The Temples of Muaro Jambi and the Malayu Kingdom

This past week I made the 12-hour (one way!) journey to Jambi city, the capital of Jambi province, to handle some business related to my research project.  While there I had the opportunity to visit the Mahayana buddhist temple complex at Muaro Jambi, about 20km from the city.  The temples here were constructed between the 7th and 13th centuries and represent the largest temple complex in Indonesia, covering 2,612 hectares.  The complex spreads for 7.5 kilometers along the banks of the Batang Hari river and is still being excavated.   I spent about 5 hours wandering around the expansive complex, and I would recommend the trip to anyone.  

Go To Muaro Jambi

Guide Wawan beneath the Bodhi tree

There are two ways to get to Muaro Jambi: by boat and by road.  The latter is the quickest and cheapest if you are alone.  For rp40,000 (about US$4.50) I hired an ojek to drive me to the complex.  I didn't dicker with him, but if you feel the need you could probably talk the price down a bit.  It took about 25 minutes to get there.  You can hire a boat just downstream of the WTC mall in Jambi city.  The "captain" quoted me a price of rp300,000 (around US$33) to go and come back in his motorized longboat.  It takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to go.  I didn't go by boat because the sun looked pretty oppressive and I didn't want to get burned.  But I would think that taking a boat would be fun and you could probably talk down the price a bit.   

Guides Wawan and Ahok describing temple architecture

Candi Tinggi

The entrance fee to the temple complex is rp3000 (about 35 cents).  I told the guys there they should jack the price up, especially for foreigners, so when you go if the price is higher you can blame me.  They told me that at this point they are more interested with getting the word out about the temples; they were more concerned with ensuring that I had a good time there so I would tell other people about it.  You can hire a guide there at the gate; I would highly recommend this as they are very well informed.  I tried to stump them, asking questions about the soil and hydrology of the area as it related to the original occupants of the site, and they knew everything.  I really learned a lot from them and was impressed with their knowledge.  They don't have a set fee, but I ended up paying them rp150,000 (about US$18) to split two ways, but this included transport back to Jambi city.  They motored me to some of the more remote sites and gave me coffee.  They also have a small (but nice) museum with artifacts and interpretive materials in English.  

They also have bicycles in good condition for rent; you can get one for rp5000 (55 cents) per hour.  There are tandem bicycles as well.  Though I didn't do this because I was walking with the guides, but it looks like it would be fun.  The local folks have done a great job in maintaining brick and concrete paths around the temples, so I would imagine you could pass a very relaxing couple of hours biking around.  It's quite and clean and the people are very hospitable.  

Map from Tjoa-Bonatz et al; see references and note embedded citation

About the Temples...

Tjoa-Bonatz (see references)

The complex is said to be one of the most expansive and best preserved in all of Southeast Asia.  In fact, work is ongoing, and I had a chance to witness the work first hand.  One of the larger temples was just restored last year, and a smaller structure was finished in August.  Currently dozens of local people are employed by the Indonesian government to clear away the alluvium that has piled up around the structures.  As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done.  It's really exciting to watch the process and think about what sorts of treasures may be waiting just beneath the ground; there is a real air of discovery at the site. 

Eight temples have been reconstructed so far, and according to the guides there are 84 known temples, but there is no doubt that others remain to be discovered.  All the temples are built of bricks made from the local clay.  While the temples aren't as elaborate in terms of embellishments as those at Angkor Wat and Borobudur, I would attribute this to material constraints rather than a lack of sophistication.  At Borodudur there is plenty of volcanic rock available, which can be carved to make sculptures.  Muaro Jambi, in contrast, is in a floodplain, and so clay is the most readily available material.  Some statues have been unearthed, but these appear to have been transported from Java a thousand years ago.   

One of the houses, drawing from Tjoa-Bonatz

Another interesting feature of the complex is the existence of canals that link the various temples.  There are 6 man-made waterways and a reservoir about the size of a football field.  These channels were used for transportation and drainage and indicate a fairly high level of hydraulic engineering.  The canals are currently overgrown, but there are plans to clear them out and possibly provide boats so that visitors can travel from temple to temple via water. 

