The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

300 UEVJEW AHTICLES
else and placed in the Palembang area. If so, why not put the pieces in
the same place and call it a "Private Museum?" And where were they
moved from ? From the Palambanpura of the 9th century Ceylonese
inscription? So Bronson's interpretation is quite impossible, and I will
quote a few sentences from Wolters paper {page 43). He bas a very good
point.
"The archaeologists in 1974 were so confident that there
was no settlement in the neighbourhood of modern Palembang
before the fourteenth century that they felt compelled to suggest
that the inscriptions were imported from outside the region much
later in time. They believed so in spite of the fact that the statuary
as well as the inscriptions found on the (Bukit Seguntang) peninsula
are almost exclusively associated with the Mahayana and belong to
a time span approximate!y from the seventh to the tenth century.
If these items were brought to Palembang by a latter-day collector
of antiquities, the collector was not interested in a random
assortment of imports. And, if Geding Suro (c. 1500-C. 1700)
was the earliest settlement in the region, the presumption is that
the collector of Buddhist remains was Moslem-"
I have taken the liberty of adding a name in brackets to the above.
According to Soekmono in his •Geomorphology and the Location of
Criwijaya', mentioned in the previous section, in the 7th century
Palembang was located at the very tip of a promontory, which
promontory Wolters calls the Bukit Seguntang peninsula. It would seem
that Wolters and I are agreed that Bronson dug his holes in tbe wrong
place. Wolters' paper under discussion is to suggest that excavations
should be carried out south of the Musi river. The arguments are long,
running to nearly sixty pages and include thirteen old maps. I will be
much shorter.
Three Chinese toponyms are discussed, and four itineraries are
mentioned, of which two are discussed at length. The three toponyins
are contained in a sentence from Ma Huan (15th c.)
"Old Haven (Old Kang) is exactly the same country as that
formerly called San-fo-chi, (and) the foreigners call it by the name
P' o-lin-pang."