2020

NO.

78

Contents004
006
009

Yoko Hayami
Word from the Director
François Molle
Investigating Waterscapes
The Functional Expansion of Zakat in Contemporary Indonesia:
Zakat Management Organization Loans in Malang, East Java, Indonesia
Mari Adachi

014

Evolving Historical Trends in Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research at
the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
Mario Lopez & Ayako Fujieda023

Planes, Movies, and Locations of Co-Production:
Jane M. Ferguson
Burmese Film Projections in Kyoto
The Charas Collection Cremation Books as Sources for Thai History

026

Pattarat Panprasit
R. Michael Feener

021

030040The Maldives Heritage Survey
Publications
EventsFront Cover image: Local craft anchored at HA. Muladhoo, Maldives (Photo by R. Michael Feener)

The Maldives Heritage Survey
R. Michael Feener
Professor, CSEAS

Returning to base camp after surveying an abandoned shrine on an uninhabited island

CSEAS NEWSLETTER
No. 78026

The Maldives is a remote Indian Ocean archipelagoof coral atolls comprising 1,192 islands, of whichfewer than 200 are currently inhabited. Buddhism
had spread to the islands during the f㘶rst millennium
CE, but was completely displaced by processes ofIslamization that began in the twelfth century withabrupt political and economic transformations asinstitutional Buddhism was abolished and mosquesbuilt on royal commissions across a number of islands. Over the centuries that followed, integration
into trans-regional circulations of commerce andculture facilitated the development of distinctive
forms of Muslim vernacular culture including thecountry’s traditional coral stone mosques, funerarymonuments, and Dhivehi-language literature.
Despite its long history and rich heritage, theMaldives has been so little studied that even in major research university library holdings have precious few sources available for the exploration of
the country’s history.
For the past two-and-a-half years, TheMaldives Heritage Survey (MHS) has worked tosystematically inventory and digitally document endangered tangible cultural heritage in the Maldives– including mosques, cemeteries, Buddhist temple
ruins, and other historical structures and physicalobjects – to create an open-access resource website and heritage database. The materials documented through this work are critically endangered,facing both natural and human threats that jeopardize the survival and accessibility of historical information for this vital node in pre-modern global economic and religious networks at the cross-roads ofthe interconnected region of Maritime SouthernAsia.
Our pioneering systematic survey of the archaeological heritage of the Maldives has identif㘶edsites with GPS coordinates, and produced robust
documentation of each with detailed measurements, photographs, aerial photography and video,

3D scans, AutoCAD plans and elevations, as well
as digitized manuscripts and video recordings oforal history interviews. We have further contextualized sites (wherever relevant) by references to any
mention that may have been made of a particularsite in government reports, local publications, and/or scholarly works published abroad. For the overwhelming majority of these sites, however, we havegenerated the f㘶rst-ever documentation – thus making a substantial contribution to the source material
available to scholars interested in the history andculture of this vital crossroads of civilizations in the
medieval and early modern Indian Ocean world.
To date, our survey has covered Laamu(Haddhunmathee), Gnaviyani (Fuvamulah), Addu(Seenu), and Haa Alif (North Thiladhunmatheee)
atolls, started preliminary work in Haa Dhaalu(South Thiladhunmatheee), and surveyed a numberof islands in Kaafu (Malé) Atoll. Over the course ofthis work, the project has completed a comprehensive survey of 152 islands where we have locatedand documented 288 heritage sites, 1,154 structures, 3,734 objects, in addition to digitizing 231
historic manuscripts, producing 28 video recordings of oral history interviews and registering 87
point clouds of 3D imaging.
Alongside the primary f㘶eldwork, we havebeen working to incorporate a broader range ofmaterial on Maldives heritage and history into thedocumentation for the website. Toward this end wehave thus engaged with a range of other institutions
including the Maldives National Museum, theMaldives National Archives, the Utheemu
Ganduvaru Palace, the Ashmolean Museum atOxford, and the Japanese National Museum ofEthnology (Minpaku) to digitize relevant materials
from their collections and arrange for permissions
to provide open access to new digital heritage resources. Such collaborations further enhance thescope and accessibility of digital heritage docu-mentation on the Maldives, allowing for a consolidated point of open-access for these records andsupporting materials to scholars, curators, policymakers, and the broader public.
All of this material is now available on theMaldives Heritage Survey’s project website. This is
an open-access resource that includes a number ofinter-related sections, including:027

