Great to see Bulwai Tours finally gaining ground after all the setbacks. Well done Willie and the boys ! http://bulwaicollective.org/kuranda-davies-creek-cultural-tours/
Great to see Bulwai Tours finally gaining ground after all the setbacks. Well done Willie and the boys ! http://bulwaicollective.org/kuranda-davies-creek-cultural-tours/
Interesting report providing further support of the local traditional stories of long term interaction with the Egyptians.
mayi wunba, local dancers from kuranda/monamona community, brought home the shield as highest points winners at laura dance festival 2017, and ‘owning the town’ here as they lead the naidoc march from nyuwarri park to the kuranda amphitheatre…to the sounds of ‘black yellow red’ by bertie riley and gudju gudju…
It is ironic that the current inhabitants of Kuranda are fighting a proposed threat from a somewhat dubious Chinese businessman and casino owner, who has illegally cleared his land and has been bribing local councillors to promote his dystopian nightmare known as Kur-World.
It is interesting to learn that the Chinese have had a long term interest in Northern Australia, as evidenced by their ancient writings. For example, Confucius in his “Spring and Autumn Annals” {481 B.C.} records two solar eclipses having been observed by Chinese astronomers, possibly in Arnhem Land-one {by modern calculation}on April 17, 592 B.C.; and the other on August 11, 553 B.C.
Another record, “Atlas of Foreign Countries”, written between 265 and 316 A.D., describes the far north coast of the mysterious great south land as being inhabited by a race of one-metre tall pygmies-an obvious reference to the pygmy-sized Aboriginals identified by Australian anthropologist Norman B. Tindale in the mountains above Cairns, Queensland. See my earlier post on the Little People of Kuranda for more details on these findings
In 338 B.C., Shih Tzu wrote of the presence of apparent kangaroos kept in the Imperial Zoo in Peking, and further similar reports continued in several later dynasties. Emperor Chao about this time dispatched a fleet of junks with orders to return with marsupials from the southern land of “Chui Hiao”, and a Chinese book “The Classics of Shan Hai”, written some time before 338 B.C., describes our Aboriginals and thier use of the boomerang.
The Chinese appear to have been wary when having to navigate through Torres Strait. Many ancient Chinese expeditions through the Strait came to grief due to the dreaded Torres Strait Islanders who, until early in the 1900’s, were head-hunting cannibals. In fact, the islanders regarded Chinese as being just about No1 for flavour, as they found them nowhere as salty as white men.
Ancient relics are further proof of Chinese visits to our shores. In 1948 fragments of Ming period {14th Century} blue and white porcelin were dug up on Winchelsea Island, north west of Groote Eylandt; and a large copper urn of this age was unearthed in Arnhem Land some years ago. Aboriginal cave paintings of the Arnhem Land and the Kimberleys region include depictions of Chinese junks dating back hundreds of years.
The remains of an ancient vessel, found off the coast of Perth some years ago by the late skin diver Allan Robinson, is said to have revealed relics suggesting the wreck to be that of a 12 th Century Chinese Junk. At another site on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria near the base of Cape York, Queensland, a number of Chinese porcelin tea cups dating 2000 years were dug up several years ago.
In 1961 a 2000-year old vase bearing a crude map of the Australian east coast was discovered in Hong Kong. Another map, dating back 2000 years and drawn on porcelin, exists in Taiwan. it shows the southern coastline of New Guinea, the east coast of Australia as far south as the Melbourne area, and the crude outline of Tasmania. Another Porcelin map has since been found in China.
Dating to 1477, it not only describes much of the American west coast, but some Pacific Islands, including New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea, and the islands of south-east Asia and the coast of China.
In the late 1940’s a discovery proving ancient Chinese voyages into the west Pacific region was made by a team of anthropologists while researching in the Yasawa Islands to the west of Fiji. The men found an ancient copper mine cut into a hillside. Littering surrounding rocks they found numerous centuries-old letterings. Natives on the island were later found to possess Asian racial features. They say the island was visited by a race of “yellow men” long before the coming of the Europeans.
