Spice Route

Kompas/Totok Wijayanto

A worker sorts nutmeg according to quality at a nutmeg collection center belonging to Kiong in Banda Neira, Banda Islands, Maluku, Tuesday (25/4/2018). After being sorted, the nutmeg is sent to Surabaya for processing.

In 2020, the Culture Directorate General of the Education and Culture Ministry launched the Spice Route program, a program related to efforts to strengthen Indonesia\'s position based on its location along global maritime routes and strengthen the maritime culture of the archipelago.

Despite having broad long-term goals, as a stepping stone in that direction, in the short term, the program designs that the Spice Route by 2024 will be recognized as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

The meaning of the World Heritage often refers to places in the world that have extraordinary universal value for humanity and therefore must be preserved and protected, so that future generations can continue to enjoy and appreciate them. There are three types of World Heritage, namely culture, nature, or a combination of the two.

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Even though cultural heritage can be something intangible, such as traditions and language, the World Cultural Heritage mostly has a list of tangible cultural sites, such as monuments or other objects. Examples are Borobudur, Taj Mahal and Hagia Sophia.

The cultural heritage is not limited to objects or sites or traditions but extends also to human movement or mobility, encounters and dialogue as well as cross-cultural exchanges occurring at certain places in history.

Since 1994, there have been some interesting developments at UNESCO. They can accept "cultural routes" as an element of world heritage. The cultural heritage is not limited to objects or sites or traditions but extends also to human movement or mobility, encounters and dialogue as well as cross-cultural exchanges occurring at certain places in history.

This shift at UNESCO was initiated by Spain\'s proposal that the spiritual pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela be recognized as World Cultural Heritage. The proposal, submitted in 1993, was approved by the World Heritage Committee at its meeting in Paris in 1994.

REUTERS/BOBBY YIP

A map illustrating China\'s silk road economic belt and the 21st century maritime silk road, or the so-called "One Belt, One Road" megaproject, is displayed at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China January 18, 2016.

Since that year, several "cultural routes" have been included in the World Heritage list, including the Silk Road (China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) and the route of the Church of the Nativity and the spiritual pilgrimage in Bethlehem (Palestine/Israel).

Marine based

If the nomination of the Spice Route by the Indonesian government is approved by UNESCO, it will have far-reaching implications. Not only will it open up opportunities for the creation of moving or shifting tourism according to these cultural points, it will also strengthen the structure of this pluralistic Indonesian nation.

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Unlike the Silk Route, which has land connectivity, this Spice Route is sea-based. It connects dots throughout the archipelago by water. In its history, it has been a pathway for the globalization of Indonesia, a route connecting the archipelago with Arab, Persian, European, Indian, Chinese nations and so on.

We do not know for when spices became a commodity that attracted the world. However, in the book The Overseas Chinese of South East Asia: History, Culture, Business (2008), Ian Rae and Morgen Witzel write that the archipelago\'s spices had been found in a number of dynasties in China and ancient Egypt.

Spices, for example, were found in tombs of pharaohs. Pharaoh Neko II (610-595 BC) had even ordered an expedition to find the “Spice Islands” (Maluku) by hiring Phoenician (Fenicia) sailors who were known to be the most reliable in the world at that time. He wanted to cut off dependence on Indian merchants who usually supplied the spices to Egypt.

Kompas/Totok Wijayanto

Boats moored at Run Island, which is a part of the Banda Islands, are photographed from the air, Friday (28/4/2018). In the 17th century, the Dutch and the British fought over Run Island, which at the time was the world\'s top nutmeg producer. In 1667, the two countries made peace through the Breda Treaty, which traded Run Island for Manhattan.

Rae and Witzel also noted that Herodotus had also mentioned the spice trade in articles, as had geographers from Greece and Rome. A large spice market also existed in India during the Mauryan empire under King Chandragupta and his successors.

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Spices were an expensive commodity and were sometimes referred to as "black gold". So expensive and high was the trade and the profits, a merchant from Venice said, that he could send five ships to buy spices from Alexandria, and if four of the five ships were hijacked or sunk into the sea, the profits from the one remaining ship could still cover all the losses (Rae and Witzel 2008, 92). In England, the term "peppercorn rent" is still used to indicate that in the past people could rent a house using peppercorns.

Not only Bali and Raja Ampat, but also other areas that have built a mosaic of Indonesia\'s pluralism.

Practically, like various World Heritage types in the form of routes, this Spice Route can be a means of tourism that introduces Indonesia as a whole. Not only Bali and Raja Ampat, but also other areas that have built a mosaic of Indonesia\'s pluralism.

A spice route tour package using a cruise ship to visit these points of the Spice Route, for instance, would not only provide economic benefits but also strengthen Indonesia\'s ties as one nation of cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity.

In short, the Spice Route can be an inspiration that elevates cultures in a number of regions and connects islands of the archipelago.

However, it should be noted that the spice route in the memory of some Indonesians does not only mean "cultural route" or "trade route". It is also a "path of colonialism".

AFP/OZAN KOSE

A woman poses for a picture in front of Hagia Sophia on July 11, 2020 in Istanbul, a day after a top Turkish court revoked the sixth-century Hagia Sophia\'s status as a museum, clearing the way for it to be turned back into a mosque. - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 11 rejected worldwide condemnation over Turkey\'s decision to convert the Byzantine-era monument Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, saying it represented his country\'s will to use its "sovereign rights".

Therefore, when the government nominated it as Cultural Heritage, a question that might arise, as explained by Hilmar Farid himself in a discussion at LIPI (18/1) is this: "Does this mean an effort to celebrate the fortresses that were built by various colonial governments that came to Indonesia?"

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Of course, this is not what is expected. The path is seen more as a cultural path. In this route, in its history, there have been cultural interactions from various places in the archipelago with foreign cultures, the spread of religion, education, exchange of knowledge, art, language, shipping technology as well as meetings of various political interests.

This route has contributed to building the diverse Indonesian culture and identity we have today. This is one of the foundations of the Indonesian nation\'s maritime culture.

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG

Najib Burhani.

AHMAD NAJIB BURHANI, Research Professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).