The project website has thus quickly become thesingle richest resource available for information on
the vanishing past of the islands for future students
and scholars, as well as an important location forpreserving the cultural heritage of the Maldives for
its people in the future, when physical access tomany of these sites will no longer be possible due
to erosion and rising sea levels. In this sense theproject has produced a virtual ark for the survival of
historical sites that face dire threats of being sub-merged under the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The project is led by Professor R. Michael
Feener, and funded by Arcadia – a charitable fundof Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin (Project 3984).
Work in country was done in partnership with theMaldives Department of Heritage (now NationalCenter for Cultural Heritage) and with the support ofWashington University’s SaieLab and the EarthObservatory of Singapore at Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity. This pilot phase of work was based at
the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, but withProfessor Feener’s recent move to CSEAS the entire project has relocated to Kyoto, where we are
currently establishing a new Digital Heritage
Documentation Lab. A number of new hires will bemade here over the coming months for the next
phase of the project. Moving forward from its newbase at Kyoto University, the MHS will be expandedto become the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey(MAHS). Over the next f㘶ve years, we will not only
complete the f㘶eld survey of all remaining atolls in
the Maldives, but also expand operations to open
branches in other countries that have historically
been part of the same maritime circulations of commerce and culture across Southern Asia: Sri Lanka,Indonesia, Brunei, and Vietnam.

Center for Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto University• A short video introducing the work and scope of
the project• A GIS-integrated database of sites, structures,and objects documented in the course of ourf㘶eld survey work.
• An online manuscript reader built around an interactive Universal Viewer interface that makes
available a range of texts in Dhivehi, Arabic, andEnglish including manuscripts digitized by oursurvey team in the f㘶eld, as well as related documents from the collections of the Maldives
National Museum and the Maldives NationalArchives.
• A video library of oral history interviews presenting community perspectives and local traditions
associated with various heritage sites covered byour survey• A gallery of 3D visualizations of LiDAR and photogrammetry data for select sites, structures, andobjects• Project-generated reference material, including
an illustrated glossary of Maldivian art and architectural terms and an annotated timeline ofMaldives history to clarify and contextualize material documented in the database• a ‘virtual library’ of earlier scholarship and primary source material on Maldives heritage and history that we have been building up through securing permissions and linking to open-accessmaterial scattered across diverse online resources• An active f㘶eldwork blog and photo sets on ongoing work across the country• Full data sets for all LiDAR scans produced in thecourse of our work have also been made open
access available and provided with an additional
long-term archive via in collaboration withOpenHeritage3D.

Explaining our work to neighbours in Kaashidhoo

Seated Buddha statue recoveredby the MHS at Isdhoo Kalaidhoo,
now in the collections of theMaldives National Museum(c. 10th-11th century)

CSEAS NEWSLETTER
No. 78028

Field photography of a Buddhist statue recovered in Isdhoo Kalaidhoo
Manuscript of a land endowment on the island of Meedhoo (1675)

Site plan of Koagannu, the largest early Muslim cemetery in the Maldives marking the locations of five mosques, and over 1,000 coral gravestones (12th-20th centuries)

Organizing manuscripts for digitization in the Ihavandhoo mosque

Work on site of a coral-stone mosque in Laamu AtollCenter for Southeast Asian Studies,
Kyoto University
46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku,
Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Tel: +81-75-753-7302
Fax: +81-75-753-7350
京都大学東南アジア地域研究研究所〒606-8501 京都市左京区吉田下阿達町46

Tel: 075-753-7302
Fax: 075-753-7350

Editor: R. Michael Feener〈編集〉マ イ ケ ル ・フィ ー ナ ーDate of Issue:2020
ISSN 2185-663X