Borobudur Ships and Slave Trade of Maritime Southeast Asia?

Dr Uday Dokras.PhD Stockholm,SWEDEN

Srishti Dokras Architect
Prof. Dr. Ms Laurence Buzenot, Docteure en Géographie, Géographer, Re’union

The history of Africa's historical relationship with the rest of the Indian Ocean
world is one of a vibrant exchange that included commodities, people, flora and
fauna, ideas, technologies and disease. This connection with the rest of the Indian
Ocean world, a macro-region running from Eastern Africa, through the Middle
East, South and Southeast Asia to East Asia, was also one heavily influenced by
environmental factors. Human-environment interaction, more than great men,
state formation, or imperial expansion, was the central dynamic in the history of
the Indian Ocean world (IOW). Environmental factors, notably the monsoon system
of winds and currents, helped lay the basis for the emergence of a sophisticated
and durable IOW 'global economy' around 1,500 years before the so-called
European 'Voyages of Discovery'. 1
Little is known about the fact that the environment also played a role in
determining the region’s systems of bondage and human trafficking. There were
intricate links between environmental forces, human suffering, and political
conditions that drove people into servile labour and shaped the IOW economy. 2
The Indian Ocean World has had a unique monetary history Long-distance trade
across the region 3 was facilitated by a highly complex multi-currency system
undergirded by shared ideas that transcended ethno-linguistic, religious and class
divisions. Currencies also occupied key roles in local spiritual, aesthetic and
affective practices. Currencies played a pivotal role in economic exchange as well as
in establishing communal bonds, defining state power and expressing religious
sentiments. Similarly this region also had a record of slave trade and exploitation of
human capital for both building huge temple complexes; but also as bonded labpur
to work the fields and create the hydraulic systems that nurtured these
civilizations.
1. Africa and the Indian Ocean World from Early Times to Circa 1900 (New
Approaches to African History, Series Number 14),by Gwyn
Campbell (Author)
2. Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World (Palgrave Series in
Indian Ocean World Studies) Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018
Edition, Gwyn Campbell (Editor)

3. Currencies of the Indian Ocean World, Steven Serels,Editor F.N. 1 on page 2

Then the question arises was there an African diaspora - a scattered

population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale in Borobodur
and did those magnificent ships or rightly called ‘outriggers’ transport and
contribute to a mass dispersion of a population from its indigenous
territories in Africa to be utilized in the mother lands of these ships?”

SlaveshavebeentradedinthemaritimenetworksofthewesternIndianOceanforatleast2000years.I
nMadagascar,theexistenceofslaverymaydatebacktothefirstSoutheastAsiansettlements,which
probablyoccurredbetweenthe4thand6thcentury.Scholarsseekingtoreconstructtheearlyoccupat
ionoftheislandfinditplausiblethatslaveswereamongtheSouth-

1
EastAsiansettlers,sinceshipcrewsfromIndonesiawereprobablymadeofpeoplewithdifferentsoc
ialstatusesandmay haveincludedslaveswhowereleftbehindinthesemi-
permanentsettlementsofthisremotecolony.Ifnotearlier,slavesprobablymadeanimportantpartof
thepopulationofMadagascarasearlyasinthe10thcentury.By
thatdate,twomaincommercialsystemsexistedinthewesternIndianOcean.Onewasinthehandsof
Muslimmerchantsfrom Persian Gulf, Arabia and Swahili Coast.
Inanycase,mostscholarsagreethatSoutheastAsianshadestablishedpermanentsettlementsbythe
9thcenturyatthelatest.1
Twenty-one years ago, an Englishman named Philip Beale visited Java and fell in
love with a picture of a ship, carved some 1,200 years ago at Borobudur, the
magnificent Buddhist monument not far from Yogyakarta. He had read that sailors
from the Malay Archipelago regularly crossed the Indian Ocean, and even
established colonies in East Africa, centuries before Borobudur was built. As he
gazed at the sculpture, a great idea possessed him: this, he thought, was the very
ship that the ancient Indonesians sailed to Africa. With the boldness and singular
clarity of youth, he decided he would build that ship and make that voyage. 2 And
did.
________________________________________________________________
1.Currencies of the Indian Ocean World (Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World
Studies) 1st ed. 2019 Edition, Kindle Editionby Steven Serels (Editor), Gwyn
Campbell (Editor) kindle edition. This and other books quoted above are available
on Amazon
2.
SeeSolofoRandrianjaandStephenEllis,Madagascar:AShortHistory(London:Hurst&C
ompany,2009),17-
43;AlexanderAdelaar,“TowardsanintegratedtheoryabouttheIndonesianmigrationsto
Madagascar,” Referred to in in
inAncientHumanMigrations:AMultidisciplinaryApproach,ed.PeterN.Peregrine,IliaPeir
osandMarcus.Feldman(SaltLakeCity,UH:UniversityofUtahPress,2009),149-72.
DenisRegnier,DominiqueSomda.Slaveryandpost-
slaveryinMadagascar:anoverview.2018.hal-01519506v3

