Introduction
Exhibition Overview
“Maritime Southeast Asia” is the geographical region found where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean. Within its scope lie the Southeast Asia’s numerous archipelagos, as well as the southern reaches of the Malay Peninsula. The ocean itself is this area’s most important transportation thoroughfare. Dotted with as many islands as the night sky is dotted with stars, the region’s undulating shorelines and open water channels provide for countless maritime shipping routes and relay stations. Not only do the harbors and inland districts at each locale provide sailors with supplies and opportunities to exchange goods, they also serve as nuclei of cultural interchange and political maneuvering.
Austronesian peoples were Maritime Southeast Asia’s primary inhabitants in ancient times. Skilled oceanic navigators, they traded their resources between islands. Much later, as though following the cycles of seasonal monsoons, sailors from the Indian, Chinese, Arabian, and European landmasses were delivered to Southeast Asia upon the trade winds. Arriving in droves, they spurred the creation of enormous mercantile networks and altered the course of history. Each of the cultures and beliefs brought by visitors from disparate regions has surged and receded just like the tides. Yet, as aspects of each of them were absorbed and reimagined by the inhabitants of Maritime Southeast Asia, they began to precipitate into unique, home-grown forms. Over the course of millennia, this process has given rise to a local temperament that is—just like the oceans themselves—dynamic, open, and broadly inclusive.
The expansiveness of the ocean and the inclusiveness of harbors are what give this exhibition its background symbolism. The exhibition’s guiding principle is “Coming Ashore,” a term that encompasses the dual meanings of cultural “migration” and “arrival” throughout history. “Coming Ashore” is a term that can imply what others witness in their journeys, as people’s returns to their own homelands and familiar environs. The history of Maritime Southeast Asia is as intricately complex and profoundly deep as the ocean of stars in the night sky. This exhibition brings together items from the NPM’s collections along with those of numerous other museums, in an attempt to trace along the astrological charts left to us by our forebears, as we embark upon an expedition in search of our collective pasts.
This exhibition is divided into three sections:
I. “Harbors Connected by Wind and Sail” paints a portrait of East Asian and European understandings of Maritime Southeast Asia prior to the 19th century. This section also reveals these outsiders’ varied motivations for making the long journey to the region.
II. “Marvelous Objects of a Rich and Fertile Island” centers upon Borneo in order to show how material culture was brought to the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, as well as the ways in which these cultural imports were absorbed into the rituals and daily lives of local indigenous populations.
III. “Competing Coastlines and Coexisting Cultures” focuses on the shorelines on either side of the Strait of Malacca (spelled “Melaka” in Malay) and the many islands found in the Java Sea. This section presents the cultural exchanges between different ethnic groups. It also shows how different peoples blended with one another whilst simultaneously preserving their distinct ethnic identities, revealing the diversity and coexistence that characterize Maritime Southeast Asia’s cultural milieu.