the rice fields.

At one time, most of the region of Upper Pampanga was covered mostly with forest. Very large herds of usa, the Philippine Sambar Deer, roamed the region.

In contrast, Lower Pampanga had little swidden land or forest. Nearly the entire surface is covered with rice or fish ponds. Some mangrove forestry was undertaken on the dikes, but mostly the people living here had to trade to get swidden or forest products. In the estuarine areas, only fish ponds and mangroves could be raised, so they also had to get their rice from elsewhere.

The combination of modern development in Upper Pampanga and the Pinatubo eruption negatively impacted the fertilty of the pampang system, but things have recovered lately as the slopes of Pinatubo are gradually greening once again.

In Pampanga also, there were still indications as late as the early 18th century of a system of social structure similar to that used in the rice terraces region with irrigation districts demarked by borders known as danay. The "king of the mountain" here would be the equivalent of the a-amma manlilintog of the Tinglayen Igorots of Sagada "the elder who gives the law" i.e., in Kapampangan the payugali. In addition there were other elements of the social structure related to trade and foreign relations, and long-distance kinship relations.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Yap, David Leonides T. “Conservation and Progress: Bridging the Gap,the Case of the Ifugao Rice Terraces," http://www.unu.edu/hq/Japanese/gs-j/gs2005j/shimane-yamaguchi1/yap.pdf.

Ancient Land Reclamation in Manila Bay?

Check out these images from Google maps (maps.google.com). Click on the images to enlarge them.

The first is a satellite photo image of the northern Manila Bay:


Click image to enlarge


Now here is the same area but using a terrain rather than a photographic image:


Click image to enlarge

Notice the lakes in the image above that are missing in the first image, and also that the Pampanga Bay in the northwest corner extends much further northward than in the photographic image.

These are areas of reclaimed land that still show up in multi-spectral imagery because what is known as the spectral reflectance value is different than the surrounding land. When the lakes and bay were filled they retain a higher moisture content deeper than in the surrounding areas. So to imaging satellites, these still appear to be bodies of water.

So far, I have not been able to find any information on modern land reclamation projects in this region. There have been some further south in Metro Manila where the Cultural Center of the Philippines, for example, stands on reclaimed land. Most land reclamation projects involve modern construction, while the reclaimed land here is covered with old-style dike-pond (pampang) structures.

Since waterways are generally public, I doubt that these projects could have been completed without permission. The Pampanga Bay, for example, in the following overlay of the two images above is about twice as large in the terrain image.


Click image to enlarge



Indeed some old maps agree with the photographic image.



Click image to enlarge

(From: The Philippine journal of science. [Vol. 3, no. B], 1908)



Click image to enlarge

(From: Hannaford, Ebenezer, History and description of our Philippine wonderland, and photographic panorama of Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, Samoa, Guam, and Wake island, with entertaining accounts of their peoples and modes of living, customs, industries, climate and present conditions, The Crowell & Kirkpatrick Co., 1899.)


So it appears that these bodies of water were not filled in in modern times, although this still needs some research I admit.

If they were filled in ancient times, the question is to whether it was an artificial process or whether it was due to natural siltation or possibly caused by volcanic lahar deposits.

Either way these areas can be useful in dating the building of this irrigation system. Since sediment would mostly have been used to fill these bodies of water in both the artificial and natural process, the organic material in the sediment can be carbon-dated. If there is evidence of dikes existing at one time on the former water's edge, it would mean that dike-building predated the land reclamation. It can also be said that at least the dikes and ponds built over these former estuarine bodies were not built before the land was reclaimed.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Notes on place names in Zambales and Pampanga

In various parts of the world, we come across a type of sacred geography that views geographical locations as corresponding to the body parts of a deity or deities.

Among Hindus, for example, the Sakta-pithas are considered sacred pilgrimage sites that each correspond with a specific body part of the goddess Sakti. The Buddhists have a similar system.

In the regions of Zambales and Pampanga in the Philippines that have been of major focus in this blog, there are some indications of a similar type of sacred geography. The town known as Betis, once the largest population center in Luzon but now absorbed into the municipality of Lubao, was originally known as Bitis, for example by Gov. Francisco de Sande in 1576. The latter word means "foot" in the local Kapampangan language.

