I cannot remember when I first heard about Cheng HO, the greatest navigator who travelled the realms of the Ming dynasty over the course of many journeys, as far as Somalia and Mombasa and fortified many of the fledgling states such as Malacca, Cochin among others. Left behind great legacies, one of which is the Chinese Fishing Nets dotting the landscape of the Cochin harbour.
In fact, similar fishing contraptions can be seen in all parts of the world of Cheng HO... He was originally from Yunnan and this type of fishing nets were common in Yunnan of that time and variations of this can be seen in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam.. and of course Cochin.
In Galle, the admiral left a stone monument, in three languages Chinese Sinhalese and Arabic and now preserved in the national Museum in Colombo.
When I was visiting my friend Pak Joe in Bogor, he organized a day trip for me to go to Semerang in Java to visit the temple dedicated to Cheng Ho. There are still descendants of the admirals fleet living in Semerang in Indonesia.
While visiting the coast of Salalah in Oman, I imagined how the Admiral must have viewed this landscape, he took back the frankincense native to these parts back to China.
There is evidence that on this very same spot, Cheng He must have come ashore to supervise repairs to his ships.
I would like to visit Hormuz the port where Cheng Ho stayed which is in Iran. I tried to find some information about Cheng Ho from my iranian friends to no avail. He had visited Mecca.. and of course his visits to the east african coast down to Kenya has been well documented and there are some descendants from his fleet still in Kenya.
There has been two personalities in my life ever since I could begin to think for myself somewhere along the high school years
Cheng HO
and of course I did become a traveller and the other is
CHE
I have also paid pilgrimages to Valle Grande, Bolivia, the classroom where he studied in BA in Argentina along with many other places associated with him. Like Che, I have also devoted my life to the welfare of the marginalized, oppressed and poor communities in this world.
so imagine how honoured I felt this morning, in Phnom Penh where I am, I received a letter from Dr Ta Ta Sen, the President of the International Zheng He Society:
There were 4 important bases for Chengho: Quanzhou (China), Champa (Vietnam near Nha Trang) , Malaka, Kochin and Hormuz.
We must appoint you as our Advisor of International ZhengHe Society. Will you accept it?
In Galle, the admiral left a stone monument, in three languages Chinese Sinhalese and Arabic and now preserved in the national Museum in Colombo.
While visiting the coast of Salalah in Oman, I imagined how the Admiral must have viewed this landscape, he took back the frankincense native to these parts back to China.
There is evidence that on this very same spot, Cheng He must have come ashore to supervise repairs to his ships.
There has been two personalities in my life ever since I could begin to think for myself somewhere along the high school years
Cheng HO
and of course I did become a traveller and the other is
CHE
I have also paid pilgrimages to Valle Grande, Bolivia, the classroom where he studied in BA in Argentina along with many other places associated with him. Like Che, I have also devoted my life to the welfare of the marginalized, oppressed and poor communities in this world.
so imagine how honoured I felt this morning, in Phnom Penh where I am, I received a letter from Dr Ta Ta Sen, the President of the International Zheng He Society:
There were 4 important bases for Chengho: Quanzhou (China), Champa (Vietnam near Nha Trang) , Malaka, Kochin and Hormuz.
We must appoint you as our Advisor of International ZhengHe Society. Will you accept it?
ta sen
IT WOULD BE A GREAT HONOUR FOR ME TO BE AN INTERNATIONAL ADVISOR TO THE CHENG HO SOCIETY