Thirty-five years ago a jade Buddha was unearthed near Cooktown in far north-Queensland, deep below ancient soil deposits. And at Darwin in 1879 workmen dug up a statue of Shou Lao, the Chinese god of longevity, from deep down beneath the roots of an ancient banyan tree.
Dating from the Ming period, it has been linked with an expedition believed to have been made to our shores by Admiral Cheng Ho on the orders of his emperor. The fleet consisted of 62 nine-masted ships, 140 metres in length, and it was accompanied by 28,000 men.
Cheng Ho {1385-1440} also possessed the magnetic compass on this voyage. Invented by the Chinese in 1090, it was not “discovered” in western Europe for another 100 years. Cheng Ho sailed from Shanghai in 1405 with orders to visit the islands of south-east Asia on diplomatic and trade matters.
He was also instructed to establish a colony in the vicinity of present-day Darwin while astronomers accompanying the expedition carried out observations of the southern skies. He was also asked to make offerings here to to the Celestial Spouse, a Taoist goddess who watched over mariners at sea.
During Cheng Ho’s stay near Darwin some of his men are said to have explored deep inland, and part of his fleet is claimed to have carried out the circumnavigation of Australia before returning to China. About 1980 a young woman unearthed a carved stone head from a sand hill while walking on a beach north of Milton on the New South Wales south coast. The head, now resting in the Kedumba Nature Museum, Katoomba {NSW}, is of a Chinese goddess, possibly the “Celestial Spouse” herself.
Could the carving have been left behind by Chinese mariners centuries ago, perhaps as an offering to the goddess for a safe voyage home? Could they have been members of Cheng Ho’s fleet? The Answer is lost in the mists of time. One thing is certain. If, as we have been taught in our school history books that Australia was only discovered by European mariners in the 126th century…what were kangaroos doing in the Imperial Zoo in Peking in 338 B.C?
More details can be found here
References :
In Dao Yi Zhi Lue there are two sections about Australia:
1. Ma Na Li, 2. Ro So Si (from Martin Tai Ro So Si may be a typo for Ro Po Si). Merchants and sailors of Quanzhou mentioned Australia was at the end of the earth and called it ‘End Island’.
· Wang Da Yuan’s description of Australia:
“Some men and women in different form, they did not weave, wore no cloth, covered their bodies with bird feathers, ate without fire, drank blood….[others] wore colourful short garments, wrapped with a piece of Ban Ga La cloth as a skirt…”
· He called the red fire tree of Australia the “Si Naw” tree.
· He describes a large stretch of marshland east of modern Darwin and the Kilberry Plateau – “columns and columns of steep mountain peeks, like horses galloping in the sky, positioned near the sea.”
· There are two longish sections in the Dao Yi Zhi Lue describing customs of Australia.
· Confucius Spring and Autumn Annals (481 BC) recording solar eclipses in Australia – (Professor Wei)
· Classics of Mountains and Seas (338 BC) describes kangaroos, quiong –giong, boomerangs and black millet (S. Australia) – (Professor Wei)
· Shizi (338 BC) reports kangaroos in China. – (Professor Wei)
· Atlas of Foreign Countries (265-316 AD) describes small black pygmies (N. Australia), Jiaojiao people, plants grow leaves in winter, shed them in summer. – (Professor Wei)
Annex 10 – Evidence of Chinese Fleets visit to Australia – West Coast
1. Maps
Zheng He’s maps of Western Australia. Professor Zhiqiang Zhang’s article entitled “Zheng He’s Fleets had reached Australia before 1450” published in Chinese mainland edition of the Peoples daily October 24 2003. Professor Zhiquiang Zhang’s article in Chinese and English will be placed on the website. Here is GM’s interpretation:
(i) Professor Zhiqiang noticed Zheng He’s Fleets sailed far south of Mozambique and Malagascar to ‘Malindi’.
