Un exemple de civilisation de ports-entrepôts des Mers du Sud : le Sud Kedah (Malaysia) Ve-XIVe siècles

Abstract

The civilization of South Kedah (Malaysia) was closely linked, from the 5th to the 14th centuries A.D. to international sea trade between several parts of Asia: China, the Middle East and India. Entrepôt ports arose, which were more or less controlled by the Sumatran thalassocracy of Srivijaya. The archaeological remains consist, on the one hand, of large amounts of sherds of ceramic (mostly Chinese), sherds of glass vessels from the Middle East, and beads, and, on the other hand, of the ruins of temples devoted to Buddhism or Hinduism. After the 10th century, these two religions were probably practised together with predominating Hinduism. These temples were the local pragmatic adaptation of classic Indian structures. They are not evidence of an Indian colonization or of a small Indianized Malay state but were only ordered by the Indian traders and built in the neighbourhood of the entrepôt ports with the permission of the local Malay potentates. It is very probable that the other communities of foreign merchants also had their temples and their mosques but that these were built with perishable materials.