Bitis is in fact located at the foothills of Mt. Pinatubo where the elevation begins to rise from the flat plains of Pampanga. Therefore, the name might indicate the foot or bottom of the mountain. Another nearby district of Lubao is known as Pasbul, which means "gate" possibly indicating this area was a thoroughfare to the mountain area.

Taking into account the common Austronesian practice of quadripartite division, there are some indications that this general area may have been conceived of as consisting of four "bodies." From Bitis toward the South, there are two placenames indicating parts near the top of the body. At the southern end of the Zambales range, of which Mt. Pinatubo is a part, sits Olongapo, the name derived from the Ulo ng Apo "Head of the Lord/Elder." To the southeast, across the Manila Bay and at the southern end of pampang-style agricultural system that runs from Lower Pampanga and through Bulacan is the ancient city of Tondo.

Tondo is believed to be derived from the Kapampangan word tundun which means "nape" or "back of the neck."

So from Bitis at the feet of the mountains of Pinatubo and Arayat going southwest, you have Olongapo "Head of the Lord," along the coast of Subic Bay, and to the southeast Tondo "Back of the Neck" along the Manila Bay.

Now in the opposite direction from Bitis are again the mountains of Pinatubo to the northwest and Arayat to the northeast. This area around the mountains is generally considered "central" as the directional word paralaya "toward Arayat" for "East" indicates. The Kapampangan word for "North" is ulu or pang-ulu. The ulu in this name is related to the ulo in "Ulo ng Apo" above with both words derived from Proto-Austronesian *ulu "head."

In Kapampangan the meaning of "head" for ulu and pangulu has been lost and the words now mean either "North" or "headwater," i.e. the origin of a river or stream. However, when the words were originally derived to indicate "North," ulu and pangulu still may have retained at least a secondary meaning of "head." Thus, the northern direction would have been associated with some place to the north that was thought of again in terms of the "head" body part.

So, there were four bodies in this hypothesis, all with their feet coming together in Bitis. The two bodies extending to the north had their central parts located apart at the east and west in Mts. Arayat and Pinatubo respectively with the heads again coming together in the north i.e. ulu or pangulu. The top parts of the two bodies extending to the South were Olongapo and Tondo both locations offering access to the open sea through the Subic and Manila bays respectively.

Now, the midsection of the southern bodies is also possibly indicated by a secondary directional system associated with the winds and used by fishermen. In this system, "South" is indicated by the word malaut "on the sea," while "North" is balas or "sand" meaning the type of sand common in the estuarine areas of Lower Pampanga. The south wind is also known as kalautan indicating the wind blowing off the ocean. This would indicate that this southern "center" was located along the northern beach line of the Pampanga Bay, probably at the mouth of the Pampanga River. The names for the directions "southwest" or abagat, the wind that blows in the high tide, and for south-by-southeast or ikat-aldo panlaut "sunrise by the sea" also strengthen this location of the southern center.


Click image for larger version

If this suggested sacred geography is correct, we can only guess at what bodies may have been suggested by the ancients. Possibly the two northern bodies could have been those of the deities Apung Mallari and Apung Sinukuan, associated with Mts. Pinatubo and Arayat respectively, but sufficient clues are lacking.

That the ancient peoples in this region may have seen their country as a type of the world in microcosm may be seen in their making Pinatubo and Arayat as the homes of the Moon and Sun respectively. As skilled mariners, they knew that the perceptions of the rising and setting luminaries was relative and could be expanded to all locations. Therefore the four bodies of the country could represent a smaller version of the four corners of the world in Austronesian quadripartite thinking.


Land of sacred earth and pottery

The region of Zambales (Sambali) and Pampanga were linked with the sacred earth of the volcanoes, and the pottery made from this earth I have suggested in this blog.

Many place names link up with these two themes. Joel Pabustan Mallari has noted that the capitals of Zambales and of Bataan to the south (where Olongapo is located) both have names that denote ancient types of pots i.e., Iba and Balanga respectively. Iba is also the former name of a village in Mabalacat near the Pampanga-Zambales border.

Pottery-making continues to this day in locations like Apalit in Pampanga, Calumpit in Bulacan, Victoria in Tarlac and San Leonardo in Nueva Ecija. However, older testimony indicates that pottery-making was once more widespread.

