Kendi

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The Kendi (plural: Kendis ) is a form of vessel that has been widespread in Southeast Asia , South Asia and East Asia since ancient times, and is used for both sacred and profane purposes. The historical forerunner of the kendi was probably the Kundika (plural: Kundikas ). The original origin of the kendi and the Kundika is not certain in terms of space and time.

Definition and appearance

Sawankhalok ware kendi ,
Thailand, 16th century,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The kendi can be defined as a vessel with a rounded body placed on a flat base, the elongated neck of which has a mouth opening with a flange-like cuff to protect against running down liquid and a beak-shaped spout on the shoulder . Due to the two openings and their shape, the Kendi can be used as a pouring or drinking vessel.

Kendis were made from precious metals (bronze, silver and gold) and from ceramics . Although kendis made of terracotta , earthenware and similar porous types of ceramics were used in relatively early ceramic productions , hard-fired, glazed stoneware and porcelain became the dominant goods over the centuries because of their impermeability to water.

Presentation and use

Early depictions of Kendis can be found on the reliefs of the temple of Borobodur in Java from the 9th century and on the reliefs of Angkor Wat in Cambodia from the late 12th / early 13th century . In these pictures the kendi is often shown in Hinduism as an attribute of the deities Brahma and Shiva , in Buddhism as an attribute of the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya . Historically, Kendis were used in the coronation ceremonies of Southeast Asian kings, as they served as a pouring container for holy water for ritual purification. There are also archaeological findings from Vietnam , Indonesia and the Philippines in which kendis were used as grave goods.

While the sacred uses naturally predominate in the pictorial representations, the majority of the kendis produced are likely to have been mainly made for profane purposes. They are used either as drinking vessels or as decorative accessories. As a drinking vessel, the kendi can be used by several people together without their mouths coming into direct contact with the vessel, which enables more hygienic communal drinking (in its practical application it is quite comparable to the Spanish bota ).

Origin, development and distribution

The word Kendi is malay and is derived from the Sanskrit -word Kundi from (= "Ausgussgefäß"), which later kundika diminution was. This Kundika (see below) is commonly regarded as the prototype of the Kendi that gradually spread from the subcontinent to Southeast and East Asia around 2000 years ago - with the beginning of a functioning intra-Asian seafaring trade between India and China . The large delta areas of the Irrawaddy in the Kingdom of Sri Ksetra , the Mae Nam Chao Phraya in the Dvaravati culture and the Mekong in the Kingdom of Funan , which are used by the merchant ships for necessary logistical stopovers , may have acted as further distribution centers. Gradually the Kundika first spread, from the end of the first millennium of the Christian era, the Kendi as the dominant form throughout Asia. In the European area, too, it became known to a certain extent through imports by the Dutch East India Company from the late 16th / early 17th centuries. The kendi was copied in the Delft ceramics factories and depicted in still lifes by Dutch and German painters .

  • Kendis from different countries, times and types of ceramics

  • Java, terracotta,
    14th century,
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art

  • Java, Terracotta,
    14th-15th Century,
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art

  • Vietnam, Underglaze Painted Stoneware,
    1400 to 1600,
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art

  • Thailand, Glazed Stoneware, 16th Century,
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art

  • China, porcelain,
    1590 to 1600,
    Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg

  • Iran, Underglaze Painted Stoneware,
    early 17th century,
    Royal Ontario Museum , Toronto

Recent studies, open questions

Kendis and Kundikas were probably originally made from precious metals for purely sacred purposes. It was not until pottery technology that mass production was made possible for everyday use, using the locally available clay. For a long time science assumed that the origin of the (metal) vessel shape was to be found in India and that the pottery methods came from China (see above).

