Asian Century or Asian Millennium?

Progressive readers will appreciate that the writing or compiling of history is an industry that, like all literature, follows models and is influenced by human ego, bias and partialities. Authors are rarely detached onlookers so when contemporary media frames this century as the Asian century its authors can rightly be accused of drinking too much from the river of forgetfulness. The phrase is misleading, an extension of the Asian millennium more accurate. The Memory of the World International Register – a catalogue that encompasses by far the richest body of documentary heritage the world possesses illustrates this point. 245 collections of universal significance are inscribed in the International Register. Each inscription is secured in place by a powerful body politic - UNESCO - the agency of the United Nations that promotes education and communication and the arts. Since its inception in 1992 the Memory of the World Program has enabled previously inaccessible archival documents to become part of our global common heritage – indeed the whole collection is online including the nomination forms that document national justification for inclusion.

The inscriptions from Asia are numerous and, like links in a chain, they anchor the West to the East. They also remind us that Asia has always been an economic and cultural beacon. The only issue is how to lengthen our perspective? Like the Sybil of Cumae I leave that to fate; I lay our privileged expressions on the cave floor, the wind rushes in. The first leaves to fall are not disordered playthings but rock solid alphabets and scripts.

One of the world's most potent cultural symbols, the Phoenician alphabet, was nominated by Lebanon and inscribed in the International Register in 2005. Incised in one unbroken line along the edge of a decorated sarcophagus lid is a 38-word inscription which Itthobaal the son of Ahiram, king of Byblos, made for his father. It states: Now, if a king among kings, or a governor among governors or a commander of an army should come up against Byblos and uncover this coffin, may the sceptre of his rule be torn away, may the throne of his kingdom be overturned and may peace flee from Byblos. And as for him, may his inscription be effaced.

The immense limestone sarcophagus, found in the royal tomb, rests on the backs of four crouching lions that jut out from the base at each corner. These regal beasts collectively bear the weight of an unfolding scene carved in low relief. An animated king sits on a winged lion throne. He holds a lotus in his right hand while he gestures with his left, his feet rest on a stool. A long procession of robed figures advances toward him; they place their offerings on a table, women weep.

From their bases on the coast between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea the Phoenicians manufactured purple dye, glass, enamel and metal objects. From Byblos, Sidon and Tyre they shipped grains, wines, textiles and precious stones from Egypt, Crete and the Near East to Greece, North Africa, Italy and Spain. From their garrisons at Cadiz, Carthage and Marseilles, in Malta, Sicily, Melos and Rhodes their abjab or alphabet bound together the East and West in a commercial and cultural hub. Developed from Egyptian hieroglyphic, Mesopotamian cuneiform and proto-Canaanite precursors during the 11^th century BC, the alphabet contained twenty-two letters, no vowels and was written from right to left. The first two letters aleph and beth gave the name to the alphabet that influenced all languages with the exception of Chinese and its derivatives. The Greek alphabet and, by extension, its descendants including Latin, Cyrillic and Coptic, was a direct successor of the Phoenician. The Greeks changed some letter values to vowels and reversed the faces of others to accommodate writing from left to right.

The Aramaic alphabet, a modified form of Phoenician, was the ancestor of the modern Indian, Arabic and Hebrew scripts. The International Register includes the earliest dated Kufic script so far located in the world. Nominated by Saudi Arabia in 2003 the following inscription was pecked and engraved on a sandstone rock located south of Qa'a al Muatadil, north of Sharma in al-Ula, on the ancient trade and pilgrimage route connecting the city of al-Mabiyat with Madain Saleh:

In the name of God

I Zuhair wrote the date of the death of Omar the year four

and twenty (Hegrah)

While we don't know who Zuhair was, we know that through his actions he forever linked his name with Omar bin al-Khattab, the second Islamic Caliph. Omar was a leading companion and adviser to the prophet Muhammad and the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, whom he succeeded on 23 August 634 AD. During his reign Omar introduced Shari'ah (Divine Islamic Law), the Islamic calendar, the Holy Qur'an and the reciting of daily prayers during the Holy month of Ramadan. He seized control of territoriesand created an Islamic state that stretched from Mecca and Medina to Basra, Kufa, Syria, Jazira, Elya (Jerusalem), Ramla, Khorasan, Azarbaijan and Fars and incorporated the Egyptian provinces of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Zuhair's engraving is a calligraphic memorial. The Caliph died from stab wounds on the last night of the year 23 Hegrah (643 AD) after a Persian captive attacked him as he led prayersin Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, the Mosque of the Prophet. Omar was buried in Al-Masjid al-Nabawion the first day the new year 24 Hegrah (644 AD) alongside Muhammad and Abu Bakr.