Many geographical names or terms indicate features or resources connected with the earth and soil. For example, as already mentioned, one term for the northern direction is balas, which means simply "sand" with a secondary connotation of sand specifically associated with estuarine areas. Diego Bergaño in the 18th century mentions a type of ancient earthenware known as balasini which he describes as:

"Loza antigua, que parece está hendida, no lo estando: hay poco, ya." ('Ancient earthenware, it appears to crack, no longer made: very few are left.')

-- Diego Bergaño (1732), Vocabulario de la lengua Pampangan en romance.

The word balasini may be derived from balas, and indeed modern potters still use balas-type sand as a temper in making certain types of pots. These antique wares that were still present in Bergaño's time may be related to the valuable earthenware Ruson-tsubo that were traded to Japan in earlier times.

Mallari mentions a number of places that appear to indicate some link with ancient quarrying:

Balas (sand) common name for barangays in Bacolor, Mexico and Concepcion; Sapangbato (lake of stones) in Angeles; Mabatu-batu (rocky) in [S]an Francisco, Magalang; Banlic (sand or mud after a flood) in Cabalantian, Bacolor; Planas (coral stones) in Porac.

The name Porac itself has a difficult etymology. It could be related to purac "pandan tree," burak "mud/lahar," or other similar words. I would not be surprised if it is a corruption of the word pila or pilac "clay." The archaeologist Robert Fox had reported that he saw what he thought were ancient quarries in Porac. Today, Porac is a major quarrying site, which may be one reason that archaeological finds are rather frequent in this area. Possibly in ancient times, Porac was a source of clay used for pottery and other uses.

In concluding, one last indication of the link with pottery and geography comes from ancient Kapampangan cosmology. The words suclub and sicluban are drawn from the same root meaning lid or cover and particularly referring to the lid of an earthenware pot. Suclub also means "horizon," and the phrase meto sicluban banua means vault or mantle of the sky. The ancients apparently viewed the world as a great pot with the sky as the lid or cover, which reminds us of the Penglai pot (hu) heaven in Chinese mythology.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Mallari, Joel Pabustan. "Adobe and Pumice: Upon these rocks," Singsing vol. 3, no. 1, 17-19.

__, "Ancient quarrying in Pampanga," Singsing vol. 3, no. 1, 18.

__, "Tracing the early Kapampangan boat people," Singsing vol. 3, no. 2, 58-9.

__, "The dying kuran technology of Capalangan," Singsing vol. 5, no. 1, 45-50.

Tantingco, Robby. "Time and space according to ancient Kapampangans," Singsing vol. 2, no. 4, 19-21.

The Pampang Water Control System

To describe the irrigation and hydraulic engineering system, I will use information gleaned from my father, who along with his family during World War II relocated to relatives' farms in the boondocks of Masantol. Many of the graphics are taken from the following article:

Adams, Wallace, Heraclio R. Montalban and Claro Martin. "Cultivation of bangos in the Philippines," The Philippine journal of science Vol. 47, no. 1, Manila, 1-38.

The pampang or dikes that divert water are made of piled up earth or mud. These dikes are generally low except near the more powerful rivers.

Pampang near the river are usually planted with mangroves or Sonneratia trees to help them withstand the force of the tides and floods. These dikes are usually very wide and roads were constructed on them. Both the Spanish and Americans improved upon these pampang roads. Juan de Medina writing in 1630 states:

All Pampanga is like streets, for the houses of one town are continued by those of another. One may go to all its towns without getting in the sun, for now the bamboos, and now the palms furnish very pleasant shade.

The mangroves not only protect the dikes, but also act as environments for talangka crabs and other species,which are harvested by farmers. The small dikes that demark the rice fields and fish ponds are generally kept free of vegetation and contain foot paths.

Tidal and sluice gates are known as saplad in the Masantol area. These days the main gates along the river are generally constructed with concrete. In former times, they were made of stones or bricks cemented together or of thick, sturdy hardwood. The saplad are sliding gates with handles on top. Farmers pull up the gate and then place stops into slots in the gate door to hold it into position. Drainage is afforded by ditches known as bangbang.

Water is allowed into the ricefields by smaller gates which are actually tiny dams known as tambun or tambunan made of mud and straw. The farmer simply cuts a little channel into the dam to let water in, and reconstructs the dam to keep water from draining out.

