archaeology

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A 1634 Japanese Red seal ship, incorporating Western-style square and lateen sails, rudder and aft designs. The ships were typically armed with 6 to 8 cannons. Tokyo Naval Science Museum.

Red seal ships (朱印船 Shuinsen) were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with a red-sealed patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century. Between 1600 and 1635, more than 350 Japanese ships went overseas under this permit system.

Origins

From the 13th to the 16th century, Japanese ships were quite active in Asian waters, often in the role of "Wakō" pirates who plundered the coast of the Chinese Empire. Official trading missions were also sent to China, such as the Tenryūjibune around 1341. Wakō activity was efficiently curbed in 1588 with the interdiction of piracy by Hideyoshi. (more…)

by John Roach
February 27, 2006

Scientists announced today the discovery of a small "kingdom" on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa thought to have been obliterated by the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

The eruption of the volcano Tambora in 1815 killed 117,000 people in Southeast Asia, including those believed buried under ten feet (three meters) of pumice and ash in the recently discovered village.

Volcanic crater of Mount Tambora

The team, led by University of Rhode Island volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson, hailed the discovery as the "Pompeii of the East." (more…)

By BRYAN WALSH

FAMILY RESEMBLANCE? Scientists are at odds over the differences between the Flores skull, left, and that of a modern human
MJ MORWOOD—AFP / GETTY IMAGES

For generations, the inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Flores, located 563 km east of Bali, told stories of a race of little people called the Ebu Gogo: hairy, human-like creatures that hid in the island’s limestone caves. Like leprechauns, the Ebu Gogo (the name roughly means "grandmother who eats everything") were assumed by anthropologists to be mythical. That was until a team of Australian and Indonesian researchers excavating a cave on the island uncovered ancient bones that included the 18,000-year-old skeleton of a 1-m-tall female with a brain the size of a grapefruit. In 2004, they announced in Nature magazine that the bones were the remains of a previously unknown species of human?which they named Homo floresiensis?that coexisted for a time with modern Homo sapiens. The remarkable discovery of this ancient hobbit meant the history of human evolution would have to be rewritten. For a moment, it seemed, myths could be true. (more…)

Archaeology from the Neolithic to the Eastern Zhou

Archaeologists have been uncovering the secrets of China’s lost cities. They tell the story of the evolution of the city in China from its distant roots in the Neolithic to a flowering that was to occur in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 BC).

The year 2000 was to see the discovery in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of a township site of the Longshan Culture (c.2310-1810 BC). With its double encircling walls this find is further confirmation that the history of city building in antiquity can be traced back in China to the late Neolithic Age. The Longshan Culture is characterized by its burnished black pottery, examples of which were first unearthed in Longshan, Shandong Province in 1928. The Lianyungang site offers an insight into ancient building techniques through its finds of rammed earth foundations.

Of the 50 or so early city developments found in China to date, one in particular has attracted attention worldwide. Located in Xinmi County in Henan Province, this was an ancient Longshan township occupying an area of some 170,000 square meters. (more…)

One of 7 wonders of the world is said it is Borobudur. When the ruins of Borobudur become center of archaeologist’s attention since 1814, various experts such as architect, geologists, historians and others got involve in the bringing clear the neglected monument. Various interesting questions aroused about it’s time of construction, techniques, and it’s function.

Indonesia National Archaeological Service continually and persistently carried out investigation on this challenging monuments. An effort to architecturally restore Borobudur led by Ir. Th. van Erp started in 1907 until 1911 under Dutch government. With this first large scale restoration, the original shape of Borobudur can be step by step formed , although some elements experienced disposition.

Location of Borobudur
 The site is 45 kms north of Yogyakarta now belong to the area of Kabupaten Magelang, central Java. The site is a hill of 265 m above sea level on teh north and north-east is active Merapi mountain and Mt. Merbabu, north-west is Mt. Sundara, and Mt. Sumbing. The hill is conical shape with hard volcanic tuff core covered with various layers of sandy and clay. Borobudur has no gate or room for devotees or visitors. The construction is a stepped pyramid with 6 quadrangular galleries at the base followed by 3 circular terraces which are surrounded by big stupa. The diameter of the base is 118 m, and on the top is 36 m. To connect from one to superimposed galleries it is connected by foot steps. The middle of each side of the edifice is laid out stair cases to give access to the upper galleries. The original base which is called hidden foot rediscovered by accident in 1885. The heavy wall of stones covering the original base intended to support the edifice and to prevent it sliding off from it’s construction. The encasement encircling the foot of the monument now form a wide processional path. (more…)

Berdasarkan atas tulisan yang terdapat pada “kaki” tertutup dari Candi Borobudur yang berbentuk huruf Jawa kuno yang berasal dari huruf pallawa, maka dapat diperkirakan tahun berdirinya Candi tersebut, yaitu pada tahun 850 Masehi, pada waktu pulau Jawa dikuasai oleh keluarga raja-raja Sailendra antara tahun 832-900. Jadi umurnya sudah lebih dari 1.000 tahun.Candi itu terdiri dari 2 juta bongkah batu, sebagian merupakan dinding-dinding berupa relief yang mengisahkan ajaran Mahayana. Candi tersebut berukuran sisi-sisinya 123 meter, sedang tingginya termasuk puncak stupa yang sudah tidak ada karena disambar petir 42 m. Yang ada sekarang tingginya 31,5 m. Pada hakekatnya Borobudur itu berbentuk stupa, yaitu bangunan suci agama Buddha yang dalam bentuk aslinya merupakan kubah (separoh bola) yang berdiri atas alas dasar dan diberi payung di atasnya.

