M.M. Sukarto K. Atmodjo
In 1972, a small team from the National Archaeological
Institute in Bali carried out excavation at a protohistoric site on the top of
a small hill in Lombok called Gunung Piring (Pottery Hill). It lies some 40
kilometres from Mataram, the capital of the Province of Nusa Tenggara Barat,
which includes Lombok and Sumbawa. The hill is about 85 metres high. The
excavation yielded some pottery, a piece of iron, and a broken clay bracelet.
Hundreds of sherds were also collected on the slope of the hill. Many sherds
were incised with the so-called tumpal-motif or triangular design, which
probably belongs to the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay Pottery Tradition. They are now kept
safely in the field museum of the National Archaeological Institute in Bali.
During the excavation Mr. Achmad Muhidin from Lombok
told me that his father in Selong had a collection of old weapons. After the
excavation ended we went by car to Selong, in East Lombok (see map). The
name of this town has an interesting origin. It means "banishment"
and is derived from the name Ceylon. During the Dutch colonial period,
unco-operative Indonesian noblemen were frequently banished to Ceylon, and this
happened so often that the name was taken into the language and came to mean
"banishment".
According to Mr. Lalu Watjana from Lombok (also a
member of my team at the excavation on Gunung Piring), after the Dutch had put
down an uprising by the Sasaks of East Lombok, many of the Sasak noblemen were
banished to the interior, and the new word "Selong" with revised
spelling was given to the town where these noblemen chose to live.
The collection consists of some beautiful Balinese and
Lombok krisses, lances, javelins and other weapons. A lance in the collection
interested me, because both sides of the blade were incised with Chinese script
and figures. This lance was found by Mr. Rumilan in the 1940s on a mound named
Lendang Otak Marang in the district of Kutaraja, East Lombok. It is worth
mentioning that the place-name Kutaraja literally means "the King's
Capital." The inhabitants still believe that formerly Kutaraja was the
centre of an old kingdom. Unfortunately the mound where this lance was found
has been flattened by the local people, and some houses are now built on this
place.
According to the finder, the lance was unearthed with
a bronze bell and a small dagger. The three finds were awarded to three
different people, the lance being given to Mamik Fadelah, the father of Achmad
Muhidin, my informant (P1. 1). The lance is 24,5 cm long and 4 cm wide (Fig. 1
and p1. 2). It is made of iron and has been produced by a similar technique of
metal working to other Balinese and Javanese krisses. The front is engraved
with a dragon (liong), a spiral and Chinese script, and on the rear
there is a bearded man wearing the turban of an ascetic, a spiral and also
Chinese script. According to Miss Oey Soan Nio of the Faculty of Letters in
Jakarta (Universitas Indonesia), the Chinese script on the front reads
San-pao-ta-ren (A Great Man named San-pao), and on the rear San-pao-kung
(Mr. San-pao). It is a pity that the script on the turban is illegible. The
name refers to Cheng-Ho, a well-known Chinese traveller and envoy in the time
of emperor Yung-Lo (A.D. 1403 A.D. 1425). Cheng-Ho was a man from Yun-nan. He
was also com-monly referred to as "the eunuch San-pao" (amongst the
Fukien Chinese Sam-po). It is now commonly accepted that Cheng-Ho or probably
Ma-Huan are the Chinese sea travellers to whom the Javanese gave the name Kyai
Dampuawang (Sampo-toalang), which means: the Honourable Sea Traveller (Da
= a honorific prefix, Kyai = title for an old and wise man). The word puawang
(puhawang) also means captain of trading ship. But it must be remembered
that the name Dampuawang was not derived from Sampo-toalang, because the name
Dang Puhawang Glis also found in the Old-Malay inscription of Gondosuli II (OJO
III). Many Javanese believe that Dampuawang's shrine, named Gedong Batu (Stone
Building), is found just west of Semarang in Central Java. A large anchor
pre-served at this Chinese shrine is still regarded by the people as the anchor
of Dampuawang's ship. On his voyages Cheng-Ho was ac-companied by Wang
Ching-hung (also an eunuch), and two Chinese Moslem priests, Ma Huan and Fei
Hsin who knew the Arabic language and acted as Cheng-Ho's interpreters. From
history we know that Cheng-Ho had visited Java in 1405 and 1408 A.D. (W.P.