Fish ponds or kaluangan

The fish ponds are a bit more complicated in construction as they hold more water and require a certain directed flow of water. These fish ponds are based on pisiculture of bangus (milkfish) or related species like the Pacific tarpon. The exact origins of milkfish culture is unknown but it was practiced when the Spanish first came to these islands.

These fish are saltwater species but migrate as fry to brackish water estuaries and mangrove swamps were they mature, and then return as adults to the sea. Fish ponds are best made in areas of clay soil or the ponds are lined with clay, which retains water and also is the best soil to produce vegetation that bangus like to feed on.




The dike is built above high tide and flood level with a puddle trench (mecha) below in an appropriate tidal estuary. The main gate or saplad allows water in from the river.


Gate system of a pampang fish pond for raising bangus and related salt/brackish water species.


The ponds used to grow the fish from fingerling to adult size are generally divided into sections known as kulungan (catching pont), impitan or bansutan (containment pond) and kaluangan (rearing pond). A series of smaller gates directs the flow of water in a circular fashion.



The fish pond system with subdivisions.


A separate type of pond is used for raising bangus fry known as pabiayan. The pabiayan also have a kulungan catching pond that is fed by a canal known as sangka. Pipes known as pansol usually made of anahaw wood circulate water into the rearing ponds.



k' - kulungan; p' - pansol; sg - small wooden gate; qp - quadrangular pipe.






Water in both fish and rice ponds is usually freshened at least twice a month during the lunar high tides that occur around the New and Full Moons. Both fish and rice culture in the pampang system involve initial raising in one location, and then transplanting to another location for maturation.

The saplad gates are left open during the high tides and are closed during ebb tides to prevent water from draining back in the estuary. Knowledge of the ebb tide is important and probably many today simply use modern tide predictions, but in ancient times an indigenous system was employed, which in itself would be an interesting area of research. Antonio de Morga writing in 1609 describes the difficulty of predicting tides in some of the southern areas of the Philippines.

The flow- and ebb-tides, and the high and low tides among these islands are so diverse in them that they have no fixed rule, either because of the powerful currents among these islands, or by some other natural secret of the flux and reflux which the moon causes. No definite knowledge has been arrived at in this regard, for although the tides are highest during the opposition of the moon, and are higher in the month of March than throughout the rest of the year, there is so great variation in the daily tides that it causes surprise. Some days there are two equal tides between day and night, while other days there is but one. At other times the flow during the day is low, and that of the night greater. They usually have no fixed hour, for it may happen to be high-tide one day at noon, while next day high-tide may be anticipated or postponed many hours. Or the tide of one day may be low, and when a smaller one is expected for next day, it may be much greater.

The Bugis of Sulawesi possess a sophisticated algorithm for predicting tides and it would be interesting to see if the Pampangan system is similar.


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Ritual drinking in eastern Asia and the Pacific

Ritualized drinking was once very widespread in the areas of eastern Asia and the Pacific and still survives in many areas as evidenced by the existence of the kava bowl, rice wine jar, chanoyu tea pot and similar ritual drinking implements.

In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in particular, ceremonial drinking is often the most important social activity were even informal gatherings often involve at least some ritual. Drinking plays a part in many of the most sacred events and sometimes the ceremonies revolve specifically around the ritual drinking itself.


Communal drinking of rice wine from jars with bamboo straws in the Central Highlands of Vietnam (Janowski et al., Kinship and Food in South East Asia, 262).


Vessels that appear linked with drinking, and thus possibly ritual drinking, are found in Neolithic sites of Asia. The first written evidence from this region comes from the Shang dynasty of China in which drinking rituals were of great importance. Shang ritual drinking vessels like the hu, lei and jue appear to have been modeled on earlier prototypes with the same shapes and characteristics from the Lungshanoid culture, the apparent ancestor of Shang dynasty culture.

Following some of the suggestions of Solheim, I have argued that Lungshanoid culture ultimately was influenced by the red-slipped ware from Southeast Asia. The red-slipped ware was often marked with cords and/or baskets, and decorated with impressed circles often filled with lime; and dentate/triangle patterns.