Though largely unknown outside of the region, this was one of the first great
achievements in marine exploration: centuries before anybody else engaged in
regular long-distance voyages, mariners from the Malay Archipelago ruled the
Indian Ocean. The Roman historian Pliny wrote in the first century A.D. about
sailors arriving in Africa from the eastern sea on rafts, propelled not by sails but by
"the spirit of man and human courage," carrying cinnamon and other spices. When
the launch finally came on Aug. 15, it was a grand and surprisingly emotional
affair. President Megawati Sukarnoputri oversaw the gala ceremony in Jakarta and
impulsively stepped aboard to take a closer look. For the Indonesian crew, led by I

2
Gusti Putu Ngurah Sedana, a navy captain from Bali, the expedition is clearly a
tremendous source of national pride.( Reproduced ad-verbatim)1

Modern scholars identify these voyagers as ancient Indonesians, based upon the
indelible linguistic and DNA footprints they left behind in East Africa. However,
Madagascar is only the mid-point of Beale's projected voyage: from there, he plans
to sail the ship around the Cape of Good Hope, one of the most perilous sea
passages on earth, and then north to Ghana, ending his odyssey beneath the cliffs
of Accra.___________________________________________________________________
1. Sailing in History's Wake -Jamie James TIME
Magazine,2003http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,4
80337,00.html

Shaky Contact: It is true that the historic evidence for Indonesian contact with
West Africa is shaky. The case relies largely upon striking similarities in traditional
African and Indonesian music. The Madagascar-Ghana portion of the trip is thus at
once the most daring and speculative of the expedition. Beale explains: "Academics
pose questions such as, 'Could the ancient Indonesians have done this or that?' If
we succeed, it won't prove they did it, but then no one can say they couldn't do it.
It seems to me an interesting thing to do for itself."
Dutch slavery in Indonesia
While slavery in Dutch colonies in America is a known historical fact, hardly
anyone is aware that up to a million people were bought, sold and had to endure
slavery in Holland’s largest possession: Indonesia. Of course it was not the
Borobodur ships that brought them – but some ship did.
“The slave Mono was regularly beaten by her owner. One day she could no longer
stand the abuse and tried to run away. Alas, she was captured. Her owner,
seething with rage, tied her to a ladder, whipped and tortured her and left her for
dead. Somehow, Mono was able to get hold of a knife and killed herself. The above
may sound like a scene from a Hollywood slavery movie, but it actually took place
in Batavia in 1765, according to court archives belonging to the Dutch East India
Company or Veerenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC). “
Two books published this year in the Netherlands shed light on the widespread
existence of slavery in the Indonesian archipelago during Dutch colonial rule.
Reggie Baay, author of Daar werd wat gruwelijks verricht: Slavernij in Nederlands-
Indie (Gruesome things were committed there: Slavery in the Dutch East Indies).
The Netherlands started spreading its maritime wings in the late 16th century,
dividing its global trading posts between the West Indian Company (WIC - West-
Indische Compagnie), which overlooked its territories in the Americas and the VOC
for Asia. The two companies came to be among the largest Atlantic slave traders

3
between the 17th and the 19th centuries, shipping and trading hundreds of
thousands of Africans to the Americas to work on plantations, including in the WIC
territories of Surinam and the Antilles. Unknown to many, however, the Dutch
were just as active in Asia. Historian and writer Baay points out in his book that
from the beginning of their activities in Asia, the VOC bought, sold and used
slaves.In his book Kleurrijke Tragiek: De geschiedenis van Slavernij in Azië onder
de VOC (Colorful Tragedy: The history of slavery in Asia under the VOC), historian
Matthias van Rossum recounts how VOC vicar Johann Christian Hoffman spoke of
the dynamic trade carried out by Europeans and Asians in Batavia in the mid 17th
century.
The most important merchandise was slaves brought here from Ambon, Ternate,
Bali, Borneo, Bengal, Madagascar and other countries, who were sold and resold
on a daily basis, Hoffman wrote in his journal. Matthias van Rossum (Courtesy of
Matthias vanRossum/Courtesy of Uitgeverij Verloren, Hilversum) Slavery already
existed in many places in Asia before the arrival of the Europeans.In Sulawesi, for
example, there were frequent wars between local rulers. Soldiers from the losing
faction would be captured and kept or sold as slaves, Baay explains.

Until then, however, slavery was mostly local and relatively limited in scale. When
the Europeans arrived, the slave trade became a much bigger and more lucrative
trade. The VOC needed slaves to build forts and cities, work on plantations, offices
and households. Slaves were no longer just sold locally, but across the archipelago
and beyond. Between 660,000 and 1,135,000 slaves were shipped into and from
VOC territories in Asia during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were internal
trade routes in the Indonesian archipelago, particularly from the eastern and
northern parts of the archipelago toward the more urban areas on Java and the
surrounding islands.
From the Indonesian isles, slaves were transported to India, Sri Lanka and South
Africa, A great number of men, women and children were shipped off as prisoners
of war and coerced into forced labor or sold. Drought and famine also led to bonded
labor and slavery, kidnapping operations.While slaves in the Americas mostly
worked outdoors on plantations, those under the VOC were used in a wider variety
of labor. Some were put to work on plantations, but many also worked in cities,
burdened with tasks ranging from household work to construction and weapon
production. The notion that household and urban slavery was milder than
plantation slavery is not entirely correct. The close proximity in which slaves and
their owners lived and worked often led to tension. It was not unusual for female
slaves to be forced into performing sexual services for their owners, and some were
even rented out to earn money for their proprietors.1

