ofthe SAME TREE

Trading ships coming from China using the northeast monsoon winds
were blown directly to the coast of southeast Sumatra. One of the earliest to
benefit from this development was the Sumatran port polity known in Chinese
sources as Gantoli (Kan t’o-li). The name appears for the first time in
a Chinese source dated 441 CE and may have encompassed both Palembang
and Jambi. According to Chinese accounts, the Gantoli ruler had a dream in
which he was told by a Buddhist monk: “If you send envoys [to China] with
tribute and pay your respectful duty, your land will become rich and happy
and merchants and travelers will multiply a hundredfold.” 8 Gantoli thus
sent tribute missions and was rewarded with the much-prized patronage of
the Chinese emperor. As a result it became the favored port of ships coming
from China, and in turn attracted regional traders seeking Chinese goods.
It continued to prosper under this arrangement until at least the early sixth
century. 9
One of the reasons for the success of Gantoli was its ability to profit from
China’s insatiable demand for Arabian frankincense and myrrh because of
their styptic and fumigatory qualities. In the fifth and sixth centuries, camphor
and benzoin, all grown extensively in the northern half of Sumatra, were
being substituted for and later preferred to the Arabian resins in southern
China. 10 Camphor was a highly prized luxury item and so valued in China
that it was placed on a par with gold. 11 In addition to their much-vaunted
ability to cure a host of illnesses and shortcomings, these Sumatran oleoresins
were also difficult to obtain, which further contributed to the high prices they
could command. 12 Other desired products that attracted the Chinese were
gaharuwood, rattans, tortoiseshells, pearls, and edible seaweeds. Dynastic
weakness in China in the sixth century led to a drop in demand for imported
goods and may have contributed to the demise of Gantoli, which is last mentioned
by the Chinese in 563.
In the early seventh century a new toponym, “Malayu,” appears in an
itinerary of a Chinese emissary sent sometime between 607 and 610 CE by
the Sui emperor to “open communications” with Southeast Asia. Then in 644
a placed called Malayu dispatched a mission to the Chinese court. Its emergence
on the southeast Sumatran coast is no surprise and would have built on
the experience of such predecessors as Gantoli. 13 Wolters believes that in the
early seventh century Malayu was based in Jambi and may have controlled
the Palembang area. By the late seventh century, however, the situation was
reversed with Sriwijaya in Palembang now the dominant power. The most
important eyewitness account of the existence of Sriwijaya was Yijing, who
arrived in the city of Sriwijaya in 671 from China on a ship, presumably a
kunlun bo, owned by the ruler. He remained six months to study Sanskrit
grammar and was then sent by the ruler to Malayu, where he spent another
52 Chapter 2