The establishment of trade routes by the Nusantao allowed for a sudden rapid expansion of trade during the Middle Neolithic that gave rise to Lunghanoid type wares. This was a bidirectional movement of people and culture through trade more than a major demographic migration event like the Austronesian expansion, as suggested by some.

Lungshanoid or Lungshanoid-like wares are characterized by tripods, usually with tapering, hollow legs; and ring-feet bases often decorated and perforated. Shang wine vessels also are dominated by tripods and ring-feet. In Taiwan and Southeast Asia, the Lungshanoid type wares tended to be red-slipped, plain or polished black. In mainland China, these types were polished black or plain. In all these areas, Lungshanoid wares were often cord-marked.


Perforated ring-foot vessels from left to right: Neolithic pottery dou-like vessel with ya-shaped perforation in foot from Zhengzhou (Sarah Allan, The shape of the turtle, 89); Iron age vessel similar to the pan water basin, from Novaliches, Philippines; perforated ring-foot vessel from South India (last two images from: Waruno Mahdi, Archaeology and Language IV: Language Change and Cultural Transformation).

Origins

Interestingly, Chinese myth links the wine culture of the Shang dynasty with Emperor Shun Di, who is also known as Jun Di, a Shang ancestor from Tanggu "Hot Water Valley," the country of the Fusang Tree located beyond the 'Southeastern Sea.'

Emperor Shun was a potter before becoming king, and he was considered a patron of pottery-making and was especially linked with wine vessels and earthenware. His daughter is often credited with the invention of wine. This "wine" known as jiu and chang was not made from fruit but from rice or millet and was not distilled, so it was technically a beer. Grape wine also came to be known but was much less common and was mostly associated with Turkic peoples in the far West.

Judging from latter practices, rice wine would have been made mostly from glutinous rice although normal rice and other grains were also used. This is noteworthy as some research indicates that glutinous rice, also known as sticky or sweet rice, was domesticated only once and in Southeast Asia.

When the Zhou succeeded the Shang, the wine ritual became much less important and the hu wine vessel took a backseat to the ding food cauldron. Indeed, one text in the Book of Documents known as the "Admonition on Wine," castigates the Shang people for excessive drinking of liquor and that opinion held sway in latter Confucian China.

The Shang drank wine that had been offered in sacred ceremonies to gods, ancestors and spirits. In Southeast Asia, ritual drinking is also commonly associated with and offered to departed ancestors, and used in mortuary rituals. Ceremonial drinking was also an important part of many types of initiation such as that of warriors or priests.

However, the hu wine vessel as noted in this blog took on a different role in the practice of alchemy that was to develop in latter times.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Bushell, Stephen W. Chinese Art, H. M. Stationery Off. by Wyman and Sons, 1904, 52.

Chang, Kwang-chih . The Archaeology of Ancient China,Yale University Press, 1963.

Janowski, Monica and Fiona Kerlogue. Kinship and Food in South East Asia, NIAS Press, 2007.

Mahdi, Waruno. "Linguisitc and philogical data towards a chronology of Austronesian activity in India and Sri Lanka," IN: Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs. Archaeology and Language IV: Language Change and Cultural Transformation, Routledge (UK), 1999

Google Earth armchair archaeology

Using tools like Google Earth, maps.google.com or other free online mapping services, one can comfortably explore for sites just like an aerial archaeologist.

Actually you can cover ground faster than an aerial archaeologist but with more image resolution limitations.

What you look for generally are different kinds of "marks" known as crop marks, soil marks and shadow marks.

Crop marks: Former human activity often effects the growth of crops on the surface above the buried sites. For example, crops or vegetation grown over an old buried ditch tend to grow higher, while crops grown over a stone wall or structure will have stunted growth.

Soil marks: Soil marks occur usually when one moves one kind of soil from one location to another as when building dikes or mounds. Often the soil is of different color. Sometimes the soil becomes stained as in the case when old wooden structures have decomposed leaving marks that are sometimes discernible.

Shadow marks: These are marks caused when old structures cause uneven elevation on the ground's surface above. During certain times of the day when the Sun's angle is right, the ridges, mounds, etc. can be detected from above by the shadows they cast.

From: GIS and Remote Sensing for Archaeology

From: Western European Archaeology. Soil mark from a leveled mound. The combination of eye altitude and resolution here is better than what you will get in most areas using Google.