Though the dwellings and other functional buildings (made of wood) have long since disappeared, carving discovered at the site provide an idea as to what the buildings may have looked like.   Tjoa-Bonatz et al (see references) offer an excellent analysis of the style and function of the houses.  They conclude that the drawings show buildings that may have been located at the site while it was occupied.  They also conclude, that given the variety of styles, suggest that Muaro Jambi was a multi-ethnic trading center, with people from many different regions living there.  

Who Built the Temples?

Source for this map here.

Though there is a new assertion that the complexity of the Muaro Jambi site indicates that it must have been the capital of Sri Vijaya (1), most of the literature takes for granted that the temples were built by the Malayu kingdom.  The picture is blurred by a lack of written documentation, and much of what is known about Malayu and Sri Vijaya comes from Chinese records.    The Malayu kingdom was centered on the Batang Hari river, which flows through Jambi.  Control of the river meant control of the resources coming down the river, like gold and other precious commodities from the hinterlands of Sumatra.  Apparently somewhere along the line Malayu became a vassal state of Sri Vijaya, and by the 14th century the polity centered at Muaro Jambi was in decline.  

As you can see, there's a lot to learn from the temples at Muaro Jambi.  They are definitely worth a visit.  I've included a video below from youtube to give you a better idea of what you can expect to find when you make your visit to Muaro Jambi. 

 Notes

(1)  The conventional wisdom is that Sri Vijaya was centered at Palembang. 

References

Tjoa-Bonatz, Mai Lin, J. David Neidel, and Agus Widiatmoko.  2009.  Early Architectural Images from Muara Jambi on Sumatra, Indonesia.  Asian Perspectives 48:1 pp32-55. 

The Ancient Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago

As I look back on my last few postings I notice that I've tended to be a little negative about some things, and thus the casual reader might be distracted from the reality that Indonesia is truly an amazing place; a place well worth knowing more about. So today's post is going to be about some of the old kingdoms that form part of the rich and fascinating history of the country. These kingdom were heavily influenced by their geography, and so we'll use that as a starting point.

Southeast Asia is usually divided by geographers into two sub-region: mainland Southeast Asia (consisting of Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and "insular" or maritime Southeast Asia (consisting of the island states of Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia). Geographers make generalizations about the two sub-regions; mainland SEA has mountain-lowland divisions, long rivers that promote rice cultivation, and are populated by speakers of languages from the Mon-Khmer, Sino-Tibetan, and Thai-Kadai language families, whereas insular SEA cultures tend to be more ocean-oriented, with people speaking closely-related languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family. In general societies of mainland SEA have been more inward-looking, whereas those of insular SEA have long had contact with other realms.

The Geography of Empire

For a significant portion of recorded history, two of the richest (in terms of culture and material wealth) poles of civilization have been China and India. Trade between these two regions emerged thousands of years ago and at various stages involved other areas as well, including Persia, Rome, Europe, and others, but much of the trade occurred over land via tortuous and dangerous trade routes through Central Asia. Sea trade between India and China was hampered by the Malay Peninsula, a more than 1000 kilometer long finger of land extending from what is now Thailand and Burma down to the island of Singapore. Goods had to be portaged across the isthmus (1) of Kra. However, sometime around the 4th century A.D. Malay sailors developed an all-sea route between India and China. This new route was a faster way to transport silks from China to the western regions. The cultures of the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra only had to offer port facilities and safety from pirates for trade to flourish along the new route. They also introduced new goods to the world market, including cloves, nutmeg, and mace. These spices, most of which only grew on certain islands because of very specific climate requirements, became extremely profitable for the people of the islands of what would become Indonesia. Trade in spices and control of the narrow sea lanes of the Strait of Melacca gave rise to the first of the great ancient kingdoms of the Indonesian archipelago, Sri Vijaya (Sriwijaya).