Similar to the practice documented from medieval China, black Africans were at
first associated in Java with other, better known categories of dark-skinned people.
... We can assume that the pujut came to Java probably as enslaved war captives,
either from Sumatra or eastern parts of Indonesia. We all know that Belanda
Hitam (from Indonesian meaning "Black Dutchmen", known in Javanese as Landa
(Walanda) Ireng) were a group of African (primarily Ashanti and
other Akan peoples) recruits in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army during
the colonial period.Between 1831 and 1872, over three thousand Africans were
recruited from the Dutch Gold Coast for service as colonial troops in the Dutch
East Indies. This recruitment was in fact an emergency measure, as the Dutch
army lost thousands of European soldiers and a much larger number of "native"
soldiers in the Java War against Prince Diponegoro

4
Slavery has not been new to the Indonesian society considering that Borodudur
and Prambanan was built by a labour force of many thousands. Slaves perhaps
like at Angkor Wat in cambodia. Ironically the Torajans one of the oldest ethnic
group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia with a
population of approximately 1,100,000, today living in Tana Toraja ("Land
of Toraja in the mountainous highlands of South Sulawesi, Indonesia also kept
slaves.
1. Two centuries of slavery on Indonesian soil Tracing the history: Slaves by the
water gate in Batavia by J. Rach, 1767.(Courtesy of Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)"
Article in thejakartapost.com with the title "Two centuries of slavery on Indonesian
soil". Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/05/two-centuries-
slavery-indonesian-soil.html.

Slaves in Toraja society in Indonesia were family property. Sometimes Torajans

decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment.
Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Torajan slaves
were sold and shipped out to Java and Siam. Slaves could buy their freedom, but
their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing
bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners,
or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death. Slavery
was abolished in 1863 in all Dutch colonies.
Slavery was practiced by the tribal Austronesian peoples in pre-Spanish
Philippines. Slaves were part of the lowest caste ( alipin) in ancient Filipino
societies. A.caste which also included commoners. However, the characterization
of alipin as "slaves" is not entirely accurate. Modern scholars in Philippine history
prefer to use more accurate terms like "serfs" or "bondsmen" instead.

5
Garay pirate ships in the Sulu Sea, c. 1850. Inhabitants of Australia or Java
de Grande

Slavery in Southeast Asia reached its peak in late 18th and early 19th centuries,
when fleets of lanong and garay warships of the Iranun and Banguingui people
started engaging in piracy and coastal raids for slave and plunder throughout
Southeast Asia from their territories within the Sultanate of
Sulu and Maguindanao.
It is estimated that from 1770 to 1870, around 200,000 to 300,000 people were
enslaved by Iranun and Banguingui slavers. They came from ships and settlements
as far as the Malacca Strait, Java, the southern coast of China and the islands
beyond the Makassar Strait. The scale was so massive that the word for "pirate"
in Malay became Lanun, an exonym of the Iranun people. Male captives of the
Iranun and the Banguingui were treated brutally, even fellow Muslim captives were
not spared. They were usually forced serve as galley slaves on the ships of their
captors. Female captives, however, were usually treated better. There were no
recorded accounts of rapes, though some were starved for discipline. Most of the
slaves were Tagalogs, Visayans, and "Malays"
(including Bugis, Mandarese, Iban, and Makassar). There were also occasional
European and Chinese captives who were usually ransomed off
through Tausug intermediaries of the Sulu Sultanate.
European powers finally succeeded in the mid-1800s in cutting off these raids
through use of steam-powered warships. In Singapore in 1891 there was a regular
trade in Chinese slaves by Muslim slaveowners, with girls and women sold for
concubinage.
Warfare, slave-raids, legal punishments, self-sales or sales-by-relatives, inheritance
of slave-status from birth were the common ways individuals become a slaves.
Linguistic analysis of the vocabulary used for slavery in early Central Asian
societies suggest strong connection between military actions and slavery. Third
century Sasanian inscriptions attest to the usage of the word wardag as meaning
both “slave” and “captive.” Similarly, the 8th century Turkic Orkhon
inscriptions indicate prisoners of war are often designated the status of slavery.
Inscriptions found in the First Turkish Qaghanate also imply that terms denoting
slavery or other forms of subordinate status, such as qul (male slave) and küng
(female salve, handmaiden), are frequently applied to population of defeated
political entities.
Violent encounters are not the only mechanism through which an individual is
enslaved. In China, legal code historically prohibited individuals from selling

6
children or other relatives into slavery. However, sale contracts indicate that
poverty, famine, and other unfortunate circumstances often compelled individuals
to sell or loan themselves, their children, and other relatives. This is not to say that
slave-sales were prohibited in China, however. Tang legal codes regulated the sale
of people who were already designated slave-status by requiring individuals to
provide certificates that demonstrate the individuals were lawfully enslaved. In one
recorded case, a man sold his daughter and son in order to raise funds to pay for
his father’s funeral.

