Mongol fleet on the way to Java: First archaeological remains from the Karimata Strait in Indonesia

Abstract

At Serutu Island, a recently discovered stone inscription refers to an unusual voyage of the Mongol troop dispatched by Kublai Khan to conquer Java. This article reports the content of this intriguing inscription, as a way to reconstruct the 4000-km-long journey of the Mongol fleet composed of 500 ships, led by the General SHI Bi and the Uyghur navigator IKE Mese, from Quanzhou to Java in CE 1293. We contextualize this event in relation with the Mongol Empire in China, the Singhasari Kingdom in Java, and the cultural history of the indigenous islanders in the Karimata Archipelago.