Candi itu mempunyai 9 tingkat, yaitu : 6 tingkat di bawah,: "tiap sisinya agak menonjol berliku-liku, sehingga memberi kesan bersudut banyak. 3 tingkat diatasnya:'’ berbentuk lingkaran. Dan yang paling atas yang disebut sebagai tingkat ke-10 adalah stupa besar ukuran diametrnya 9,90 m, tinggi 7 m.

Borobudur tidak memiliki ruang-ruang yang dulunya dipakai sebagai tempat memuja seperti candi-candi lainnya. Yang ada ialah lorong-lorong panjang yang merupakan jalan sempit, kedua tepinya dibatasi oleh dinding candi, mengelilingi candi tingkat demi tingkat. (more…)

Near Prambanan temple there are other interesting temples about 1 kilometer northwards, it is called Plaosan Temple; a temple constructed by Rakai Pikatan for her wife, Pramudyawardani. The architect of the temple that is located in Bugisan village of Prambanan sub-district is combination of Hindu and Buddha.

Plaosan complex is divided into 2 groups, namely the North Plaosan Temple and the South Plaosan Temple. Both of the temples have square terrace that is encircled by wall, a pillbox for meditation at the west part and dome on other side. Because of that similarity, the appearance of both temples are the same when they are seen from distant so that Plaosan temple is also called the twin temples. (more…)

Origins
 Dated as 835 AD. Buddhist.

Location: dukuh Plaosan, desa Bugisan kec. Prambanan 1.5kms East of Candi Sewu.  Best reached by turning off the Yogya-Klaten road in the Northerly direction at the Prambanan intersection. Drive past Candi Loro Jonggrang, Candi Lumbung, Candu Bubrah and turn right [East] just after passing Candi Sewu. Candi Plaosan then comes into view.

Description of architecture

The complex has a north (lor) and a south (kidul) area. The lor yard (to the left as one comes from Prambanan) has two rebuilt two storey buildings, each surrounded by walls. Around the walls is one row of miniature temples containing statues. The East row, bounding on the back of the two main buildings had 19 such temples, the West row 17, leaving space for the entrace gates to the buildings, and north and south are 7 temples each. additionally, there is a temple on every corner. Two rows of pedestals surround the temples. These too are marked by small temples in the corner. IJzerman surmises that the pedestals would have supported ceramic urns with the remains of monks or priests. This by analogy to the Kanheri complex in India. Other observers have identified the smaller constructions as gifts of officials. (more…)

Origins

1. The origin of Great Mother Buddhism is the Buddha himself who not only proclaimed his Awakening, but subsequently referred it to something beyond: Nirvana. According to the Buddha Enlightenment has to be put into the context of Emptiness, the Void. The latter, not the former has to be considered the Ultimate. In the Sukhavativyuhasutra ("Land of Bliss") for instance, the Buddha is asking Maitreya: "Did you see any being in the Land of Bliss, that has been originating from the lap?" Few realize that with this the Buddha acknowledged "Darkness" to be the Origin of Light - a memory of "the old times" - a hierarchy that under the influence of patriarchal developments within Buddhism was soon "forgotten". Not surprisingly, knowing that Buddhism originally was an enterprise entirely aimed at overcoming "the cycle of birth and death" - the feminine aspect of life - after all, a fact even not fully acknowledged by renowned feminist scholars*. "Buddhahood" became a dimension for itself and on its own. The "organic" relationship with the Void was pushed to the background. It was the Yogacara school that re-opened the discussion though. It emphasized "tathagathagarbha", the Womb from which Buddhahood arises. This school not only restored the original lineage ("Light born out of Darkness"), but had no problems with feminine connotations of the Origin. A tendency which later - in a weakened and deviated form - was to be continued by Vajrayana Buddhism.

* R.Gross "Buddhism after patriarchy", 1993 State University of New York Press

2. This is confirmed by insights of those who suffered the Great Death* (Tibetan: delog) as well as by modern physics. The Ultimate - the dimension beyond Enlightenment and death - appears to be a Vacuum. In the old times this was described as the Abyss of the universe, the Womb or the Great Mother. In recent times quantum physics assumes a "zero-point energy ocean" beyond the tangible universe. The foundation of life is a Vacuum "in which everything without exception continuously dies and is being reborn in the selfsame eternal moment". Which leads to the concept of the Void as the destroyer and creator of all life: both of the absolute (Light, Being) and the relative world. Thus Buddhahood is born out of the Womb! The difference between the Great Mother and Nirvana is that the first includes the dynamic aspect of "birth and death", while the second excludes this. (Apart from the "formal" recognition that "Nirvana is samsara"). It points at a fundamental difference between the official (patriarchal) religion (with the masculine fear of life) and the more down to earth common people, who instead kept an inclusive (matricentral, feminine) attitude. "Nirvana" is the attempt of stripping the Mother of Her dynamic aspects. The consequence of this is far reaching: do you accept "birth and death" as belonging to reality or are you trying to escape from it? It is turning point in contemporary Buddhism. (more…)