Slavery in Madagascar: previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island

country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres (250 miles) off the coast
of East Africa across the Mozambique Channel. At 592,800 square kilometres
(228,900 sq mi) Madagascar is the world's second-largest island country,
after Indonesia. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest
island in the world) and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the
prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from
the Indian subcontinent around 88 million years ago, allowing native plants and
animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity
hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's
diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the
rapidly growing human population and other environmental threats.

The archaeological evidence of the earliest human foraging on Madagascar may

date up to 10,000 years ago. Human settlement of Madagascar occurred
by Austronesian peoples, arriving on outrigger canoes from present-day Indonesia.[
These were joined around the 9th century AD by Bantu migrants crossing the

7
Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on
Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural
life. The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into 18 or more subgroups, of
which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.
The Malagasy (French: Malgache) are an ethnic group native to the island
country of Madagascar. Their ancestry is the combination of continental
African Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated from the Eastern coast of mainland
Africa, and the Southeast Asian migrants of Austronesian stock, who migrated
from Borneo and other islands of Indonesia of Maritime Southeast Asia.
Traditionally the population have been divided by subgroups (tribes or
ethnicities), but the relevance of this subdivision is disputed. Be as it may in
Revisiting Malagasy origins/ Malagasy origins revisited/ Les origines malgaches
revisitées,Campbell, Gwyn,2006, says that,”

Despitevoluminousscholarshipinvolved,scholarshavelonggrappledwiththeissuesoftheunknownorig
inoftheMalagasypeople.Inexaminingseveralhypothesison migration, particularly those that focus
on the African presence in Madagascar –either by themselves or in conjunction with people from
Indonesia – and those
thatarguethatSouthAsianshavecolonizedtheisland.Thearticlealsoanalyzedtheimpulsesbehind
themigrationandtheroutesthattheProto-MalagasyhaveusedtoreachMadagascar.

Kobishchanow, Y. (1965). On the Problem of Sea Voyages of Ancient Africans in the Indian
Ocean. (The Journal of African History, 6(2), 137-141. points out that ancient and early
Byzantine authors: Diodorus (II, 55), ‘Pseudo-Callisthenes’, Cosmas
Indicopleustes and Procopius Caesarensis—mention the navigation of the Indian
Ocean by ‘Ethiopians’ of the African Horn and the Axumite Kingdom in their own
ships. The hoard of Kushana gold moneys found at Dabra-Dammo confirms this.
The legend in the Kebra Nagast of Ethiopian military expeditions to India
incorporates reminiscences about sea voyages to India by ancient Axumites.

But the proportion of ancestral genes differs. Coastal Malagasy populations,

including the Temoro, Vezo, and Mikea, etc. have approx. 70% African ancestry
and 30% Asian ancestry. while highlander tribes tend to have lower African
ancestry at around 45% In a recent island-wide survey the male-only Y
chromosomes of African origin are more common than those of East Asian origin
but it varies depending on the study (70.7 vs. 20.7 or 51% vs 34%). However
the mtDNA lineages, passed down from mother to child, are the opposite (42.4%
African origin vs. 50.1% East Asian origin).

8
Genetics: Genetics element about the dual origin of the Malagasy can be traced to the mid 20th
century with results regarding blood group distribution. A wide island-wide survey of the
genetic diversity have been performed from 2008 to 2018. This project was called "MAGE" (for
Madagascar, Anthropology Genetics Ethno-linguistic [). Around 3000 inhabitants of
Madagascar have participated to this study and provide their saliva for a genetic study. 300
villages across Madagascar have been sampled in term of genetic, linguistic and cultural
diversity. This research was led and performed by Malagasy and European researcher and
academics. This study demonstrated that all Malagasy people have mixed African and Asian
ancestry.

Due to the proximity to Africa, the connection with Asian population exhibited the
most curiosity. Around 1996, a study identify the presence of the Polynesian
motif in the Malagasy population (mtDNA haplotype B4a1a1a). A more recent
study, identify two additional mutations (1473 and 3423A) found in all Polynesian
motif carriers of Madagascar, hence named the Malagasy motif. The frequency
varied among three ethnic groups: 50% in Merina, 22% in Vezo, and 13% in
Mikea. Based on this result, a study suggested that Madagascar was settled
approximately 1,200 years ago by a very small group, which consists of
approximately 30 women; where 28 (93%) of them have maritime Southeast Asian
descent and 2 (7%) of them have African descent But this result is not consistent
with more extensive data accumulated. The closest Asian parental population of
the Malagasy are the Banjar and other South Kalimantan Dayak people of south
east Borneo. Language footprints of their ancestors from Southeastern Asia can
presently be witnessed by many shared basic vocabulary with Ma'anyan, a
language from the region of the Barito River in southern Borneo.

9
The difference in origins remains somewhat evident between the highland and
coastal regions. In addition to the distinction in term of ancestral proportion
between highland and coastal Malagasy, one may speak of a political distinction as
well. Merina monarchs in the late 18th and early 19th century, united the Merina
principalities and brought the neighbouring Betsileo people under their
administration first. They later extended Merina control over the majority of the
coastal areas. The neighbouring island of Moheli was also ruled by a Muslim
Merina dynasty founded by Abderremane, Sultan of Mohéli, who was a brother-in-
law of King Radama I. The military resistance and eventual defeat of most of the
coastal communities assured their subordinate position vis-à-vis the Merina-
Betsileo alliance. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial
administration capitalized on and further exacerbated these political inequities by
appropriating existing Merina governmental infrastructure to run their colony. This
legacy of political inequity dogged the people of Madagascar after gaining
independence in 1960; candidates' ethnic and regional identities have often served
to help or hinder their success in democratic elections.

