In early 1292, Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of the Yuan Dynasty in China, gave orders to three of his officials to lead troops to attack the island of Java.
Why did he do this?
The History of the Yuan states that when these men met with the emperor before departing on their mission, the emperor said to them, “When you arrive in Java, announce to that kingdom’s people and soldiers that while initially the Court and Java exchanged envoys amicably, later the imperial envoy, Left Aide Meng, was jabbed in the face, and because of this we are carrying out this punishment.”
[卿等至 爪哇 ，明告其國軍民，朝廷初與 爪哇 通使往來交好，後刺詔使孟右丞之面，以此進討。]
Ok, so if this is the actual reason why the Mongols attacked Java, then it looks like the Mongols functioned kind of like the Sicilian mafia. If you offended Godfather Kublai (respectfully referred to as “The Kub” by the members of the Mongolian mob). . . then you would surely pay for it. . .
But can that really be why an army was sent (by my calculation) about 2,800 miles away? Was that really why Kublai Khan gave those orders?
Later, during the Ming period, the Javanese actually killed a Chinese envoy and the Ming emperor essentially didn’t do anything about it. He kept a Javanese envoy in detention for a while and then let him return.
Could it be possible that Kublai Khan had another reason for ordering an attack on Java? Or did the Mongols just have a stronger sense of self-pride and get offended more easily?
This is something that I have been thinking about as I have been reading through primary sources about Southeast Asian history and discovering the many ways in which scholars have misunderstood/misinterpreted those sources (largely under the influence of the “Srivijaya” idea).
In the process, I have started to see a very different picture of the Southeast Asian past, and in that picture, I think I can detect a different motive for the Mongol attack on Java in the late thirteenth century.
This motive revolves around a place that appears in historical sources variously as Malayu, Malāyur, Malaya, etc. Contrary to long-established scholarly belief, I do not think that this was the name of a place on the island of Sumatra. Instead, I have examined and re-interpreted the extant information about this place and have concluded that it was located in the area of what is now Phang Nga province in Thailand, at the western end of a trans-peninsular trade route that extended eastward to Surat Thani province (please see this post here for a full explanation).
So how does this relate to the Mongol attack on Java? Well, let’s look at some historical information, and then we’ll try to interpret it.
According to a mid-fourteenth-century Javanese source, the Nagarakretagama, in 1275, Kertanegara, the ruler of the Singasari kingdom in east Java, ordered an attack on “Malayu.” (Vol. 3, 47)
This text then indicates that several polities came under the influence of Singasari, and that “all that belonged to Pahang, that belonged to Malayu equally bowed humbly.” (Vol. 3, 48)
Let’s now jump forward to early 1293. The three officers whom Kublai Khan ordered to attack Java have set off on the expedition, and have stopped in Champa. From there, in early 1293, they send envoys to demand the submission of “the various small polities of Nanwuli, Sumudoula, Bulubudu, Balala.” (軍次占城，先遣郝成、劉淵諭降南巫里、速木都剌、不魯不都、八剌剌諸小國。 Source: 史／正史／元史／列傳凡九十七卷／卷一百三十一列傳第十八／亦黑迷失)
The first two names are Lambri and Sumudra, two places on the northern end of the island of Sumatra. It is not clear to me what places the other two names are referring to.
Ok, so the Yuan emperor orders you to attack Java, and the first thing you do is to get polities on the northern tip of Sumatra to submit to you.
Hmmm. . . Isn’t northern Sumatra pretty far away from Java? Why would you do this?
There is a record in the History of the Yuan for the year 1295 (roughly a decade after the Mongol attack on Java) which notes that envoys from Lambri, Samudra, Malayu, and a place called Tanyang were given gifts and allowed to return home. These envoys had apparently journeyed to the Yuan court after their rulers had been instructed to submit by the Yuan envoys sent from Champa in 1283.
For more than a decade, however, they had not been able to return. The History of the Yuan states that “because of the ban on merchants crossing the seas, they stayed at the capital. At this point [meaning 1895] the ban was rescinded and they were all sent back.” [Note: I’m not sure when or why that sea ban was imposed.]
(乙巳，遣南巫里、速木答剌、繼沒剌（矛）〔予〕、毯陽使者各還其國、賜以三珠虎符及金銀符，金、幣、衣服有差。初，也黑迷失征爪哇時，嘗招其瀕海諸國，於是南巫里等遣人來附，以禁商泛海留京師，至是弛商禁，故皆遣之。 Source 史／正史／元史／本紀凡四十七卷／卷十八 本紀第十八／成宗 鐵穆耳)
That same year, the kingdom of Xian (暹, Siam), which at that time referred to a polity in the Chao Phraya river plain, made contact with the Yuan and requested that the Yuan send an envoy to their country.