The third leaf to flutter to the cave floor is the Rigveda, 110 books of divinely inspired hymns of praise nominated by India and inscribed in the International Register in 2007. History places Bronze Age Vedic culture in the north and northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent and the hymns arededicated to the earliest Vedic deities – the elements of nature – sky, sun, earth, fire, light, wind and water. Poetry enabled these natural forces to be personified; the sky for example, became a father, Varuna; the earth became a mother, Prithivi; and vegetation was the fruit of their union. The rain was Paranya, the wind was Vayu, the pestilential wind was Rudra, the storm was Indra, the dawn was Ushas, the furrow in the field was Sita, the sun was Surya, Mitra or Vishnu, and the sacred soma plant was itself a god.

This is no place for an essay on Vedic religion but it is worthwhile describing one deity Agni -fire; the sacred flame that lifted sacrifices to heaven, the lightning and the fiery life and spirit of the world that was essential to all ceremony and ritual. 218 of the 1028 Rigveda hymns are dedicated to Agni and the first hymnbegins with an invocation to him. Since the correct pronunciation of the Rigveda was an essential aspect of the ceremonial chants Agni was the first deity committed to memory and the first word recited.

The 30 Rigveda manuscripts held at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute were written on birch bark and paper in the Sharada and Devanagari scripts, the oldest of them dating to 1464. By then Vedic ritual had transformed into Hindu tradition and the Rigveda had become a sacred text. Changed from a spirit to a humanized image in Hindu mythology, Agni's form - luminous, red, two headed, with six black eyes, seven tongues, seven arms, three legs and a body that emitted seven rays of light - revealed his control over earthly and cosmic realms. Such a fabulous creature changed into a deva who inhabited the celestial regions of the Buddhist universe when Ashoka, Emperor of India's Mauryan Dynasty (272-231 BC), converted. From India Buddhism travelled north to the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet, through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and south to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. In Buddhist imagery flames surround Agni, the guardian of the hearth and the Southeast direction.

Another fallen leaf is recovered from the cave floor: The Golden History or Lu Altan Tobchi, nominated by Mongolia and inscribed in the International Register in 2011. Handwritten in 1651 by historian, GüüshLubsandanzan, using a bamboo pen and black ink on muutuu paper, the Golden History is the only surviving original manuscript in Mongolian vertical script, the first writing system for the Mongolian language. The work incorporates most of the 13^th century Secret History – which records the founding myth and genealogy of Mongol clan chieftains – and ends with the death of the Northern Yuan chief Ligdan Khan in 1634. Home to the major political, trade, cultural and religious centres of successive nomadic empires, the Orkhon River Valley in central Mongolia served as a crossroads of civilizations, influencing societies across Eurasia. Its strategic location was the main factor that determined the shape and extent of Mongolian territorial expansion, which at its height was the largest continuous land empire in the history of the world.

Mongolian history begins with the birth of Bataciqan, son of a bluish wolf and a fallow deer, at the head of the Onan river at Mount Burqan Qaldun. Thirteen generations later Temujin or Chinggis Khan was born. Chinggis conquered the Suddites, Tartars, Oyirads, Buryals, Boryans, Ursuds, Qabqanas, Qangqas, Tubas, Kirgisuds, Kereyids, Naiman, Tumads, Kitads, Sarta'uls, Tang'uds and Merkids. His language was one of rebuke, admonition, decree and submission. His weapons were quivers, bows, bone-tipped arrows, spears, knives, swords, axes and lances. Princes, ambassadors, captains, quiver bearers, stewards, night guards, day guards, servants and cooks surrounded him. Whether journeying or at rest life took place in tents with felt doors and we become familiar with leather pails holding curds and camel carts packed with wool. Herd and hunting animals include milk mares, white geldings, wolves, deer, black sables, marmots, squirrels, sheep, goats, mules, oxen, pheasants and falcons. Seized booty includes gold, silver, brocades, damasks, silks and pearls.