Within these two broad ethnic and political groupings, the Malagasy were
historically subdivided into specifically named ethnic groups, who were primarily
distinguished from one another on the basis of cultural practices. These were
namely agricultural, hunting, or fishing practices; construction style of
dwellings; music; hair and clothing styles; and local customs or taboos, the latter
was known in the Malagasy language as fady. The number of such ethnic groups
in Madagascar has been debated. The practices that distinguished many of these
groups are less prevalent in the 21st century than they were in the past. But, many
Malagasy are proud to proclaim their association with one or several of these
groups as part of their own cultural identity.

Countries with a significant Malagasy diaspora include France (specifically the

overseas departments of Mayotte and Réunion), Comoros (specifically the island
of Moheli), South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States.

10
The Malagasy diaspora in the United States includes those descended from people
who, slave or free, came during the 18th and 19th centuries. Other Americans of
Malagasy descent are recent immigrants from Madagascar. Some notable
Americans of Malagasy descent include Andy Razaf, Katherine Dunham, Regina M.
Anderson, William H. Hastie, George Schuyler and Philippa Schuyler, Muhammad
Ali, Robert Reed Church and Mary Church Terrell, Frederick D. Gregory, Thomas
P. Mahammitt, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Maya RudolphClaude McKay, Jess
Tom, Ben Jealous, and Keenan Ivory Wayans.

Malagasy were also brought to Latin America, notably Peru, during the
Transatlantic Slave Trade. A community of descendants of these Malagasy reside
in Morropón (Piura), a city in northern Peru; the Afro-Peruvians of Malagasy
descent number about 7,000. Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro, the Peruvian army
officer who served as the 48th President of Peru from 1931 to 1933, as well as
Interim President of Peru, was a notable descendant of this community. They call
themselves Mangaches or Malgaches. This section of Piura is called la
Mangachería.

Slave Trade from Madagaskar: The first recorded African slave in Canada, Olivier
Le Jeune, was taken from Madagascar to New France in 1628.
Madagascar was an important transoceanic trading hub connecting ports of the
Indian Ocean in the early centuries following human settlement.
The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading
posts along the northwest coast by at least the 10th century and introduced Islam,
the Arabic script (used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing
known as sorabe), Arab astrology, and other cultural elements.

Portuguese
European contact began in 1500, when the Portuguese sea captain Diogo
Dias sighted the island, while participating in the 2nd Armada of the Portuguese
India Armadas.

11
Matatana was the first Portuguese settlement on the south coast, 10 km west
of Fort Dauphin. In 1508, settlers there built a tower, a small village, and a stone
column. This settlement was established in 1613 at the behest of the viceroy
of Portuguese India, Jeronimo de Azevedo.
Contacts continued from the 1550s. Several colonization and conversion missions
were ordered by King João III and by the Viceroy of India, including one in 1553 by
Baltazar Lobo de Sousa. In that mission, according to detailed descriptions by
chroniclers Diogo do Couto and João de Barros, emissaries reached the inland via
rivers and bays, exchanging goods and even converting one of the local kings.

French
The French established trading posts along the east coast in the late 17th century.
From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar gained prominence among pirates and
European traders, particularly those involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The
small island of Nosy Boroha off the northeastern coast of Madagascar has been
proposed by some historians as the site of the legendary pirate utopia of Libertalia.
Many European sailors were shipwrecked on the coasts of the island, among
them Robert Drury, whose journal is one of the few written depictions of life in
southern Madagascar during the 18th century.[
The wealth generated by maritime trade spurred the rise of organized kingdoms on
the island, some of which had grown quite powerful by the 17th century. Among
these were the Betsimisaraka alliance of the eastern coast and
the Sakalava chiefdoms of Menabe and Boina on the west coast. The Kingdom of
Imerina, located in the central highlands with its capital at the royal palace of
Antananarivo, emerged at around the same time under the leadership of King
Andriamanelo.

The Malagasy ethnic group forms over 90 percent of Madagascar's population

and is typically divided into 18 ethnic subgroups. Recent DNA research revealed
that the genetic makeup of the average Malagasy person constitutes an
approximately equal blend of Southeast Asian and East African genes, although the
genetics of some communities show a predominance of Southeast Asian or East
African origins or some Arab, Indian, or European ancestry.

Southeast Asian features – specifically from the southern part of Borneo – are
most predominant among the Merina of the central highlands, who form the
largest Malagasy ethnic subgroup at approximately 26 percent of the population,
while certain communities among the coastal peoples (collectively called côtiers)
have relatively stronger East African features. The largest coastal ethnic subgroups
are the Betsimisaraka (14.9 percent) andthe Tsimihety and Sakalava (6 percent
each).