(ii) This Malindi was actually the southern tip of South Africa. However it had the same name as ‘Malindi’s in East Africa, thousands of miles further north. Chinese scholars had until now confused the 3 Malindi’s.
(iii) “This time it was different, because the angle from which the chart [was viewed] was changed. This time [land shown on Zheng He’s charts] was to the east not from Malindi of Kenya, nor from Malindi of Tanzania, but to the East from the Malindi of Africa’s southern tip along the same latitude. At that moment, I took out the modern map and looked in comparison and concluded without any hesitation: this is Australia”.
“Now we could confidently proclaim Zheng He’s Fleets had discovered Australia in the early 15th century. Zheng He’s Fleets Nautical Chart is the evidence, irrefutable evidence beyond all doubt.”
“We can also see from the chart [Wu Pei Chih] the two routes along which Zheng He’s Fleets returned to China, (1) via southwest Australia where they sailed northward (Hong Bao’s Fleet) (2) one from the east: west of the Tiger Tail reef” (Great Barrier Reef – Zhou Man’s route) – Professor Zhiqiang Zhang – Beijing, 28 August 2003. From (1) we know Zheng He’s Fleets sailed northwards inside the Great Barrier Reef, from (2) they settled Australia – but where? European and Jesuit Charts give the first clue:
· Australia appears on European maps of the Dieppe school published centuries before Europeans reached Australia, viz. Desliens, Vallard (showing horses), Desceliers, Jean Rotz (1540s). These show West, North, East and South Australia (to Warrnambool). Someone charted Australia before Europeans did so. Captain Cook may have had a Chinese map (William Li).
· Albertin di Virga of 1410, where Australia is called ‘Java La Grande’ and placed in the correct position with the correct size and shape of the crest from Colliers Bay to the Gulf of CarpentariaAlbertin di Virga of 1410, where Australia is called ‘Java La Grande’ and placed in the correct position with the correct size and shape of the crest from Colliers Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria
· Australia appears on Jesuit maps drawn when in China and based on Chinese Maps, viz. Father Ricci 1589 (Now in the Royal Geographic Society, London)
· Taiwan porcelain map (1447) showing East coast to Tasmania.
· Zheng He’s passage chart shows Barrier Reef (Martin Tai)
· Melchior Thevenot in Relations 1663 – Chinese aware of Australia – (M Righton).
· Hessel Gerritsz chart (1618) shows Australia (purchased Seville) – (M Righton).
· Australia shown on Wu Pei Chih (Sun Shuyun and Zhiqiang Zhang) (1422)
· Ma Huan ( Rosace = Australia = Darwin = Marani) (Martin Tai evidence)
· Old Chinese map of Australia disappeared from public viewing in National Palace Museum in Taiwan. (Liuqioqing)
2. Chinese Claims and Records
“Back in the 1420’s, the Expeditionary Fleets of China’s Ming Dynasty reached Australian shores. For centuries, the Chinese sailed across vast seas and settled down in what they called “Southern Land”, or todays Australia. They brought Chinese culture to this land and lived harmoniously with the local people, contributing their proud share to Australians economy, society and its thriving pluralistic culture.”
“In 1330, Wang Da Yuan was only twenty years old: he boarded a commercial deep ocean ship and set sail from Quan Zhou returning in summer/ autumn of 1334…..” [The] crossed Indian Ocean back to Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Java, then to Australia, from Australia to Kalimantan, through the Philippines Isles and finally to Quanzhou.
“In 1337, Wang Da Yuan embarked the second time from Quan Zhou….[travelled through] the Strait of Mozambique and various places in Australia and returned to Quan Zhou two years later.” Translation by Martin Tai
“I followed Zheng He to various countries being there personally and witnessing with my own eyes, I attest what was written in Dao Yi Zhi were not false.” Translation by Martin Tai
In Dao Yi Zhi Lue there are two sections about Australia:
1. Ma Na Li, 2. Ro So Si (from Martin Tai Ro So Si may be a typo for Ro Po Si). Merchants and sailors of Quanzhou mentioned Australia was at the end of the earth and called it ‘End Island’.