Groeneveldt, Historical Notes, pp. 36-37). Ma Huan and Fei Hsin each
wrote an account of the countries they visited, respectively under the titles Ying-yai
Sheng Lan (General Account of Peregri-nations on the Sea).
As I mentioned above, the lance blade is engraved with
a dragon on the front and on both sides there appears a spiral. The dragon was
the symbol of fertility in ancient China, and the spiral is the so-called
"Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate" (T'ai-chi-T'u) which was
composed for the first time by Chou Tun-yi (A.D. 1017 - A.D. 1073), a Confucian
who borrowed many ideas from Taoism. The diagram symbolizes the "Heavenly
Principle" indicating "The Ulti-mateless, yet also the Supreme
Ultimate."
The question why this lance was discovered in Lombok
is difficult to answer. The technique of metal-working, i.e. the use of the
so-called pamor-alloy, which results in the wavy patterns
cha-racteristic of Indonesian krisses, would suggest that this lance made by
the local inhabitants in Lombok or Java. At present most people in Lombok, i.e.
the Sasaks, are Moslem. But it must be understood that formerly Hindhu kingdoms
also flourished in this small island. Lontars or palmleaf-manuscripts
dealing with Hindhu folklore and moral teachings have been preserved by the
Balinese population in Lombok. Also the well-known panegyric called Nagarakrtagama,
written by Prapanca in 1365. A.D. in honour of king Hayam Wuruk of the Javanese
kingdom of Majapahit, was found in Lombok. In addition, megalithic culture has
also influenced the present tradition. This is apparent in many Moslem
graveyards which are situated on top of hills or on hillsides, the menhir-like
gravestones (maesan), and the use of small or large stones as tombs. It
is worth mentioning that many maesans also show similarities with the
phallic symbol of Shiva, the lingga.
In addition, Chinese influence on Moslem graves can
also be seen at Selaparang, one of the most important graveyards in East
Lombok. The maesans in this graveyard are richly decorated with floral
designs, and according to the late Dr. Stutterheim, a Dutch archaeologist, some
of the maesans have the forms of a Chinese vase (Stutterheim, Een inscriptie
van Lombok, Djawa, 1937). Based on the inscription found here we can
conjecture that the graveyard of Selaparang was founded in the year A.D. 1729.
Until now the Moslem community of the Sasaks in Lombok
has been divided into two groups, i. e. the "Waktu telu"
(Three Times) and "Waktu Lima" (Five Times) groups. These names,
"Three Times" and "Five Times," refer to the number of the
obligatory ritual prayers, salats, said every day by the faithful.
Perhaps the distinction into two groups is a survival of a pre-Islamic
indigenous bipartition of society, which has been found in several islands of
the Archipelago. It is not difficult to suggest that "Waktu Telu"
was influenced by the belief of ancestor worship (animism), and also by the
Hindhu religion. To date the Hindhu priests in Bali and Lombok still practise
their three daily ritual prayers, named trisan-dhya-wrata (tri =
three, sandhya = morning, twilight, time of junct-ion, wrata = religious
duty).
To conclude, the finding of a lance with Chinese
script in Lombok, the excavation of prehistoric site which yielded many sherds
on Gunung Piring, and the discovery of an old Moslem grave in this small
island, are very important from the archaeological point of view. It is to be
hoped that other antiquities and ancient sites will be discovered in the near
future, so that the problems concerned with the study of archaeology in Lombok
can be solved satisfactorily.
Majalah Arkeologi Th. III No. 1-2 Sept.-Nop. 1980. P. 71-78.