12
 Regional
Malagasy ethnic subgroups
concentration
Former Antsiranan
Antankarana, Sakalava, Tsimihety
a Province
Former Mahajanga
Sakalava, Vezo
Province
Former Toamasina
Betsimisaraka, Sihanaka, Bezanozano
Province
Former Antananari
Merina
vo Province
Betsileo, Antaifasy, Antambahoaka, Antaimoro, Antaisaka, Former Fianarants
Tanala oa Province
Former Toliara
Mahafaly, Antandroy, Antanosy people, Bara, Vezo
Province
Chinese, Indian and Comoran minorities are present in Madagascar, as well as a
small European (primarily French) populace. Emigration in the late 20th century
has reduced these minority populations, occasionally in abrupt waves, such as the
exodus of Comorans in 1976, following anti-Comoran riots in Mahajanga. By

13
comparison, there has been no significant emigration of Malagasy peoples. The
number of Europeans has declined since independence, reduced from 68,430 in
1958 to 17,000 three decades later. There were an estimated 25,000 Comorans,
18,000 Indians, and 9,000 Chinese living in Madagascar in the mid-1980s.1
The 10th century Arab account Ajayeb al-Hind (Marvels of India) gives an account
of invasion in Africa by people called Wakwak or Waqwaq, probably the Malay
people of Srivijaya or Javanese people of Medang kingdom, in 945-946 CE. They
arrived in the coast of Tanganyika and Mozambique with 1000 boats and
attempted to take the citadel of Qanbaloh, though eventually failed. The reason of
the attack is because that place had goods suitable for their country and for China,
such as ivory, tortoise shells, panther skins, and ambergris, and also because they
wanted black slaves from Bantu people (called Zeng or Zenj by Arabs, Jenggi by
Javanese) who were strong and make good slaves.

According to Waharu IV inscription (931 AD) and Garaman inscription (1053 AD),
the Medang kingdom and Airlangga's era Kahuripan kingdom (1000–1049 AD) of
Java experienced a long prosperity so that it needed a lot of manpower, especially
to bring crops, packings, and send them to ports. Black labor was imported
from Jenggi (Zanzibar), Pujut (Australia), and Bondan (Papua). According to
Naerssen, they arrived in Java by trading (bought by merchants) or being taken
prisoner during a war and then made slaves.

-_________________________________________________________________________
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medang_KingdomBlack labor and overseas
invasions

Borobudur ship, a ship used by Javanese people for sailing as far as Ghana.
Moving eastward

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This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage.
A Borobudur ship is the 8th-century wooden double outrigger, sailed vessel of
Maritime Southeast Asia depicted in some bas reliefs of the Borobudur Buddhist
monument in Central Java, Indonesia. The ships depicted at Borobudur were most
likely the type of vessels used for inter-insular trades and naval campaigns by the
Sailendran and Srivijayan thalassocracy empire that ruled the region around the 7th
to the 13th century. The function of the outrigger was to stabilize the ship; a single or
double outrigger canoe is the typical feature of the seafaring Austronesian vessels. It
is considered by scholars to have been the most likely type of vessel used for their
voyages and exploration across Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the Indian Ocean.

15
Towering Merapi volcano overlooking Prambanan prasad tower. It was
suggested that Merapi volcanic eruption had devastated Mataram capital,
forcing them to relocate in the east.

Around the year 929, the centre of the kingdom was shifted from Central Java to
East Java by Mpu Sindok, who established the Isyana Dynasty. The exact cause of
the move is still uncertain. Historians have proposed various possible causes; from
natural disaster, epidemic outbreak, politics and power struggle, to religious or
economic motives.
According to van Bemmelen's theory, which was supported by Prof. Boechari a
severe eruption of Mount Merapi volcano probably has caused the move. Historians
suggest that, some time during the reign of King Wawa of Mataram (924—929),
Merapi volcano erupted and devastated the kingdom's capital in Mataram. The
historic massive volcano eruption is popularly known as Pralaya Mataram (the
debacle of Mataram). The evidence for this eruption can be seen in several temples that
were virtually buried under Merapi's lahar and volcanic debris, such as the Sambisari,
Morangan, Kedulan, Kadisoka and Kimpulan temples.
The history of black Africans in pre-Islamic Java: The presence of African slaves in Java
before 1500 has for long been acknowledged by historians, yet hardly any research has
been conducted on the subject. Using the epigraphical and literary evidence in Old
Javanese as the major source, and contextualized with comprehensive evidence on black
Africans in Tang and Song China.1
1. Jiří Jákl (2017) in his research article-Black Africans on the maritime silk
route, Indonesia and the Malay World, 45:133, 334-
351, DOI: 10.1080/13639811.2017.1344050
This paper adds that African people in Java were treated as ‘different others’. Some literary
illustrations suggest that some of them were integrated into the servile system of Javanese
courts, and the epigraphical record indicates that black African slaves were occasionally
given by rulers to religious institutions, probably as meritorious deeds. They also served as
part of the administrative body of royal tax collectors, enjoying a relative freedom of
movement in rural Java, benefits unseen in Song China, a polity from where we have the
most comprehensive evidence on black African diaspora in pre-modern Asia.

In another paper European, Javanese, and African and Indentured Servitude in the
Caribbean, Lomarsh Roopnarine adds that the movement of indentured laborers from
Europe, Java, and Africa to the Caribbean in the decades before and after the abolition
slavery (British Caribbean (1838), Dutch Guiana (1873), and the Danish West Indies (1848)
in particular) was negligible in comparison to the influx of bonded Indians and Chinese to
the region.

