Boni in Chinese Sources - Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre - iseas

Kurz: Boni in Chinese Sources NSC Working Paper No. 4The warriors carry a knife and armour. The armour, made of copper (or brass), hasthe form of a big tube, and they wear it on the body, so that it guards their belly andback.In that place grain does not grow, but it produces hemp and rice, and there are alsogoats, fowl and fish. As there are no silkworms, cotton is used to spin cloth. [Thepeople] drink coconut liquor. In the sequence for marriage presents coconut liquorcomes first, followed by betelnut, then finger rings, and after this cotton cloth ispresented or a measure of gold or silver to conclude the marriage rites.For burials they also put the deceased into coffins and make biers of bamboo, [onwhich] they carry [the coffins] into the mountains where they leave them. In thesecond month (of the Chinese calendar) they start tilling and then they aresacrificing to their dead. After seven years they do no sacrifice any more. Theseventh day of the twelfth month is their spring festival. The place is hot, and has alot of wind and rain.When the people there are feasting, they beat the drum, blow the flute, play thecymbals, sing and dance to make merry. They have no [ceramic or porcelain] vessels,so they use bamboo basketwork and palm leaves as vessels [and dishes], which theyfill with food. When they have eaten the food they discard them.This country is a neighbour to the country of Dimen 底 門 (Timor) in which grows amedicinal tree. By cooking its root one can produce an ointment. Swallowing it andapplying it on the body, one will not die, if one is wounded by weapons.As [this country] did not pay tribute to earlier [Chinese] dynasties, the historicalrecords did not mention it.In the second year of the reign period Taiping xingguo (977) the king Xiangda sentthe envoy Shinu, the deputy envoy Puyali, and the assistant Gexin who respectfullypresented an official letter to the throne and presented tribute: One big piece of onejiadi 家 底 (kati) of camphor, eight jiadi of second class [camphor], eleven jiadi ofthird class [camphor], twenty jiadi of rice camphor, and twenty jiadi of grey camphor.Each jiadi is equivalent to twenty liang. 60 [The items further included] five boards ofcamphor, 61 one hundred carapaces of tortoise‐shell, three pieces of sandalwood,and six elephant tusks.The [accompanying] letter read: “May the emperor live thousand years and tenthousand years! We hope that You will not blame our inferior country for ourunpolished behaviour.”The memorial [to the throne] was sealed in several small bags, and it was not[written] on Chinese paper, but on something that resembled wooden bark and wasthin. It was bright and smooth and was of a subtle green colour. It was several chilong, more than a cun wide, and when rolled up it could be held in one hand.60 The Hanyu dacidian declares jiadi to be a weight unit used in Boni and gives the entry here as proof. SeeHanyu dacidian, vol. 3 (Shanghai, 1989), 1466.61 Cf. also the translation of this paragraph by Han Wai Toon who focused on the part dealing with camphorexclusively and ignored the rest. See Han Wai Toon, “Notes”, 17.20