In 1206 Chinggis Khan unified the Mongol nationality. Proclaimed Great Khan he established court, administrative and military protocols that served as a model for later rulers: he appointed loyal relatives as his captains and allocated the lands and peoples they would rule. Before his death in 1227 he transferred his authority to his third son, Ogodei. Pope Innocent IV sent the Franciscan Giovanni de Plano Carpini to the Mongol capital Kharakharom in 1245. Travelling on horseback for 106 days through Bohemia, Poland, Russia and Bulgaria and then along the network of urtege or messenger post stations identified by Ogodei as one of his four achievements (the others being the destruction of the Jarad people, brick lined water wells and a spy network) his arrival coincided with the appointment of the third Great Khan, Guyuk. Carpini was taken to the Khan's golden Orda or court in Kharakharom where he was received along with 4000 ambassadors paying tribute. By 1254 his successor, Mongke, controlled vassal states that connected Eastern Europe to the Chinese coast. The fabled Kublai Khan was proclaimed Great Khan in 1260after displacing his younger brother although the internecine rivalry that surrounded this decision lead to the fragmentation of the empire. The Golden Horde khanate in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai khanate in Central Asia and the Ilkhanate in Persia later recognized the power of Kublai's Great Khanate (Yuan Dynasty), a unified Mongolia and China, achieved whenHangzhou fell in 1276.

Western fascination with the riches of the Orient was cemented when Marco Polo, a Venetian, who reached Kublai's court in 1291 and remained there for seventeen years, published his Travels. Polo's detailed description of Dadu, the Yuan capital, with its great palaces and lofty rooms adorned with gold and silver ceilings, its high defensivewall extending six miles in each direction, its 12,000 horse guards and large central gate that remained closed to all except the Great Khan was matched by descriptions of island kingdoms he visited on his return voyage (1290-1295). Which European power could resist trying to find Java, for example, an island frequented by a vast amount of shipping, and by merchants who buy and sell costly goods, black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs, cloves, and all other kinds of spices from which they reap great profit. Indeed the treasure of this Island is so great as to be past telling?

Christopher Columbus made emendations to his copy of Polo's Travels before his first voyage to the East Indies in 1492 although this is not the next leaf to get whipped up by the wind. Rather it is the Castilian and Portuguese versions of the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Isabella I, Queen of Castile, Ferdinand V, King of Aragon and John II, King of Portugal on 7 June 1494. These royal parchments were nominated by Spain and Portugal and inscribed in the International Register in 2007. The driving force behind the Treaty was the need to establish a new demarcation line between the two crowns, running from pole to pole, 370 leagues to the west of Cape Verde islands effectively enablingKing Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to claim the non Christian lands discovered by Spanish ships west of the line, while John II could claim non Christian lands discovered by Portuguese ships east of the line.

What followed was Iberian hegemony over a large part of the world. The Treaty of Tordesillas effectively divided religious and political power into two spheres: Portuguese navigators reached India in 1498. They claimed territory and established ports along the west and east African coasts, India, Ceylon, Malacca, the Moloccas, Timor, Banda Islands, Ambon Island and Seram. The Spanish took control of the Caribbean islands and Bahamas and the northeast coast of South America from Panama to the Orinoco River. During the sixteenth century trade in spices and slaves made Portugal rich. Aztec and Peruvian gold and silver did likewise for Spain. Lands were bought, sold and traded so that the possessions conformed to the meridian 370 leagues to the west of Cape Verde Islands. Other treaties followed but the legacy of conquered lands reminds us of the Treaty's audacious nature: dividing the world into two and profiting from the division.

By the seventeenth century Asiatic trade was well established and English and Dutch armed merchant fleets were in competition to supply the rapidly emerging market in luxury goods, furniture and accessories. Of all the fashions in the decorative arts that have swept Europe, that for chinoiserie – bamboo, fretwork, tea wood, sophisticated colour combinations, glazed tiles, cloisonné, lacquer wares, porcelains, silks and wallpapers in the Chinese idiom – was the most long lived. But what fuelled this mania? When the wind abates and the next leaf falls it reveals an architectural and decorative arts archive that is impressive for its scope and design detail. The Yangshi Lei archive was nominated by China and inscribed in the International Register in 2011.Seven generations of Lei Jinyu's family acted as architects for Qing emperors: Kangxi (1662-1722) Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795). Recognized for their outstanding architectural achievements the Lei family was honorifically known as the Yangshi Lei.

Strategically located between the Yellow River plain and the mountainous regions to the north Beijing has been occupied since prehistoric times. It developed into a busy trading centre; it was the site of the Khitan and Jurched capitals, Yanking and Zhong du. Zhong du was razed to the ground during the struggles between the Jurched and the Mongols.Kublai Khan created his capital Dadu on the site in 1260. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty when the peasant uprising he led drove the Mongols north of the Great Wall.In 1403 the third Ming emperor, Yong le, moved the Ming capital from Nanking to Dadu. He named it Beijing - the northern capital - and encircled it in new defensive walls effectively giving the capital the appearance of a double city (a large section of Dadu was left outside the walls and to the south the walls were extended). In Yong le's reign the Imperial Palace was rearranged and the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Agriculture were built in the outer city. In 1644 when the revolutionary army leader, Li Zicheng, entered Beijing and overthrew the Ming Dynasty, he in turn was soon overcome. The Manchu (Tartar) armies, in collusion with Han officials and landlords, captured Beijing, suppressed the uprising and founded the Qing Dynasty that was to last until 1911.