The Yuan emperor agreed to do so. However, he was aware that Xian and Ma-li-yu-er (i.e., Malayu) apparently had an on-going feud, and he sent a message in which he warned Xian/Siam to leave Malayu alone.
What the hell was going on here? Why, for instance, would King Kertanegara of the Singasari kingdom in east Java, attempt (and apparently succeed) to bring Malayu under his control?
As I have shown in numerous posts by now, trans-peninsular trade routes were still very important. Indeed, Marco Polo crossed the trans-peninsular route to Malayu in 1292, the very same year that Kublai Khan gave the orders to attack Java.
Ok, but why would King Kertanegara choose to capture a port on a trans-peninsular trade route that was the furthest away from the island of Java?
As I’ve also shown, in the 9th-12th centuries, there was a rivalry between the very powerful trans-peninsular trade empire of Jāba based at Songkhla and the Cambodian polity of Angkor. I have also argued that it looks like by some point in the thirteenth century, Angkor had gotten the upper hand by gaining tributaries on both sides of the Malay Peninsula, leaving Jāba with little more than perhaps a single route across the peninsula from Songkhla as well as control of tributaries on the island of Sumatra at places like Lambri and Samudra.
So, in 1275, if King Kertanegara wanted to gain control over some of the trans-peninsular trade, he would have had the following choices:
1. Capture places in the Angkor network – not a good idea, because it was big and powerful.
2. Capture what was left of Jāba – that could work, but it was surrounded by Angkor’s network, and that was dangerous.
3. Capture Malayu – hmmm, it was far away, and it looks like it was part of the Angkor network, however, it also looks like not long before it had been under the control of the king of Ramaññadesa (see this post), so maybe it was a weak link in that network, and it could attract the trade that was coming down from Burma and across from Bengal. . . not a bad option.
So, how does this relate to the Mongol attack on Java?
Historian Tansen Sen has an article in which he talks about Yuan Dynasty efforts to develop trade with India. [Sen, T. (2006). The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200-1450. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 49(4), 421–453.]
The gist is that for various reasons, the Yuan tried hard to develop trade relations with India and did so starting early after the founding of their dynasty in 1271. And right at the moment when the Yuan Dynasty was starting to do this, in 1275, King Kertanegara decided to bring Malayu under his control.
My guess is that these two efforts to expand trade collided with each other, and that if we are going to look for a real reason for the Mongol attack on Java, it’s not because The Kub got offended, but because Kublai Khan felt the Javanese were disrupting the trans-peninsular trade route that ran from Surat Thani province to Malayu in what is now Phang Nga province.
It could be that this was a main route that the Yuan were using, and the fact that Marco Polo crossed there is a sign of that. Further, the Yuan did not establish any relations with Angkor (Sanfoqi 三佛齊; yes, Sanfoqi was Angkor, please read my article). They sent an envoy there, but Angkor refused to reciprocate. So perhaps they were wary of using the ports that were part of Angkor’s network of tributaries.
Finally, in Song Dynasty records, it looks like Jāba worked closely with Cham peoples (I made that argument here), and therefore, it would make sense that when the Yuan army reached Champa, that the men in charge would send envoys to gain the support of Lambri and Sumudra, because those places were Cham “allies.”
In seeking their assistance, my guess would be that the Yuan were trying to break the link between Java and Malayu, because Lambri and Sumudra could attack any Javanese ships that were passing between those two places.
This is of course all guesswork, but I think what I present here ties together the various pieces of information that we have about that time period better than any other explanation I have seen, and I also think that it provides a more logical reason for the Yuan decision to attack Java than the current claim that The Kub got offended.
Kublai Khan may have gotten angry about what happened to his envoy, but he was probably much more angry that Javanese were trying to control a place in what is now Thailand – Malayu – that was essential for his plan to expand trade with India.
As such, there may very well have been a “Thai” origin to the Mongol attack on Java.
This Post Has 3 Comments
Could Bulubudu mean Borobudur in Java?
Thanks for the comment! Yes, it sounds like that, doesn’t it? However, I don’t think we have any evidence that there was such a placename in the 13th century. My guess is that the first “Bulu” in “Bulubudu” (or it could be Bulubudou) is “pulau” (island).
Ok thanks. I recently found your work and enjoyed the very different academic views you bring to this part of the world. Love the vids – wished someone thought me history like that in school.