From: Prospection aérienne en Étampois. Crop marks.


Aerial/satellite spotting can also be effective in locating shipwrecks underwater especially in tropical seas where the water is very clear.



Click image for full size

In this Google Earth image, we can see underwater traps in the Pampanga Bay, Philippines. There are also two outrigger vessels near the center of the picture.


Beyond the armchair

If you believe you have discovered an archaeological site, you can report it to professional archaeologists.

In most countries, digging for artifacts is only allowed with government permission, However, if you get no response on your find, you could scan the site in person especially if it is on public land. Often you can also treasure hunt, but again you need to be acquainted with local laws.

In many areas, all artifacts found are the property of the government. In other areas, you may be able to keep objects found at certain depths. Note that many professional archaeologists are not particularly fond of treasure hunters, at least the kind that engage in the commercial selling of antiquities.

However, in some areas, like underwater archaeology, treasure hunters often work together with specialists from universities, museums and the government.

The treasure hunter's main tool is the metal detector. In certain conditions, metal tools, jewelry, coins, etc. can last for long periods underground. Gold, in particular, is highly resistant to corrosion, and because of its value, a great find for treasure hunters.

Professional archaeologists on reaching a potential site will conduct test digs usually starting with what is known as a test trench looking for signs of habitation.

Metal detectors, some of which can scan very deep below the surface, allow you to quickly cover a lot of territory. If you find something, you may be able to convince archaeologists to excavate the site, and then volunteer to help out on the dig.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Pre-Columbian chickens, dates, isotopes, and mtDNA

Below is the abstract for the latest in a series of studies involving pre-Columbian chickens in the Americas. The issue is a highly-politicized one.

The article basically defends the original contention of Storey et al. claiming evidence through carbon dating and mtDNA testing of pre-Columbian chickens at El Arenal, Chile. There was a surprinsingly quick response by Gongora et al. claiming to refute Storey et al. on both the mtDNA analysis and the isotope dating.

Unfortunately, I have not yet had a chance to read this article and the Storey et al. defense. The original study compared chicken mtDNA from El Arenal-1 to similarly-dated samples from Kualoa on O'ahu, Anakena on Rapa Nui and in Tonga and Samoa.

Pre-Columbian chickens, dates, isotopes, and mtDNA

Alice A. Storey et al.

Published online before print November 24, 2008, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0807625105 PNAS December 2, 2008 vol. 105 no. 48 E99

Recently Gongora et al. (1) stated that their analyses of chicken mtDNA and potential offsets for dietary marine carbon cast doubt on “claims for pre-Columbian chickens” in the Americas. We present additional data supporting the interpretation of Storey et al. (2) showing that evidence for pre-Columbian chickens at the site of El Arenal, Chile, is secure.

Gongora et al. (1) analyzed …

[Full Text of this Article]

Philippine team to recreate Austronesian voyages

A Philippine team that recently became the first from the nation to scale Mt. Everest is now out to recreate voyages by ancient Austronesian mariners.

The team will enlist the help of two Badjao boat builders from semi-nomadic seafaring groups from Sibutu and Sitangkay in Tawi-Tawi to build a boat based on the Butuan Barangay from the 10th century CE. The crew will also include two Badjao seafarers and a "master mariner" from the Philippine Coast Guard who was part of the team that climbed Everest.

Zoom

Sketch of a sailing boat from the southern Philippines.

Remnants of a barangay boat at the Butuan Museum in Mindanao.

The group will engage in three voyages over three years. The first will circle the Philippines; the second, visit Southeast Asian ports; and the third, attempt a bold recreation of the journey to Madagascar. The article claims that the voyagers will use ancient navigation techniques:

It will sail the natural way—by adhering to celestial navigation, observing the migration of birds, cloud formation and waves....“We would build a boat the way it was, sail it the way it was and trace the migration route of the Austronesian-speaking people,” says Art Valdez, head of Kaya ng Pinoy, a group that pushes for projects that uphold national pride.

However, later on the article the authors suggest the vessel will only hug the coastline, which is not the way the ancients sailed these waters. Also, it suggests that as many as 50 people may be crammed into a 15 x 4.5 meter boat. There are models of larger seagoing craft that the team could choose from to make trade wind journeys. They would be advised to work with navigators who still sail beyond the sight of land without instruments as some can still be found in places like Micronesia.