· Wang Da Yuan’s description of Australia:
“Some men and women in different form, they did not weave, wore no cloth, covered their bodies with bird feathers, ate without fire, drank blood….[others] wore colourful short garments, wrapped with a piece of Ban Ga La cloth as a skirt…”
· He called the red fire tree of Australia the “Si Naw” tree.
· He describes a large stretch of marshland east of modern Darwin and the Kilberry Plateau – “columns and columns of steep mountain peeks, like horses galloping in the sky, positioned near the sea.”
· There are two longish sections in the Dao Yi Zhi Lue describing customs of Australia.
· Confucius Spring and Autumn Annals (481 BC) recording solar eclipses in Australia – (Professor Wei)
· Classics of Mountains and Seas (338 BC) describes kangaroos, quiong –giong, boomerangs and black millet (S. Australia) – (Professor Wei)
· Shizi (338 BC) reports kangaroos in China. – (Professor Wei)
· Atlas of Foreign Countries (265-316 AD) describes small black pygmies (N. Australia), Jiaojiao people, plants grow leaves in winter, shed them in summer. – (Professor Wei)
3. Accounts of Contemporary European Historians and Explorers
An account of the exploration and charting of the West Australian coast by Willem de Vlamingh, December 1696 and January 1697 – “THE SOUTHLAND EXPLORATION” ( Battye Library) By Gunther Schilder. © Published by Canaletto 1984. BRN 117751
11th and 12th century copper schols (Franciscan missionaries’ evidence) describe voyages by huge fleets of junks (60-100) sailing for Australia to mine minerals.
4. Accounts of Local people
5. Linguistics
6. Shipwrecks/ anchors and fishing gear with Chinese characteristics
7. Chinese Porcelain and Ceramics
Further research needed
8. Pre-Columbian Chinese Jade found in the wake of the Chinese Fleet
9. Artefacts, gems, votive offerings, coins and funerary urns
10. Stone: Buildings/ Structures/ Implements/ Engravings
11. Mining Operations found by first Europeans
Further research needed
13. Plants foreign to Australia
14. Animals foreign to Australia
See Australia East Coast +
16. Chinese customs, games, clothes and legends
Further research needed
17. Armour, metal weapons, cannons and implements found
18. Diseases
Further research needed
19. DNA
Further research needed
20. Meteorological events and weather
Further research needed
21. Stars and Navigation
Further research needed
Professor Edward Bryant’s work (separate annex)
What GM thinks happened
Hong Bao’s Fleet – Much as in book as evidenced by Zheng He’s recently rediscovered Navigation charts of the Antarctic and Western Australia. Some sailors settled in the Helena Valley (Lynda Nutter) at the estuary of the Blackwood River and on Rottnest Island
Zhou Man’s Fleet – Transpacific to Australia and down NSW coast to Auckland and Campbell Island – as in book. There caught be Tsunami north of Auckland Island (Annexes 17 and Para 20). Majority of Fleet impaled on New Zealand South Island. Other Junks hurled NW to Australia – wrecked at Wollongong, Tasmania (Storm Bay); Edward Island; Warnambool (Port Fairy); Kangeroo Island; Blackwood River. Some sailed north up NSW coast inside and outside Barrier to China via the Spice Islands (Zheng He’s Charts). This scenario squares with all the artefacts, wrecks, legends, flora and fauna, histories and charts found to date.
Comment: If you have comments or suggestions on this article please click here
Zennith Boyz new song ‘Light It Up’ dedicated to the memory of our little brother JayJay Stevens.
We miss you every day.
Love is the way
Love is my way
Love is gonna lead us one day
Zennith Boyz are set to spread their messages of empathy and understanding to the world… Listen now!!
http://www.balconytv.com/videos/zennith-light-it-up