Under successive Qing reigns Beijing developed in complexity. In the middle of the city was the Emperor's residence - theImperial Palace or Purple Forbidden City. Purple, symbolically attributed to the North Star, was used to show that the Imperial residence was a cosmic centre inhabited by the Son of Heaven - a role claimed by Chinese emperors. It contained buildings for official occasions, private apartments and courtyards connected by gates and bridges. Surrounding the Imperial Palace was a larger enclosure known as the Imperial City. All the guilds that worked on the upkeep of the Imperial Palace were lodged there (stone-masons, carpenters, brick-makers, joiners, painters) as well as those in charge of supplies to the court (food, clothes, handicrafts). The Imperial City contained horticultural gardens, lakes, military grounds, stables, vegetable gardens, granaries, storehouses, schools and residences for princes, high officials and the palace guard. The Imperial City was both a commercial and administrative hub comprising buildings linked to imperial office, the ministries and their dependencies. Surrounding the Imperial City was the inner Manchu or Tartar city. It was divided into eight districts each belonging to one of the eight banners or military units. The populous outer Chinese city was located to the south of the inner city. Enclosed within its walls were workshops and produce, mule, meat, flower, jewel and pearl markets. The profusion of gates that regulated the entry of supplies (wood, water, grain, wine and coal)and the exit of waste (including the dead, condemned prisoners, refuse and night soil) was a feature of the Yuan capital.

The archive's 20,000 architectural and engineering drawings, documents, plans and models are worked in paint, ink-brush or charcoal on paper and wood. Technically they document the use of a grid system, layered images, direct parallelism and perspective shadowing.It should be no surprise that the Yangshi Lei were connected with the restoration, redesign or construction of one-fifth of China's current World Cultural Heritage Sites: the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Gardens, the sumptuous Summer Palace, the Altar of Heaven, the Chengde Mountain Palace and the Eastern and Western Qing Mausoleums. The golden age of the Qing court not only filled the cargo holds of merchant ships with export wares but extended Western design vocabulary. It was the source of the exuberant ornamentation that graced stately palaces and homes and lingers today in the ubiquitous Chinatown decorative gate.

Traditional medical knowledge expresses values suggestive of all things ancient, animated and venerable and when the next leaf settled on the cave floorit signaled the importance of the role of preservation and transmission of original texts.TheDonguibogam, or Principles and Practices of Eastern Medicine,was nominated by the Republic of Korea and inscribed in the International Register in 2009. Initiated by royal instruction in 1596 by order of King Seonjo it was finished in 1610, the 2nd year of King Gwanghaegun's reign. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty state that the editorial task of synthesizing centuries of Chinese and Korean medical knowledge into one work was assigned to scholars, Yang Ye-su, Jeong Jak and the royal physician, Heo Jun. The King's instructions were to prioritise preventive medicine, to understand the gist of medicine and to identify medicinal ingredients in the Korean alphabetso that the humble public could readily secure the way of cure.

Their achievement was a multi-volume, illustrated encyclopedia arranged into five chapters: Naegyeong (Overview of the Inner Body), Oehyeong (External Appearance), Japbyeong (Various Diseases), Tangaek (Liquid Medications) and Chimgu (Acupuncture and Moxibustion). Heo Jun discussed the relationship between the mind, formed from ancient beliefs in vital energy gi, essential energy jeong, spiritual energy shin, and blood, hyeol, and the "five viscera and six bowels" that controlled the human body. He meditated on the correspondences between the elements water, earth, air and fire and man's constitution, the causes and symptoms of disease, approaches to diagnosis and treatment and the efficacy of herbal remedies.

When Donguibogam was first published in 1613 by the Nae-ui-won or Royal Clinic it was partly printed in Chinese and partly in Hangul, the alphabet of the realm, promulgated by Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, in an effort to differentiate the Korean language from the Chinese. The encyclopedia was distributed to government agencies across the country; it was reprinted numerous times over the ensuing centuries and widely referenced throughout China, Japan and Vietnam.

