The Silk Road of the Sea
Last week I was privileged to deliver the annual Victor Melder Lecture – honouring an old friend now living in Melbourne who has done so much for Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan migrants in his adopted home Australia.
I spoke on the subject ‘Sri Lanka and the Silk Road of the Sea’ – tracing the role of our island nation as an important connection point along the maritime trade routes traversing the Indian Ocean. A glance at the map will serve to show that Sri Lanka lies squarely at the midpoint of this shipping route – variously termed the Spice Route or the maritime Silk Road – along which silk, spice and all that’s nice used to be carried from the exotic east to the markets of the west.
It was not just these exotic Asian commodities – as well as goods from the west such as glass, furs, carpets, cloth and gold – that were carried along the trade routes. The traders and sailors who made the long journeys in both directions across the sea also took with them intangible commodities such as science, technology, food, plants, religion, and medicine that they transmitted to the people in the ports and emporia to which they went.
Understanding that these trade routes conveyed so much more than commercial goods, about 30 years ago UNESCO launched an ambitious project entitled ‘Integral Study of the Silk Roads as Roads of Dialogue’ to study how these interactions along the trade routes contributed to the transmission of knowledge, ideas and religions between far flung societies. One feature of this project was a series of scientific expeditions – along the land routes traversing the desert and steppes of Central Asia as well as along the maritime route stretching from Venice in Italy to Osaka in Japan. Each team of scholars participating in these expeditions (archaeologists, historians, experts in various fields such as ships and shipbuilding, medical history, art and music) together with representatives of the media would participate in site visits as well as in seminars with local experts at the various cities and harbours along the way. The resulting exchange of ideas effected a cross-pollination of knowledge among the scholars, resulting in a tremendous number of new publications.
My involvement in the Silk route expeditions came about because I had developed an interest and acquired knowledge about how diseases and medical knowledge were transmitted across communities. My application to be selected as one of the scholars taking part in the UNESCO Maritime expedition was successful and this gave me the opportunity to travel with other scholars of various nationalities and different academic disciplines. On my leg of the journey I visited several of the ancient ports of the Indian Ocean – Alexandria in Egypt, Muscat, Salalah and Samharam in Oman, Gopakapattinam and Goa in India and Barbarikon in Pakistan.
There was so much that I learned on this expedition, not just from the archaeological sites we visited but also from my interaction with fellow team members. I was so fortunate being able to bump into colleagues from a diversity of disciplines simply by sitting down for a meal in the ship’s dining room. Interdisciplinary discussion and debate can spark such deep paradigm shifts!
We visited the ancient port of Samharam in Oman where frankincense trees grew and from where incense (which we know as Sam’rani) was exported to places like Sri Lanka and India. We saw the ruins of the ancient port of Mahatitha or Mantai, near present day Mannar, once a major emporium where traders from both ends of the maritime silk route would meet and trade their wares. Emporia like Mantai in Sri Lanka as well as Arikamadu and Kolikhode on either side of south India allowed traders from various places to come and exchange their goods without making the entire voyage from China to Arabia. The success of these ports in encouraging merchants to come and set up shop here allowed the rulers controlling these harbours to earn revenue by taxing such trade – from which they earned riches they could use to build the massive temples and monuments we see even today.
The recent finding of a shipwreck at Godavaya off the Hambantota coast has been highly significant. Discovered in 2008, this is the oldest known shipwreck in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific Region! Initial underwater exploration has revealed that the ship was carrying iron ingots, stone querns and ceramic bowls in its cargo. More work and funding is needed to continue exploration of this underwater wreck – which has the potential to shed more light on our nation’s significant position as a major maritime hub at the middle of the silk route.
There was such a lot that I learned about our country and there is so much more to learn!
Maybe this is an opportunity for me, now that I have more time on my hands, to undertake research into what is certainly a fascinating topic!
(Associate Professor Sanjiva Wijesinha MBBS (Ceylon) MSc (Oxford) FRCS (Edin) FRACGP is the author of Tales From my Island)
Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.