RP Everest team sails on to new quest

By Erika Sauler
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:02:00 12/05/2008

MANILA, Philippines—After sending the first Filipinos to the summit of the world’s highest peak, the leader of the first Philippine expedition team to Mt. Everest is embarking on another epic adventure—to navigate the waters of the archipelagic areas of Asia as the early Filipinos did on a replica of a balangay, a pre-colonial boat.

The same Mt. Everest team will steer the balangay around the Philippines in 2009, then proceed to Southeast Asia in 2010 and on to Madagascar off Africa in 2011...

Read the whole article

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The sacred hu 壺 vessels

The hu 壺 vessel was a ritual drinking container for wine and water used from at least Shang dynasty times. Vessels similar to the Hu jars date back to Neolithic times, and during latter periods there were earthenware, laquerware and bronze hu.

Hu vessels were somewhat gourd-like in shape and the original word hu 壺 means "gourd."

According to Liezi (4th century BCE), one of the three islands of the blessed was shaped like a hu with a square mouth. Starting in the Han dynasty, we see the production of boshanlu censers and jars meant to represent mountains on the three paradise islands of the southeastern seas. These mountains were Peng-hu on the island of Peng-lai, Fang-hu on Fang-chang, and Ying-hu on Ying-chou. Notice the "-hu" element in all these names.

The hu mountains were conceived as resembling hu jars in shape and with open mouths at the top.

On one of the mountains represented on the boshanlu, known as the "Mountain without peer," a hole was placed on top to allow smoke to rise from the peak. The smoke symbolized the "cinnabar furnace" that was supposed to exist within this mountain creating the elixir of immortality.

From this elixir, the Qin emperor was advised to create vessels of transmuted gold, with the help of beings from Peng-lai, that would convey long life. I have suggested that this "transmuted gold" is alchemical jargon for the clay of said vessels that was thought to have special properties. This clay was the elixir or philosopher's stone that originated from the cinnabar furnace of Peng-hu in the seas to the southeast.

In this same region, the dog deity or ancestor known as Pan-hu was also placed by ancient Chinese texts. The "hu" in Pan-hu's name again means "gourd" and Pan-hu was known as "emperor of the center" apparently a reference to the idea that this region was the center of the earth. From this center one gained entrance to Heaven through the axis mundi. Chinese cosmological texts sometimes identify Pan-hu with the primoridial dumpling from which cosmos was created. The southern peoples, whom the Chinese called Man, linked Pan-hu with the primordial gourd sometimes said to have carried the first ancestors. This gourd or dumpling was represented in microcosm by the hu-like mountain at the center of the world in Peng-lai.

Interestingly in royal Shang tombs of the cross (ya) shape variety, a dog is buried in the center of the tomb, the location possibly representing the entrance to Heaven. In Chinese astrology, the dog is also associated with the gate of Heaven. Earlier I have written that the dog guardian represented the royal lineage entrusted as custodians of the sacred volcanoes.

So the central mountain, or Peng-hu was seen as the axis mundi and as a crucible for the creation of the elixir. Indeed, the Chinese alchemist Wei-Po Yang called the pot, used in latter practices to make an artificial form of elixir, by the name Peng-hu after the mountain on Peng-lai. Chinese texts describe the hu mountains as containing the "Sun and Moon" an imagery that we have linked in this blog with the idea of a volcanic eruption. It was this eruption that produced the "elixir" i.e. the volcanic ash that later weathered into clay used to make sacred vessels of longevity.

Bird and sun-moon motif on jade ring from Liangzhu Culture (3500 BCE-2250 BCE), left, bird on cartouche and sun-moon on bi disc, Liangzhu. The sun-moon motif, in one case combined with what could be a 'fire mountain' motif appear also on Ling-yang-ho vases (4300 BCE-1900 BCE) from Shangdong, source: Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art." I have interpreted "crescent sun" motif as a symbol of a great Neolithic volcanic eruption that occurred centrally along the routes of the Nusantao maritime trade and communication network. The turbulent volcanic islands beyond the southeastern coast were also linked with the "Mulberry Fields" that were said to periodically rise above the sea, possibly an allusion to the still significant sea level changes in this region that continued well into the Middle Neolithic period.

