Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia 9789812308375, 9812308377, 9789812308399, 9812308393

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The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued almost 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world. ii

First published in Singapore in 2009 by ISEAS Publishing Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 119614 E-mail: [email protected] Website: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. © 2009 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters.

ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Tan, Ta Sen. Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. 1. Zheng He, 1371–1435. 2. Islam—Southeast Asia—History. 3. Islam—China—History. 4. Buddhism—China—History. I. Title. DS753.6 C48T161 2009 ISBN 978-981-230-837-5 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-230-839-9 (PDF) Cover photo: Masjid Agung in Demak, Java, Indonesia. Photo taken by the author. Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by iv

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List of Tables

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Foreword

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Acknowledgements Chapter 1

Introduction

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Part I: Cultural Contact in China Chapter 2

The Chinese World and Civilization

19

Chapter 3

The Spread of Buddhism to China and its Sinicization

55

Chapter 4

The Advent of Islam in China

76

Chapter 5

The Sinicization of Islam in China

96

Part II: Cultural Contact in Southeast Asia Chapter 6

The Islamization of Southeast Asia

131

Chapter 7

Cheng Ho and the Islamization of Southeast Asia

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Chapter 8

The Localization of Islam in Insular Southeast Asia

206

Chapter 9

Conclusion

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Bibliography

255

Index

277

About the Author

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Statue of Cheng Ho, Stadthuys, Malacca Tables 2.1 Chronology of Chinese History from Huang Di to Tang Dynasty 3.1 Volumes of Buddhist Works Translated into Chinese in the Tang Dynasty 6.1 List of Indianized States in Insular Southeast Asia 7.1 Major Events of Cheng Ho’s Seven Historic Expeditions 7.2 Frequency of Missions between China and the Seven Main Southeast Asian States during the Reign of Yongle from 1402 to 1424 7.3 Communications between Cheng Ho and Main Chinese Traders in Palembang, 1403–25 7.4 Ancient Mosques in India and Southeast Asia built with Pagoda-shaped Minarets and Multi-tiered Roofs 8.1 Treatment Checklist for the Two Groups of Chinese under Cheng Ho 8.2 Keramat of Cheng Ho’s Crew Members in Java 8.3 Organizational Chart of the Overseas Chinese Bureau in the Post-Cheng Ho Era

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173 190 201 211 222 226

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After more than a decade of grappling with the idea of the clash of civilizations, many scholars have sought to stress the more peaceful relationships between people of different cultural backgrounds. Culture contacts did not always lead to conflict. On the contrary, most cultural exchanges have taken place away from political ambitions and jealousies. Most bearers of a culture carried their values with them to support their way of life in a foreign land and so that they could demonstrate why they deserved to be treated with respect even though they came from elsewhere. Occasionally, they were given the opportunity to teach the native people about their culture and sometimes their culture was found so appealing to the native people that they were ready to accept it as their own. Where there was active interest, the cultural ambassadors became missionaries and very likely some of their values would take root. The values could then blossom in fresh ways among those who came to admire them. This was especially true with the spread of a religion. The act of conversion may or may not occur with the help of missionary effort but, when it happens, it would have a transformative effect on the converted and even the community around them. The spread of Buddhism and Islam eastwards, inland across Inner Asia to China and by sea (together with Hinduism) to Southeast Asia, reflects this phenomenon of cultural contact particularly well. Innumerable studies have shown how much of the impetus of this spread had come from traders, the exchange of diplomatic gifts as well as wars that stemmed from ambition and avarice. But the culture bearers preserved and transmitted what they brought with them despite the buying and selling, and the political and military games that the rich and powerful chose to play. That is not to say that conflicts did not produce opportunities for cultures to expand in influence. But the manifold ways that culture contact could lead to major changes in societies, and ultimately even in states and empires, deserve closer study to ix

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help us get away from any obsession with the efficacy of force and aggression. It is in that context that Tan Ta Sen has chosen to study Islam in Southeast Asia with reference to Yuan and Ming China. He has consciously done this by going back to the way culture contacts had changed Chinese history from ancient times. By focusing on the arrival of Buddhism in China and the impact that had on Chinese life and thought and then examining the later coming of Islam and what that did to Chinese society during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, he prepared the background for his study of Islamization in maritime Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia was, of course, very different from China. The region was always geographically fragmented and the key division between continental and maritime regions led to different responses to foreign influences by the local cultures. For example, the penetration by Hindu-Buddhist cultures produced one kind of mixture in Champa and Cambodia and another in Java-Sumatra. In part because of the differences, several of the mainland states absorbed Hinayana Buddhism while most of the archipelago eventually turned to Islam. The processes of transformation were obviously not the same. But in most history books, the direction of change has always been from the West, whether from India or Sri Lanka, or further west from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. There is no real controversy about exactly where a more puritanical Buddhism came from across the Bay of Bengal. But where Southeast Asian Islam originated has been subject to dispute. Claims have been made for Arabia and the Gulf states and for the Muslim communities of the Indian sub-continent, especially those of South India. Some attempts have been made to trace Muslim groups in Java and its neighbours to the migration of Chinese Muslims. Among the earliest were my friends S.Q. Fatimi and Slametmuljana. Fatimi and I were briefly colleagues at the University of Malaya in the early 1960s and we spent hours together discussing the Chinese sources that led him to believe that Chinese Muslims did play a part in the spread of Islam in the Malay world. He even mentioned this in his controversial book, Islam Comes to Malaysia, which he published in 1963. Not long afterwards, I met Slametmuljana. This was before he published his Runtuhnja Keradjaan Hindu-Djawa dan Timbulnja Negara-negara Islam di Nusantara (in 1968), but he was already excited by the idea that some of the Nine Saints of Java were of Chinese origin and that Chinese Muslims were important to the story of how Majapahit became Islamized. He was later to describe this in A Story of Majapahit in 1976. I was impressed but not certain how reliable his

