Meeting of East and West via the spice trade

BY DERRICK Schokman

DO you remember Rudyard Kipling's famous remark that East and West shall never meet?

Historically nothing could have been more inaccurate, because East and West had been meeting for centuries before he said that.

One of the prime reasons for their meeting was the demand for spices.

The traditional explanation given by 18th century historians that spices were imported by medieval meat-eaters lacking refrigeration to mask the taste of salt and decomposition is not quite correct.

Other uses

Frankinsence and Myrrh from Arabia and the Horn of Africa were in use as incense products from at least the third millenium BC.

The Bible records the Wisemen offering these products to the Baby Jesus in Nazareth.

In all likelihood eastern spices followed these local gums and resins as incense products. Even today incense sticks are aromatised with pepper, ginger, sandalwood and cinnamon.

Spices were also used by Egyptian embalmers to perfume the corpses of royal persons and slow down bacterial decomposition in the process of mummification.

Archaeologists have found fragments of pepper in the nose of Pharoah Ramses II's mummy: this king ruled Egypt from 1279-1212 BC.

A piece of cinnamon was also found in the mummy of Maria, wife of Emperor Honorius (392-423 AD), when her remains were exhumed during the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian went to his grave with 100 spices and wondrous unguents in preserving the holy body for all eternity.

The rich and wealthy in the Roman Empire were commonly cremated with cinnamon.

Pepper was thought to have had medicinal properties. Its heating and drying effects were believed to counteract illnesses of a cold and wet nature.

On his death bed the Venerable Bede of Northumbrua, England, dedicated the pepper he had to his fellow monks as medicine.

Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury (664-690 AD) claimed that pepper mixed with the gall bladder of a hare would cure dysentery.

Spices also had a reputation for sensualism. They have been cited as 'lidibo-nourishing' and a means of seduction.

In the Book of Proverbs, the harlot used cinnamon as a lure to get young men into bed with her to 'make love all night long'.

Romans

It was the Romans who first made regular use of spices as seasonings for their food.

Around the time of Christ, we know that the Romans had a flourishing spice trade with India. About 120 vessels are said to have set off each year from Red Sea ports to obtain pepper from Malabar in southwest India. An Indian writer described the busy scene in the port of Muziris (later Craganore) as follows:

"Beautiful vessels, masterpieces of the Westerners, stir white foam on the Periyar river, arriving with gold and departing with pepper." When the Roman Empire crumbled in the 5th century AD, the Arabs took over the trade. Malabar became India's first Muslim community.

Jewish merchants, and later by the 8th century AD Venetian and other Italo-Byzantine traders had extended the spice trade westwards from Byzantium across Europe.

A modern writer summed up the early spice trade as being 'medieval Europe's first renaissance which materialised out of the aroma for a nobleman's corpse, or the seasonings for his dinner, the tonics for his humours, or fuel for his libido"

Odysseys

The growing appetite for spices culminated in the odysseys of European powers in search of spices at the turn of the 15th century.

Christopher Columbus set off promising spain ad loca aromatum (places where spices grow). He failed in this venture making landfall in the Carribean.

He brought back no spices, but as a saving grace a condiment called aji, which in his own words "made Carribean food hotter and more flavoursome than Malabar pepper".

Aji soon became popular and was ultimately adopted in the East as the dried chillie of commerce. Vasco de Gama succeeded where Columbus had failed, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and reaching India in 1497.

He reported that the best cinnamon was to be found in Sri Lanka. Two decades later Magellan circumnavigated the world for the first time, arriving in the Moluccas in the Indonesian archipelago, where he found cloves in abundance.

A clove tree is depicted on the map of Magellan's arrival in the Moluccas.

Albuquerque and Portugal's Estado da India, Europe's longest-lived Asian empire followed, along with the Dutch East India Company and British East India Company, intimating each nation's imperialist careers which began with spices.

Silk Road

It would be quite unfair to end this feature on the importance of spices in linking Asia with Europe without any reference to the Silk Road across Central Asia.

It is one of the golden roads of mankind along which evocative luxuries such as silk, tea and porcelain travelled towards the West from China. This trade may have been minimal when compared to the merchandise that went by sea. Yet it was more than just trade.

Chinese technical inventions like paper money, printing, gunpowder and a meritocratic civil service also found their way to serve as the building blocks for a modern Europe.

As did Buddhism, an equally powerful force, which passed in the opposite direction from northern India to transform China and the Far East.

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A mesmeric 'Blue & White'

BY LYNN Ockersz

A profoundly moving moment, - most Josephians would testify - at the end of a school event or function at St. Joseph's College, Colombo 10 is the singing of the College anthem, beginning with the arresting line, "Fruits of Virtue and of Knowledge ...." and ending with the crescendo-like climactic refrain, "White and Blue are mystic colours ..... till the mountains disappear," with full-throated emphasis on 'White & Blue.'