Hu vessels and the Luzon jars

Japanese merchants called the region from which they purchased the fabled Luzon jars by the name Mishima "Three Islands" referring specifically to Luzon, Formosa and an unidentified island known as Amakawa, possibly Macau. I have not found anything yet to link these three islands specifically with the three islands of the blessed in Chinese literature, and there are other areas known as "Mishima" in both ancient and modern Japan. There is a Mishima mentioned in the ancient epic Kojiki, for example. However, interestingly one type of important pot brought back from Mishima was known in Japanese as tsubo, specifically the Ruson-tsubo "Luzon jar."

Tsubo in Japanese kanji script is represented by the character 壺 i.e., the same one that represents hu in Chinese.

While the Chinese appear to have lost at an early date the linkage of the clay as the sacred element of the hu jars, they nonetheless preserved the ideas surrounding the production of the "elixir" used to make these vessels. In Southeast Asia and Japan, the idea that the sacred jars drew their powers from the special clay with which they were made had survived.

And I have suggested that this was known as the clay of the Sun and Moon, taken from the dual volcanoes -- the mountain of Aldo (Sun) known as Arayat, and the mountain of Bulan (Moon) known as Pinatubo, and used to make the highly-valued Ruson-tsubo (Luzon Jars).

I have resided all my life between Heaven and Earth, with my constant residence in the Penglai Isles. I rely on the sun, moon, and stars to aid my life, and on the Five Pneumata to complete my body. I have received the Dao methods transmitted by the Lord Lao and have become enlightened to the Mysterious Perfection. By day I travel on simurghs and cranes to the Penglai Isles, at night I fly on clouds to stay at the immortals' pavilions. I honor the lords of the South Pole and the Eastern Florescence as my landlords, and the Northern Dipper and the Western Mother as my neighbors.

-- The Story of Han Xiangzi (17th century)

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical. Body: Siddha Traditions In Medieval India. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Stein, Rolf A., Phyllis Brooks (translator). The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought, Stanford, Calif., 1990.

Yang Erzeng; Philip Clart (translator). The Story of Han Xiangzi: The Alchemical Adventures of a Daoist Immortal. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008, 238.

Study suggests Potyvirus lineage carried to Australia by Austronesians

A new study suggests that the bean common mosaic virus, which is commonly transmitted to crops and wild plants by aphids, originated in "south-east and East Asia, Oceania or Australia" and diverged about 3,580 years ago.

The authors suggest that one sub-lineage of the seven lineages studied was carried by Austronesian seafarers to Australia about 2,005 years ago.

The bean common mosaic virus belongs to the genus Potyvirus; the latter suggested in one study to have diverged about 6,600 years ago with the early spread of agriculture.

Arch Virol. 2008 Nov 22. [Epub ahead of print]

The bean common mosaic virus lineage of potyviruses: where did it arise and when?

Gibbs AJ, Trueman JW, Gibbs MJ.

, 7 Hutt St, Yarralumla, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia, adrian_j_gibbs@hotmail.com.

There are more than 30 species in the bean common mosaic virus lineage of the genus Potyvirus. We have used their partial coat protein gene sequences to infer their phylogenies and have compared these with host and provenance information. Members of six species of the lineage have been isolated from crops distributed around the world, but three of these show clear links with South and East Asia. Members of the remaining species have been found in wild plants, minor crop species or ornamentals, and the majority of these have only been found in south-east and East Asia, Oceania or Australia. This phylogeographic pattern suggests that the bean common mosaic virus lineage arose in that region. Maximum-likelihood trees of the sequences were dated using the report that the initial major radiation of all potyviruses was 6,600 years ago. In this way, the bean common mosaic virus lineage was found to have first diverged 3,580 years ago, and one sub-lineage of seven species, found only in Australia, probably diverged there 2005 years ago. We discuss the ways in which the viruses could have moved from south-east Asia to Australia and note that their movement coincided with the spread of the Austronesian sea-faring/farming culture from China/Taiwan throughout the islands of the southern and eastern Pacific Ocean. Our study shows that virus isolates from wild or minimally domesticated plants, and from islands, are probably more useful indicators of the origins of viruses than those from widely grown well-travelled crop species.