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sources were. It was years later, in 1984, that the scholarly presentation by H.J. de Graaf concerning one of his main sources, The Malay Annals of Semarang and Cheribon, was published. In this book, the subject of Tan Ta Sen’s thesis at the University of Indonesia, he has continued with the quest for new sources. He admits that he has been handicapped by the lack of source materials. But he has scoured far and wide for Chinese, Malay, Javanese and sources in other languages, including examples from mosque architecture and other artifacts, to piece together his version of what happened during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, especially the two centuries from the late thirteenth to the late fifteenth. For him, the Mongol invasions in the region from 1283 to 1295 were relevant. Muslims from China were involved and at least some of them were left behind in Java. But even more significant were the voyages of Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) between 1405 and 1433. As a Muslim trusted by the Emperor Yung-lo (Yongle) and accompanied by other Muslims who were knowledgeable about maritime affairs, Cheng Ho set up Muslim centres where there were already Chinese Muslim settlers, traders and pirates. These provided help in spreading the faith and also involved some Chinese in the politics of Java and Sumatra. Ultimately, most of the Chinese were absorbed into the local populations as Muslims, whether as Hanafites or as Shafi’ites or as Islamized mystic-Hindu Javanese. Given the shortage of contemporary materials from the region itself, Tan Ta Sen has put together a coherent and plausible account of the role that Cheng Ho and his followers had played in spreading the religion among the Javanese. It is hard to predict whether more documents and artifacts can be found to support this account. He has modestly suggested that, as a book to illustrate the peaceful impact of culture contact, he is concerned as to how such cultural influences not only led to transmissions, conversions and transferences involving Inner Asian Muslims from China and Yunnan Muslims, Chams, Javanese, Malays, Arabs and Indians, but also enabled many Chinese in the Malay world to retain their non-Muslim cultural traits. In placing Cheng Ho’s voyages in this context, the author offers a fresh perspective on a momentous set of events in Chinese maritime history.

Professor Wang Gungwu National University of Singapore 21 June 2008

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This book is based on my Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the History Department, University of Indonesia. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Dr A. Dahana and Professor R.Z. Leirissa, who were my promoters, Professor Wang Gungwu for his Foreword, Professor Leo Suryadinata and Professor A. Dahana for their kindness to write comments for this book, and Dr Chia Lin Sien for his meticulous reading and comments on my thesis from the linguistic aspect. Special thanks to all the informants, who have contributed so much time and knowledge in discussing the topic with me, and in particular, for showing me the interesting sites and relics for my study. I owe my gratitude to the staff of the libraries at Universitas Indonesia, the National University of Singapore and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for their willingness at all times to render me assistance. It is important to mention here that throughout the course of my research, all my family members were extremely encouraging and supportive such that I could complete my study in time. Last but not least, I wish to express my profound gratitude to the Indonesian Government for awarding me a scholarship during President Sukarno’s era. Without this opportunity to equip and immerse myself in the area of Indonesian Studies, I would never have ventured into the present study. For all their generous assistance and advice, I would like to express my profound gratitude here. Needless to say, no matter how much advice and illuminating comments I have had from all the people mentioned above, I am solely responsible for all the errors, misjudgements and misinterpretations made in this book. Dr Tan Ta Sen xiii

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M1. Forbidden City built in Beijing in the early 1420s by Emperor Yongle who dispatched Admiral Cheng Ho to sail to the West. Most prominent are the architectural features of tiered roofs and hooked eaves. Photo taken by the author.

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and Sichuan-Yunnan-Vietnam (Shu An Route) Route. The southwestern trade route linked China to Myanmar, India and Afghanistan (Zheng He Shishi 2005, pp. 5–6; Mu Jihong 2004, p. 31; Boulnois 2005, p. 106).