This reference to the College colours, Blue and White, which possess such special poignancy for Joes both young and old has been the title of the College magazine of this Catholic educational institution of repute, over the past 108 years and none associated with the College would dispute its suitability.

This is on account of the fact that the 'Blue and White' magazine has been meticulously chronicling the steady advancement of the College over the decades, reporting with remarkable vividness and clarity its multiple achievements and landmark accomplishments, besides keeping the reader updated on almost everything of importance about the College.

'Blue & White', Vol. 70, 2001-2005, the latest in this series of 'Blue & Whites' marking 100 years of the magazine's existence, just out and available at the College, vibrantly maintains these lofty standards in historical chronicling and updating.

Edited by Ranjani Weerasinghe - a teacher of English at the College - this issue of the magazine could indeed be called a many-splendoured thing.

A feast to the eye on account of its captivating colour pictures, capturing - among other things - epochal moments in the recent history of the College, and constituting wholesome nourishment to the mind and spirit on account of the numerous literary contributions to the magazine by both the students and the staff of the College, in the national languages and English, containing insights into the College's spirit and multifarious subjects relating to it, the magazine could be considered a 'must read' for everyone who wants to keep abreast of the achievements of the College and its general evolution over the past decades. In fact if one is in need of an updated profile of St. Joseph's College, he or she could find it in this issue of the 'Blue & White'.

Besides being replete with impressive examples of the SJC artistic and literary genius, Vol. 70 covers very comprehensively the academic, sports and other achievements of the College in the recent past, while also outlining what the College has meant to Joes over the years.

The issue is likely to be much sought-after also on account of the 2004 colour class photographs, identifying students by name.

This issue of the 'Blue & White' would prove a treasure trove for all Josephians and all those taking a keen interest in this hallowed citadel of learning.

A spontaneous thanks goes out to the College for dedicating this issue of the 'Blue & White', to Rev. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody of revered memory, song writer and poet of repute and a truly distinguished 'Old Boy' of St. Joseph's.

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Dusk & dawn, an exhibition of photographs

DUSK & dawn, an exhibition of photographs by M. S. N. L. de Costa will be held at Lionel Wendt - Harold Peiris Gallery, Colombo 7 from January 21 - 23 from 9.00am - 8.00 pm.

This photographic exhibition records some beautiful sunsets captured on film during last couple of years by Mr. Costa.

Describing the nature of the photographs that are on display he says "Admirable sunset do not appear each and every evening in the sky. Clear sky is very vital to create an attractive sunset.

Flat areas with a broad horizon may be recommended to view a sunset, rather than in urban areas with tall buildings or in a dense jungle. West and Southern maritime belt may also provide a good opportunity."

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Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery

BY INDEEWARA Thilakarathne

ROUGH waves of the Indian Ocean dashed upon the beach in the coastal village of Kosgoda. The same waves that destroyed the village and entire communities along the Southern Coast were now tamed as if nothing had happened.

In fact, these are the same waves that destroyed the village leaving a shattered beach with remnants of rubbles.

However almost after one year, the village seems to be awakening from the ashes of rubble. 'Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery', 35 kilometres away from Colombo, near Naya Aduwa Gala bent on the Colombo-Galle Road, was heaven for turtles until it was destroyed by tsunami waves.

The project, which contributed immensely to the protection of this endangered species, had also been one of the best examples for the voluntary participation in the conservation of beach and marine plants.

Restarting the project

The project has now been re-started at the same premises with few tanks and hatching space for the turtle eggs collected from the beach.

The tsunami had not only deprived these turtles their hatchery grounds but also the marine plants that grew along the beach, which provided a cover for them to lay eggs. Re-planting of mangroves is also an important part of the project.

Volunteers from an English Voluntary Organisation 'I-to-I' work with locals in this project. Jemma, a volunteer from UK who has been working in the project for five months told the Daily News that releasing turtles back into the sea was a wonderful experience.

"We are very happy to be here and had a few turtles hatching and release them back into the sea. It was a lovely experience to release turtles back into the sea".

Eggs and release

Richard, a co-ordinator of the volunteers in Sri Lanka said that he had been actively engaged in the project for two and half years.

"There is a problem of selling turtle eggs in the market, so we offer the same amount of money and buy turtle eggs from them. Then we put the eggs in the hatchery for three months and release them into the sea.

If we have twenty turtles, we release 10 a day and some turtle sanctuaries release turtles during the day and are vulnerable to be victims of predators such as birds, crabs. We also make sure that the beach is clean enough for the turtle to lay eggs. Presently we plant over 8,000 rina plants which provide safe grounds for turtles to lay eggs", said Richard.

Dudly who is in charge of the project said that they have also started re-planting of mangroves along the coast as it was proved that coast with mangroves cover suffered less damage than the other parts, which were naked at the time of tsunami.

Pictures by Mahinda Vithanachchi