An estimated 500,000 Indians and 250,000 Chinese were brought to the Caribbean and
Spanish Peru. By contrast, no less than 90,000 indentured Europeans, Africans, and
Javanese were brought to the Caribbean region. Nevertheless, the smaller number of
indentured from the latter group pales in comparison to their significance and contribution
to the Caribbean plantation society in the 19th and early 20th centuries in terms of
providing labor, serving as a buffer between the planters and other ethnic groups, and
adding to the mosaic of culture in the Caribbean.

Some Africans were rescued from slave ships by the British warships patrols. Instead of
sending these rescued Africans back to their homeland, they were indentured mainly to the
British Caribbean. The Javanese were brought from the Dutch colony of Indonesia, mainly
inland Java and the seaports of Batavia, Surabaya, and Semarang to Dutch Guiana after
1873. When their contracts expired, they formed independent communities and engaged in
large-scale agriculture and retail business. The Javanese were brought only to Dutch
Guiana, now Suriname.

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The Europeans also came from Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and Denmark, on the one
hand, and Portugal (honorary whites), on the other. The former groups were brought to the
Caribbean before African slavery while the Portuguese were brought to the region, mainly to
British Guiana, after the abolition of slavery, although the first batch of Portuguese arrived
in British Guiana in 1835. Taken together, both groups proved to be a supplementary
source of labor to the plantation system for reasons relating to maladjustment to tropical
labor and victims of social ills.

“European scholars have written many books on Angkor, claiming that

there is a great “mystery” about how it was built. While it is true that the
exact method used to carry the huge stones to the top is not known, there
really is no “mystery.”
Angkor was built by human labor power. Hundreds of thousands of
slaves put their sweat, their blood and their whole lives into its
construction. Their experiences and abilities led them to solve the technical
and engineering problems, as well as to create the great art works.
As Comrade So put it: “The ancient kings may have thought that these
monuments would bring eternal glory to themselves and to the gods they
believed in. But really, Angkor brings glory to the traditions of the
Kampuchean people. If we could accomplish such great feats even in the
dark days of slavery, then we know that we will be able to accomplish
things ten times greater now that we have been liberated by socialism.”

https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-5/burstein-4.htm
______________________________________________________________
1. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-
9780199730414-0313.xml.
In Angkor: Built with the blood of slaves for your tourism pleasure the author says: “Angkor was,
in my opinion then as now, a horrendous deformation of humanity, where slave
labor and mass dehumanization resulted in the piling of rocks into beautiful
monuments. The vast majority of modern Cambodians, however, for a host of
reasons which are increasingly well understood(2) think of the Angkorean regime as
the golden age of Cambodia. Historically, this cannot have been true, at least not
for the masses of people who lived under Angkor rule. Instead, modern
Cambodians appeal to Angkor primarily as an offense against the constriction of
the Cambodian nation (in terms of territory, glory, and regional power), a notion
explored very well by Thongchai Winichakul for Thailand. In my classes, I would
ask people if they would want to have lived during the Angkor era. All my students
smiled beatifically and replied that yes, they would. I then asked them if they were
under the impression that they would have been kings, queens, or if they would
have been the slaves who built the palaces. Their smiles dropped, and their
responses were a combination of shame and sullen silence.”
So, by building temples and Stupas performing sacred ceremonies inside them, the
rulers tried to guarantee a land with plentiful harvests, freedom from disease,
drought and invasions. But did you know that ordinary people lived their ordinary
lives within the temple-cities too? The thousands of carvings on the walls as well
as showing Hindu legends show everyday- activities like fishing, cock-fighting,
climbing trees and wrestling.1

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 1. https://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/khmer/angkor-
built-with-the-blood-of-slaves-for-your-tourism-pleasure/

There is no written record of who built Borobudur or Angkor or of its

intended purposes. The construction time has been estimated by
comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the
inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the eight and ninth
centuries. Borobudur was likely founded around 750 AD. This corresponds
to the peak of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java (760–830 AD), when it
was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire. The construction has
been estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during the
reign of Samaratungga in 825.
Medieval Indonesia’s Buddhist Temple of Borobudur
Posted on April 13, 2019

The Temple
was built during the rule of the Sailendra Dynasty (c. 650-1025 CE), Borobudur remains the
world’s largest Buddhist temple. Buddhists performed pilgrimages and other rituals at
Borobudur until the temple was abandoned as many Javanese converted to Islam.