;he Silk Route The second overland trade route, known as the Silk Route, commenced from China’s Chang-an in the east to the capital of the eastern Roman empire, Istanbul in Turkey in the west, where it linked up with the trade routes from Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia to Europe and North Africa. The name Silk Route was first coined by a German geographer, F. von Richtofen. This was the greatest and most majestic trade route between the East and the West, and also the oldest and most splendid “cultural canal”, being the main artery of cultural exchange between the East and the West over a long period in history since the fourth century BC to the thirteenth century AD. When Zhang Qian went to Xiyu in 138 BC, he saw that the East-West trade was flourishing. In the first century BC during the reign of Roman Emperor Caesar the Great, silk was more valuable than gold. Among the numerous commodities traded therefore, the famous Chinese silk formed the largest commodity in trading volume. This trade route thus became known as the Silk Route, which flourished for more than 1,700 years. It also paved the way for extensive political, economic and cultural exchange among otherwise segregated ethnic groups in the Inner Asian Steppes (Zheng He Shishi 2005, pp. 4–5; Envoy of Peace from China 2005, p. 12).

;he *LYamic 9V\[L China has a long history of maritime trade. It can be traced back to the third century during the period of the Three Kingdoms () when Sun Quan sent Zhu Ying and Kang Tai to sail to Southeast Asia. Maritime trade flourished in the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) when Asian and Arab traders came to trade with China, assembling at Guangzhou and Quanzhou. Chinese junks also made their appearance in the Persian Gulf. From the tenth to fourteenth centuries during the Song and Yuan dynasties, China’s maritime trade saw a period of boom. Tribute missions from Southeast Asian native states and Chinese and foreign traders were seen plying the Southeast maritime route ceaselessly. In the fifteenth century, Cheng Ho’s (Zheng He’s) historic expeditions to the Indian Ocean during the reign of Emperor Yongle had made China the greatest maritime power in the world. His fleet had reached East Africa. By the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, as a result of the rise

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of private traders in China, their trade gradually replaced the state-controlled tribute trade. Then with the advent of the European powers in the East, the East-West maritime route became a maritime highway. This trade route was traditionally known as the maritime Silk Route. Apart from silk and tea, the most important Chinese export was ceramics, which was traded in large quantities. Hence, in recent years the maritime Silk Route also became known as the Ceramic Route. The elegant porcelains have long been China’s major export commodity. By the Ming dynasty, due to the development of the private kilns, the quantity and quality of ceramic production was greatly enhanced, where large quantities of cheap and good export ceramics were shipped to the world including the European, African, East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian and Central Asian markets. The global demand for Chinese ceramics then became huge. The elegant ceramics became a social status symbol and ceramics were also items to be buried together with the deceased. In the twelfth century, China exported through Southeast Asia a great deal of celadon to Central Asia and India. Before the seventeenth century, Asia was the biggest market for Chinese ceramics. However, by the seventeenth century, European traders began to ship large quantities of celadon to Europe, enabling it to overtake Asia. From 1602 to 1682, China exported through the Dutch East India Company a total of 16 million pieces of porcelains over a span of eighty years. Besides the Dutch East India Company, China also exported ceramics via Chinese, Arab, British, Japanese, Indian, Portuguese and Southeast Asian trading groups. Therefore, during the late Ming and early Qing periods, China’s exports of ceramics to the world markets were huge in quantity (Tan Ta Sen 2005a, pp. 90–91). Apart from trade exchange, extensive cultural exchange between the East and the West took place through these three major trade routes. China exported technologies of paper, gun powder as well as printing to Central, South and Western Asia and Europe while it imported philosophy, religion, science and technology and art from them. In 138 BC, Emperor Wudi sent a mission led by Zhang Qian to Da Yuehzhi in Central Asia with the aim to form allies against the Xiongnu. While travelling south of the Kunlun mountains and crossing Qinghai, the group was captured by the Xiongnu and put to hard labour. Taking advantage of the internal power struggle within the Xiongnu tribe when the old king died in 126 BC, Zhang Qian and his men escaped but only three (Zhang Qian, his Xiongnu wife and the Xiongnu member of the mission) made it to the capital, Chang-an. 52

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Zhang Qian was a devoted diplomat. During these thirteen years abroad, he held on to his imperial insignia. In 115 BC, he was ordered to lead another mission to Xiyu. After he reached Wusun () which is at the southeastern part of Issyk Kul Lake in southeast Uzbekistan, he dispatched his deputies to forge ties with Dayueshi, Afghanistan, Iran, India and other native states. After Zhang Qian’s journeys to the Xiyu, the Northern Silk Route became safer and regular exchange of trade and culture between Han China and native states in Central, West and South Asia were extensive throughout the Western Han period until AD 25 when the Xiongnu regained control of Xiyu. In AD 73, Ban Chao was sent by Emperor Mingdi to re-assert China’s control of Xiyu. As a result, safe passage through the Silk Route was restored and Han China’s economic and cultural contacts with Xiyu, Central, West and South Asia were significantly strengthened. This paved the way for the spread of Buddhism to China.

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