ofthe SAME TREE

polity. 60 Sathing Phra resembled a number of other settlements within the Sea
of Malayu and was very likely part of the extensive international trade system
linking it with Angkor Borei and Oc Eo.
On the west coast of the Isthmus of Kra and northern Malay Peninsula,
the most prominent site is in South Kedah, known to the Chinese in the seventh
and eighth centuries as “Jiecha.” It appears in Yijing’s account of the late
seventh century, where it is portrayed as a frequent stopover for ships coming
from Palembang to await the northeast monsoon to cross the Bay of Bengal.
Yet, like Langkasuka, Jiecha is not mentioned in the Tang official dynasty
records. This curious omission does not detract from the value of the site
as an ideal midway point for traders and pilgrims awaiting favorable monsoon
winds to take them to their ultimate destinations in China or India and
beyond. Scholars believe that references in Tamil to Kadaram or Kidaram,
and in Sanskrit to Kataha, refer to South Kedah. Although some also suggest
that the “Kalah” of Arabic sources is Kedah, Wheatley rejects this and prefers
a site somewhere along the Tenasserim coast. 61 In examining the various Arab
accounts of Kalah, Alastair Lamb identifies three common features. First of
all, it is located at a place where ships docked to await the shift of monsoon
winds between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Second, it has
access to products of the Malay Peninsula, especially tin, as well as wares from
both east and west. Third, there is no agreement whether the name refers to
a town, an island, a kingdom, or a region. Since these features could apply
equally well to a number of other sites on the west coast, Lamb concludes that
Kalah did not refer to any specific settlement but to a number of settlements
at different times in the past that served the same function. 62 Through an
examination of archaeological, literary, and historical sources, Jane Allen has
provided a useful summary of the various names used for the Kedah coast at
different periods: Chia-cha or Chieh-ch’a and Kolo in the seventh century;
Kataha between the eight and eleventh centuries; Kalah between the ninth
and fourteenth centuries, and Kadaram in the eleventh century. 63
The area of South Kedah meets all the requirements listed by Lamb,
including a shifting center. According to Allen’s geomorphological evidence,
the coastal plain associated with the area only began to form from about
1200 CE. Of the eighty-seven early historical sites Allen listed in south central
Kedah in 1988, all were located beside rivers or near the coast and hence
ideally placed for trade. The centers at Kampung Sungai Mas and Pengkalan
Bujang both became landlocked early in their occupation and depended upon
river access to reach the coast. As in Sathing Phra, the dominance of tradewares
found in the area of South Kedah suggests that commerce rather than
rice agriculture was the basis for the emergence of these centers. As in Sathing
Phra, it was the overly extensive cultivation of the hills for dry-land cereals
Malayu Antecedents 37