WIDER CONTACTS IN PROTOHISTORIC TIMES
By the 3rd century BCE, Indian storytellers were aware of the existence of the Malay Peninsula as their tales include a place called Malayadvipa, literally 'Malay Island (or Peninsula)'. By the 1st century CE, Graeco-Roman traders in India told of large ships bringing spices from Southeast Asia, probably from the vicinity of the Strait of Melaka, while a Greek sailing guide to the Indian Ocean mentions the Aurea Chersonesus, or 'Golden Peninsula', believed to be the Malay Peninsula.
Chinese envoys were exploring the transpeninsular route to India by 250 CE, and once the maritime link between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea had been formed, it was inevitable that the Malay Peninsula would assume a position of importance in the Asian economy.
For much of the first millennium CE, Asian maritime trade was largely in the hands of shippers from the Strait of Melaka. In the 5th and 6th centuries, a number of trading kingdoms appeared in Malaysia. At this time, traders from India visited, but did not form resident colonies. Southeast Asian sources from the first millennium CE compare foreign merchants to migratory birds who came and left at specific times of year. This seasonal nature of trade was due to the predictable monsoons. As the Malay Peninsula is situated at the approximate limit of one monsoonal voyage from both India and China, this region became a transshipment point for cargoes from one end of Asia to the other. Local rulers took advantage of this trade to acquire exotic status symbols such as textiles, ceramics and bronzeware.
The most significant protohistoric Malaysian kingdom was located in the Bujang Valley of South Kedah. A stone stele found there inscribed with prayers for safety by a Buddhist sea captain known as Buddhagupta was apparently erected before he set out on the hazardous voyage to India around 500 CE. He was from the 'Red Earth Land', probably in Kelantan, which suggests that Malaysian shippers congregated at Kedah before setting off across the Indian Ocean.
Kedah was also a stopover for Chinese Buddhist pilgrims en route to India. The most famous pilgrim, Yiqing, provided information regarding Kedah's political situation. On his first visit in 671 CE, Kedah was independent, but on his return voyage in 685 CE it had become part of the Sumatran kingdom of Srivijaya. However, its suzerainty seems to have been mainly ceremonial as contemporary Indian sources depict Kedah as an important political entity in its own right.
Other protohistoric Malaysian sites which were in contact with international trading networks are few. These include the west coast sites of Kuala Selinsing, Perak, and Jenderam Hilir, Selangor. However, recent research on the Peninsular east coast suggests that this region may yield much more evidence of trading activities in the future.