So who and what foreshadowed its demise? Throughout the nineteenth century Russian, French, American and German military forces negotiated treaties in Korea in order to secure foreign residence in certain ports and cities. From these bases missionaries entered the country and began promulgating Christianity. Charles Corfe, a retired English naval chaplain, was consecrated Anglican Bishop of Korea in 1889. He landed in the treaty port of Chemulpo in 1890 with American medical missionary Dr Eli Barr Landis. Two years later the Korean Mission was engaged in a range of medical programs conducted through its hospitals and dispensaries. Landis directed medical practice at St Luke's Hospital at the same time as he was writing articles on Korean pharmacopoeia, geomancy, dyes and mourning costume – all based on his translation of Donguibogam.

Many of the leaves that have fluttered down to the cave floor are predicated on a model of a universe in which the human and cosmic realms are connected through the medium of man. It is fitting to bring this essay to a close with an inscription that locks man to the cosmic dance of creation. Indonesia and the Netherlands nominated twomanuscript versions of I La Galigoor Sureq Galigo, a 14th century Bugis epic, to the International Register in 2011. The Indonesian manuscript contains one complete episode of I La Galigo. The twelve volume Dutch version contains the longest known fragment running to 2851 folio sized pages, one third of the whole corpus. Published in 1872 in Buginese without translation it was the result of collaboration between the queen of Tanete, Colliq Pujié, and the linguist and Dutch missionary B.F. Matthes.

I La Galigo tells the story of La Patiganna, ruler of the Upperworld, who sends his son Batara Guru to earth to become the first king of Luwuq, the Bugis kingdom located at the head of the gulf of Boni. Batara Guru marries We Nyili'tomo', the daughter of the king of the Underworld. Their son La Tiuleng fathers twins: a son, Sawérigading, and a daughter, Wé Tenryabéng. They play a central role in the developing narrative. When the invincible Sawérigading desires his beautiful sister it is forbidden. Sawérigading must sail for Cine where his predestined bride, Wé Cudai, lives. The gods provide him with a boat, Welenrengnge, crafted from a sacred tree they fell. It emerges from the sea with a fleet of vessels. Humbled by this sacrifice Sawérigading leaves Luwuq swearing never to return. He travels to places inhabited by dwarfs, pygmies and dark skinned peoples before he arrives in Cine, marries Wé Cudai and has a son, La Galigo. La Galigo grows into a fearless sea captain, whose hunting and gambling adventures recall those of his father, while his numerous marriages earn him the reputation of a reckless lover. The cycle ends with La Galigo's son, La Tenritatta, the last of the legendary Luwuq kings. Different versions of the story circulate throughout Indonesia and Malaysia and families that claim descent from Sawérigading are highly respected.

A new leaf now dances in the breeze, it fascinates us and it draws our attention: suddenly Sawérigading and La Galigo's voyages bring us to Australian shores. On 17 February 1803 the following encounter took place: after clearing the passage between Cape Wilberforce and Bromby's Isles, Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, aboard the Investigator, came upon an armed canoe and six vessels anchored off an island near the Arhnem Land coast. Thinking the vessels were "piratical ladrones" a pendant and ensign were hoisted. With a Malay cook acting as interpreter Flinders later learned the vessels were part of a fleet of 60 prows belonging to the Rajah of Boni, one of the most powerful rajahates in Celebes (present day Sulawesi) at the time. Their chief was a short, elderly man named Pobassoo and, according to him, the fleet and its 1000 strong crew had left Macassar two months before with the northwest monsoon. Now organised into smaller groups, they were collecting and processing black and grey trepang to sell to Chinese traders in Timor.

We learn from Pobassoo how the trepang was processed and its commercial value (in Spanish dollars). We learn from Flinders that his vessel was armed with two Dutch cannon and the crew with daggers, what their supplies comprised, their religion and manner of writing. Pobassoo told Flinders he had made the journey six or seven times during the past twenty years without the aid of charts - his only nautical instrument was a small Dutch pocket compass. Two days later the prows (now thirteen in number) left to resume diving in the Gulf of Carpentaria. As soon as they departed Flinders named the bay where the Investigator was anchored, Malay Road, the island Pobassoo's Island and the whole cluster the 'English Company's Islands'. To this day Pobassoo's island reminds us of the indomitable seafaring Buginese.

The Asian century? Surely these Memory of the World inscriptions serve to remind us of the narrowness of the timeframe. Asia is so varied, so vast, so multidimensional and its influence so apparent that, rather than clinging to the idea of the Asian century, as if the past was without consequence, we would do better to acknowledge that economic and cultural activity has swung high and low on Asian interests. But when we drink careless draughts of long forgetfulness what can we expect? The original nomination forms for each inscription, the source documents for this essay, can be found at the UNESCO website, Volume 2 of Flinders Journal (1802-1803) at the National Library of Australia.