Sri Vijaya, which means "glorious victory", emerged during the 6th century around present day Palembang on Sumatra. Sri Vijaya was originally one of several small riverine kingdoms athwart the trading route on the coast of Sumatra. Each of these small kingdoms centered on a river; the inhabitants downstream provided port services and sometimes coerced passing ships into anchoring and paying taxes. They also served as collection points for goods produced upstream. It's not certain how Sri Vijaya came to dominate its neighbors, but some historians speculate that the large area of the fertile valley of the Musi river helped the Sri Vijayans produce more food, which in turn enabled them to support a large navy. For five centuries the Sri Vijayans controlled the China trade, with goods such as porcelain, jade and silk from China, textiles from India, and sandlewood, spices, and resins from the Moluccas. One ancient traveler's account of Sri Vijaya saya that the kingdom was so rich, every year the king's subjects would throw bricks of gold into the river as an offering (2). Sri Vijaya was an important center for Mahayana Buddhist learning, and monks from as far away as China and India came there to study.

Sri Vijaya is an example of a maritime empire. The kingdoms that emerged in Indonesia consisted of two types: thalasocracies like Sri Vijaya, whose rise and fall depended on trading relations and strong navies, and the inland, rice-producing states that emerged mainly on the island of Java. The latter weren't as involved in trading but rather developed sophisticated agricultural societies. The first major example of the rice kingdom, Mataram, arose in central Java around the middle of the 8th century. The Mataram rulers built the Dieng temples I mentioned in a previous post before moving east to the area around present-day Jogja. Mataram is not the original name of the kingdom but rather refers to the geographic area around Jogja (3). The Mataram kingdom collapsed in the 11th century due to military pressure from Sri Vijaya.

The greatest empire of insular Southeast Asia, Mahapahit, emerged out of the decline of another kingdom in the 13th century. Majapahit ("bitter fruit") ruled over much of what is now Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula. Through cunning the founder of Majapahit, Vijaya, manipulated an invading Mongol fleet of 1000 ships and 20,000 soldiers (4) into eliminating his rivals before turning on them and driving them out of Java. Majapahit gave rise to two heroes of Indonesian history that are still revered today. The first of these, Gajah Mada, served as prime minister (patih) and regent from 1331 to 1364 and greatly expanded the rule of Majapahit, extended authority to neighboring islands. One of Indonesia's major universities (Universitas Gajah Mada) in Jogja is named for him. The second major figure is Hayam Wuruk, who worked with Gajah Mada to expand the empire. Hayam Wuruk is known as a patron of the arts and an avid performer of traditional Javanese music and dance. The fact that Majapahit controlled most of the islands that would become Indonesia was used as evidence by independence leaders such as Sukarno (5) that there was a historical precedent for the nation of Indonesia.

This is just a short introduction to the many kingdoms that have emerged in Indonesia over the past 1500 years. There are many others, including Tarumanagara, Jambi, the Sailendras, and Singhasair. They all have fascinating stories and all contributed to the rich historical heritage of Indonesia.

(1) An isthmus is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas of land. Can you use a world map to find other isthmuses?

(2) According to Shaffer (see reference below), when the king died his successor would dredge the gold out of the river and distribute it to influential members of court to cement support during the transition.

(3) One should take care not to confuse this earlier Mataram kingdom, which was a Hindu kingdom, with the later Mataram Sultanate, an Islamic kingdom that emerged in the 16th century.

(4) The fleet had come to punish Vijaya's father, Kertanagara, king of the defunct Singasari kingdom, because Kertanagara refused to pay tribute to Kublai Khan, who had recently become emperor of China.

(5) Sukarno would go on to become Indonesia's first president.

REFERENCES AND FOR FURTHER READING

SarDesai, D.R. 1997. Southeast Asia: Past and Present. Boulder, CO: Westview. 422pp.

Shaffer, Lynda Norene. 1996. Maritime Southeast Asia to 1500. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 121pp.