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Archaeological and scholarly consensus places the end of Borobudur’s construction around c. 800-
825 CE. King Samaratungga (r. c. 790-835 CE?) is traditionally regarded as the Javanese king who
oversaw the completion of Borobudur’s construction. Buddhist kings, like Samaratungga, were the
rivals of the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty for power within the Mataram kingdom in central Java. The
Hindu Javanese under the Sanjaya dynasty constructed Prambanan — Indonesia’s largest Hindu
temple, located some 19 km (12 miles) to the west of Borobudur — in the same century as
Borobudur, and it is entirely possible that Prambanan’s construction was a political and cultural
response to that of Borobudur.
What is known is that Buddhists made pilgrimages and took part in Buddhist rituals at Borobudur
during the early medieval period until the temple was abandoned at some point during the 1400s CE.
The root causes for the abandonment of Borobudur are moreover debated, and the reasons why the
temple was ultimately abandoned remains unknown. It is known that in the 10th or 11th century CE,
the capital of the Mataram Kingdom moved eastwards away from Borobudur due to volcanic
eruptions, which may have diminished Borobudur as a center of pilgrimage. Although Arab, Persian,
and Gujarati traders brought Islam to what is present-day Indonesia as early as the 8th and 9th
centuries CE, the acceleration of Javanese conversion to Islam began to increase rapidly only in the
15th century CE. As the Javanese population accepted Islam en masse, it makes sense that Borobudur
would lessen in importance. Over the following centuries, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, and
rainforest growth hid Borobudur from the Javanese, rendering it inaccessible. There is evidence,
nonetheless, that Borobudur never left the collective cultural consciousness of the Javanese people.
Even after their conversion to Islam, later Javanese stories and myths expressed the temple’s
association with mystery and negative energies.

This relief
depicts an ancient Indian ship likely to have been used by Indian adventurers sailing to Java,
Indonesia. Location: Borobudur temple, Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia / Photo by Michael
J. Lowe, Wikimedia Commons
In 1814, the Lieutenant Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826 CE) who oversaw
the brief British occupation of the Dutch East Indes permitted the Dutch explorer Hermann Cornelius
(1774-1833 CE) to organize an expedition to find and locate Borobudur, which he did successfully the
same year. In the years following Borobudur’s rediscovery, the government of the Dutch East Indies
commissioned and permitted archaeological studies of the temple, but looting was a major problem in
the 19th and early 20th century CE. Experts recommended that Borobudur be left in tact in situ, and
the first restoration efforts lasted from 1907 to 1911 CE. Today, Borobudur is once again a site of
Buddhist pilgrimage and a major tourist destination in Southeast Asia, but Indonesian officials remain

19
worried about damage caused by the foot traffic at the temple, as well as lingering environmental and
security issues.

Art and Architecture

Borobudur is an impressive and monumental ancient Buddhist structure that can only be rivaled in
Southeast Asia by Angkot Wat in Cambodia, the Buddhist temples of Bagan in Myanmar (Burma),
the Hindu temples of Mỹ Sơn in Vietnam, and the ruins of Sukhothai in Thailand. Borobudur’s design
is a mix of Javanese style and Gupta dynasty arhitecture, reflecting the blend of indigenous and Indian
aesthetics in ancient Java. Over 500 statues of Buddha are positioned around Borobudur, and
Borobudur contains roughly 3,000 bas-relief sculptures. These sculptures are all unique in that they
depict the Buddha’s teachings, life, and personal wisdom. When taken altogether, Borobudur can
claim to have the largest amount of Buddhist sculptures of any single site in the world today. It is
known that in ancient times, sculptors decorated and adorned the temples’ various galleries before
everything was covered with paint and stucco. This method has helped better preserve these
sculptures for over a thousand years.
It is estimated that over 1.6 million blocks of andesite — a volcanic rock — were used in Borobudur’s
construction. These rocks were cut and joined in a method that did not employ any mortar. Borobudur
is made up of three different monuments: the main temple at Borobudur and two smaller temples
located to the east of the main temple. The two smaller temples are the Pawon Temple and the
Mendut Temple, the latter of which contains a large sculpture of Buddha surrounded by two
Bodhisattvas. Collectively, Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut symbolize the path the individual takes in
attaining Nirvana. All three temples lie in a straight line as well. Another Buddhist temple —
Ngawen, which dates from the 8th century CE, is located just 10 km (6 miles) from the main temple at
Borobudur. A ruined Hindu temple, the Banon Temple, lies just several meters north of Pawon.
The main temple structure at Borobudur is constructed on three levels with a pyramid-shaped base
replete with five square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular shaped platforms, and on the
upper level, a grand monumental stupa. Fine reliefs form part of the walls of the temples and cover an
area of approximately 2,520 m2 (27,125 square feet). 72 stupas each with a statue of the Buddha
inside are found around Borobudur’s circular platforms. This allocation and delineation of space
conforms to the Buddhist conception of the universe. In Buddhist cosmology, the universe is divided
into three spheres known as arupadhatu, rupadhatu, and kamadhatu. Arupadhatu is here represented
by the three platforms and large stupa, the rupadhatu is represented by the five terraces, and
the kamadhatu is represented by the temple’s base.1

Financial illustrations are demonstrated from simple CBA simulations covering the 100 years
following the temple’s construction, which demonstrate a negative net cash flow. The results
indicated that the construction of the Borobudur temple was not economically feasible. Although the
existence of Borobudur Temple offered non-financial benefits such as strengthening social cohesion
and instilling pride and admiration in the people, it reflected the sufferings borne by the community;
particularly the tax burdens and the negative impacts of slavery and associated shima practices. 2.
-___________________________________________________________________
1. By James Blake Wiener, Historian ---https://brewminate.com/medieval-indonesias-
buddhist-temple-of-borobudur/

2. The Ambiguous Feasibility of Borobudur Temple Irmawati Marwoto1 , Mandala Manurung2

1Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, 2Department
of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, International Journal of
Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 14, Issue 8, 2020 749

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