12. MALAYAN CIVILIZATION

The Malayan homeland is comprised of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula of Southeast Asia. This peninsula protrudes southward from the modern Thai homeland. And in the early twenty-first century, the nations of Malaysia and Thailand have a common border.

During the early modern era, both indigenous and external influences were shown in Malayan articulations of telluric cosmologies that involved the far south. With regard to indigenous ideas, there is a record of a polytheistic religious belief about events in the 1500s, in which a woman became a goddess who lived in the Southern Ocean. [1] In the early modern Javanese construction of the Southern Ocean, its northern boundary was the southern shore of their home island. [2] Readers may be familiar with some alternative definitions, in which the northern border of the Southern Ocean may be the southern coast of Australia, [3] the Antarctic Convergence, [4] or sixty degrees south latitude. [5] Nevertheless, regardless of conflicting geographical definitions, this Javanese goddess was believed to inhabit an unknown far south.

This deity had several names. Nyai Lara Kidul seems to be the name that was most frequently used by late twentieth century anthropologists. However, she is also identified as being Ratu Kidul, Ratu Lara Kidul, Kanjeng Ratu Kidul, or as having any of several other names. [6] As frequently occurs in folkloric beliefs throughout the world, there are discrepancies between narratives. Nevertheless, there is agreement that this deity had been a human daughter of a hereditary monarch on the island of Java. She chose to enter a part of the Southern Ocean which is contiguous to the southern shore of Java. As a result, she became a deity, and acquired sovereignty in the Southern Ocean. [7] In this position, her home was on the sea floor. She caused the sea to have lethal effects on humans, and according to this folkloric tradition, all souls live posthumously in the high seas. [8] She also married each of the consecutive local hereditary monarchs. [9] Consistent with this suite of beliefs, humans can communicate with her by placing sacrifices in the seawater. [10]

In addition to these indigenous beliefs about the Southern Ocean, there was also evidence of foreign ideas. Since the ancient era, Malayan Civilization had been influenced by the civilizations of India and China. This intercultural transmission continued during the medieval period, and it was supplemented by Arabic influence. And in the early modern era, there was also significant communication with Western Europe. Thus, as was suggested in the prior discussions of Korea and Japan, the Malayan Civilization had opportunities to receive terrestrial cosmological ideas that were developed in Greece, India, and China.

Of relevance to the telluric cosmology of the far south, an Italian person named Ludovico di Varthema received information about the far south from a Malayan mariner in 1506. Di Varthema was advised that the far south has low air temperatures and that the sun is below the horizon during most of the day. [11]

This information could have been received from a variety of sources. Firstly, as di Varthema�s Malayan informant claimed, it may have been observed by another culture whose homeland was south of Southeast Asia. Secondly, it may have been due to Malayan, Arabic, or Chinese navigational experience. But alternatively, it may have been derived theoretically by using one of the Classical Greek cosmologies. In this latter scenario, the cosmology may have been transmitted to the Malayans by Muslims from the Middle East or from India. This diffusion may have occurred either during the Middle Ages or the early modern period. However, it is less likely that this geographical theory was received from Europeans by 1506, because the European invasion of the Indian Ocean began with the voyage of Vasco di Gama in 1497-1500.

But Malayans may have also articulated other telluric cosmologies with regard to the far south during the early modern period. These might have had either indigenous or foreign origins. As I have stated in other parts of this work, I encourage interested readers to find and publish additional results that are relative to this study.

1. Wessing, �A Princess from Sundra,� 317. For a more detailed description of the biography and activities of Nyai Lara Kidul, readers are referred to the journal articles by Brakel, Jordaan, and Wessing, which are cited in this chapter.

2. Jordaan, �Tara and Nyai Lara Kidul,� 299.

3. McCauley, �Tracking Bigger Wave Action,� 26.

4. Antarctic Treaty System, 258.

5. Antarctic Treaty, 251.

6. Jordaan, �Tara and Nyai Lara Kidul,� 299. Jordaan offered eight names on p. 299.

7. Wessing, �A Princess from Sundra,� pp. 319.

8. Brakel, �Sandhang-pangan for the Goddess,� 266.

9. Jordaan, �Tara and Nyai Lara Kidul,� 296.

10. Brakel, �Sandhang-pangan for the Goddess,� 266.

11. di Varthema, The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, pp. 248-251.

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Antarctic Treaty. 1959. Reprinted in Shapley, Deborah. The Seventh Continent: Antarctica in a Resource Age. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 1985. pp. 249-254.

Antarctic Treaty System. Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. 1982. Reprinted in Shapley, Deborah. The Seventh Continent: Antarctica in a Resource Age. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 1985. pp. 257-271.

Brakel, C. �Sandhang-pangan for the Goddess: Offerings to Sang Hyang Bathari Durga and Nyia Lara Kidul.� Asian Folklore Studies 56.2(1997): pp. 253-283.

Jordaan, Roy E. �Tara and Nyai Lara Kidul: Images of the Devine Feminine in Java.� Asian Folklore Studies 56 (1997): pp. 285-312.

McCauley, Craig. �Tracking Bigger Wave Action.� Ecos 147 (1 Feb. 2009): pp. 26-27.

Wessing, Robert. �A Princess from Sundra: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul.� Asian Folklore Studies. 56 (1997): pp. 317-353.

di Varthema, L. The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508. Ed. Badger, G.P., Trans. Jones, J.W. [London]: Hakluyt Society, [ca. 1863]. Reprinted New York: Burt Franklin, [no date].