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Yet, direct trade between Sri Lanka and South East Asia
continued. Chinese vessels touched at the Sri Lankan
ports as testified to by Chau-Ju-Kua while some Chinese
vessels which did not reach Sri Lanka proceeded to
Indian ports. In the latter case, Sri Lankan and Chinese
products were exchanged by merchants in the Indian ports
such as Jurfattan. Only when Chinese official
intervention prohibited China trading beyond Malacca in
1433 did direct Sino-Sri Lankan trade relations come to
a standstill.
Several sea routes, some of which were interlinked
regional routes, were followed by navigators between Sri
Lanka and China and vice versa. Of these, one of the
popular routes from Sri Lanka was along the Coromandel
Coast, Bay of Bengal, Burma Coast, Malacca Straits (Kalah
Bar) and Hanoi in Indo-China to Canton (Khanfu).
Depending on the monsoon winds, ships sailing to Canton
from Sri Lanka avoided the Coromandel Coast, Bay of
Bengal and the Burma Coast and sailed direct to the
northern end of the Malacca Straits and passed through
South Asian Kingdoms such as Ho-ling, Dvaravati, Fu-nan
and sailed to Canton. The two wind systems helped
navigation and trade along these routes. These were the
South-West monsoon from April to September at the onset
of which easterly direction navigation from South Asia
started and the North-East monsoon from October to March
at the onset of which navigation in a westerly direction
from China commenced.
Chinese private trading groups, the office of Huang-men
which was part of the Shao-fu or the Chinese Imperial
treasury, Sri Lankan traders and traders from other
countries who were engaged in intermediary trade were
the four main groups involved in this Sino-Sri Lanka
trade. The role of each group varied from time to time
and according to circumstances and political conditions
both in South Asia and China.
Of the items exported from Sri Lanka to China special
reference may be made to precious stones, pearls, chanks,
turtle shells, muslin and spices. Of the trade
commodities sent from China to Sri Lanka both for the
Sri Lankan market and for transhipment, Chinese silks
and ceramics took pride of place.
There is no archaeological material confirming earlier
mentioned textual references to Sri Lankan contacts in
the first few centuries of the Christian era. But from
the sixth century onwards contacts are represented
archaeologically by several kinds of Chinese ceramics as
well as Chinese coins belonging to almost every emperor
from 976 A.D. to 1265 A.D..
The earliest of the ceramics are storage jars or jar
fragments of the period of the Tang Dynasty. Thick,
grey-brown coloured stoneware with pale olive-green
glaze exterior and interior are the usual types of
earliest Chinese ceramics found at the largest port in
ancient Rajarata, Mahatittha-the great port. The most
common form of these is a large, flat-based storage jar
with a short vertical neck and six horizontal strap
handles around the shoulder. These jars, found only in
port sites indicate that they were used as storage
vessels that would have served as shipping containers
for valuable products than as objects traded for their
intrinsic value.
Besides grey-brown coloured stoneware with glazed
interior and exterior, black striated stoneware and dark
brown glazed stoneware jars or jar fragments have been
unearthed at Mahatittha. Black striated stoneware are
restricted to flat-based storage jars while dark brown
stoneware jars have dark brown glazed interior surfaces
and contain vertical handles.
The fact that these large storage jars have been found
in the busiest Sri Lankan port at the time, clearly
indicates that they were not meant as religious gifts or
gifts to the rulers but were brought into the island as
shipping containes for valuables and fragile or easily
damaged products. A high proportion of these storage
jars found at the port of Mahatittha also indicates
active Sino-Sri Lankan trade relations during the T'ang
period.
Fragments of different varieties of Chinese bowls
datable to the T'ang and Five Dynasties-approximately
from the seventh to the tenth century A.D. have been
found at the port of Mahatittha, the Abhayagiri monastic
complex at Anuradhapura and at Mihintale. If they were
found only at the monastic complexes they could not have
been considered as definite evidence of trade contacts
as the possibility of these items being given as
religious gifts from China cannot be overlooked. But the
fact that they have been found both at the port of
Mahatittha and monastic complexes indicates that there
was a brisk ceramic trade between Sri Lanka and China.
It should be noted that the eleventh century, besides
Chinese ceramics, ceramics from West Asia particularly
from Persia were also imported to Sri Lanka. However,
during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, the Sri
Lankan sites contain almost no contemporary West Asian
ceramics. The former balance between Chinese and West
Asian ceramic goods has now tilted sharply towards the
Chinese. High quality Sung Celadons and white porcelains
became the import ceramics of choice. Pieces of these
have been unearthed in the excavations of the later
capitals such as Polonnaruwa and Yapahuwa along with
hoards of Chinese coins. In addition, chance finds of
ceramic cargoes at Allaipiddi in the northern part of
Sri Lanka, Nilaveli in the north-eastern coast and of
individual pieces at Galle harbour show that new ports
were also used in Sino-Sri Lankan trade during the
period eleventh to thirteenth centuries.
Despite the continuation in the Chinese ceramic trade
with Sri Lanka, there seems to have been some change in
its contents. The largescale usage of big storage jars
either as shipping containers or as trade objects that
was evident prior to the tenth century, has declined.
The sites with luxury Sung ceramics no longer have so
many pieces of the contemporary large stoneware jars.
A substantial number of Sung ceramics have been
unearthed at Allaipiddi on the northern coast of Sri
Lanka. Most of these are either bowls, bowl fragments,
jars and jar fragments, but one is a large tub or a
basin. The large tub which can be dated to the eleventh
to early twelfth century A.D. is of grey-brown colour
and is made of hard-fired clay. It is decorated with a
medium brown glaze covering the interior and exterior
surfaces but not the slightly incurring base. It has
flaring sides and a rolled rim above its almost flat
base.
So far there has been no archaeological evidence of the
fourteenth and fifteenth century Chinese ceramic, in Sri
Lankan sites. But literary accounts refer to six Chinese
exploratory trading expeditions as far as the
Mediterranean under Cheng-Ho, who visited Sri Lanka
twice in 1411/1412 on these expeditions.
The Galle trilingual Slab inscription written in
Chinese, Persian and Tamil set up by Cheng-Ho during his
second voyage points to close trade contacts between the
island and China in the fifteenth century.
The fifteenth century Chinese author, Ma Huan states
that musk, coloured taffetas, blue and white porcelain
ware, copper coins and camphor were imported from China
to Sri Lanka and exchanged for pearls and precious
stones.
Most of the Chinese ceramics found in Sri Lankan sites
have come from the kilns is Zhejiang, Fujian, Huanan,
Jianx and Guandong provinces which were the major areas
of the manufacture of Chinese porcelain. The Alahana
Parivena site at Polonnaruawa has led to the discovery
of several samples of ceramics from the famous kiln at
Jingezhen in the Jianxi Province.
It is likely that many of the Chinese ceramics found in
Sri Lankan sites were imported as trade commodities for
the use of royalty, the elite and the Buddhist
priesthood. Some may have reached Sri Lanka as gifts
from the Chinese emperors, nobles and merchants as well
as through Chinese pilgrims and travellers. Some of the
items found in the ports and coastal sites may also have
been items meant for transit trade. In any event, both
archaeological and textual evidence prove beyond any
doubt that there were very considerable Chinese ceramic
imports to Sri Lanka particularly between the beginning
of the sixth century A.D. and the end of the thirteenth
century A.D. However, a great deal of further research
has to be conducted to understand the mechanics of this
trade e.g. collection and export from China, storage in
ships, entrepot trade, unloading in Sri Lankan ports,
the nature of exchange and payments, transport to cities
such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in the interior,
distribution within cities and donations to the monastic
establishments
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