This theory has been increasingly questioned in research since the 1990s. The Indonesian scientist Djaliati Sri Nugrahani raised the question in 1996 - after evaluating relevant ethnographic, archaeological and religious studies data - whether the etymological source alone could be a sufficient reason to assume the origin of the kendi in India. Furthermore, with regard to the assumed Chinese origin of the technology, she had noticed that ceramic kendis had been produced in Southeast Asia before Chinese products were made there. Based on studies of the Dvaravati culture from the sixth to tenth centuries, a possible Thai origin has been discussed. Further investigations also indicated possibly indigenous Southeast Asian origins, for example in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and repeatedly in Thailand. In this context, it is also noteworthy that the kendi has never been widely used in China itself; the vessels were almost exclusively produced for export to the Southeast Asian countries, where there was a corresponding demand. Much more research will be required to fully clarify the origin and history of the development of the kendi.

Kundika

The Kundika, the possible forerunner of the Kendi, differs from it in handling and form. The difference in function is that in Kundika the mouth of the neck is used for pouring or drinking, while the beak is used to pour in the liquid, i.e. exactly the other way around than in the Kendi. The body is not rounded, but elongated-oval. The neck is much longer and the flange-like cuff to protect against running liquid is located in the middle between the opening and the body. The beak is slightly shortened, partially angled and the opening diameter enlarged. In some Kundikas the beak was completely dispensed with and a simple hole was made on the shoulder of the vessel instead.

literature

  • Sumarah Adhyatman: Kendi. Wadah air minum tradisional. Traditional drinking water container. The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, Jakarta 1987.
  • Roxanna M. Brown : The Ceramics of South-East Asia. Their Dating and Identification. 2nd edition. Art Media Resources, Chicago 2000, ISBN 1-878529-70-6 .
  • Khoo Joo Ee: Kendi. Pouring Vessels in the University of Malaya Collection . Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-588939-0 .
  • National Museum Singapore (ed.): Kendis. A guide to the collections. National Museum, Singapore 1984, ISBN 978-9971-917-12-8 .
  • Djaliati Sri Nugrahani: Exploring Indonesian Kendi . In: The Asian Arts Society of Asia (Ed.): TAASA Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, Potts Point 1996, ISSN  1037-6674 , pp. 6f.
  • Dawn F. Rooney: Kendi in the Cultural Context of Southeast Asia. A Commentary on Dawn F. Rooney's official website, accessed December 11, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Kendi  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Kundikas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Dawn F. Rooney: Kendi in the Cultural Context of Southeast Asia. A Commentary on Dawn F. Rooney's official website, accessed December 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Le Thie Lien: Excavations at Minh Su Mound, Go Thap site, Dong Thap Province, South Vietnam, 2000-2003 . In: Elisabeth A. Bacus, Ian C. Glover and Vincent C. Pigott: Uncovering Southeast Asia's Past. Selected Papers from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists . National University, Singapore 2006, ISBN 9971-69-351-8 , p. 239.
  3. ↑ Khoo Joo Ee: Kendi. Pouring Vessels in the University of Malaya Collection . Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-588939-0 , pp. 3f.
  4. ↑ Djaliati Sri Nugrahani: Exploring Indonesian Kendi . In: The Asian Arts Society of Asia (Ed.): TAASA Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, Potts Point 1996, ISSN  1037-6674 , pp. 6f.
  5. ↑ Phuthorn Bhumadon: Ceramics of the Dvaravati Period in Early Thailand, 6th to 10th Centuries, AD Newsletter, East Asian Art and Archeology, Issue 56, University of Michigan, Ann Harbor 1996, ISSN  8755-4593 , p. 23.
  6. ^ A b Charles Higham: Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia . River Books, Bangkok 2002, ISBN 978-1-58886-028-6 , p. 236.
  7. ↑ Miriam T. Stark : Pre-Angkor Earthenware. Ceramics from Cambodia's Mekong Delta . In: Friends of Khmer Culture (ed.): UDAYA, Journal of Khmer Studies, No. 1, Norfolk (CT) 2000, 1683-7274 , p. 79.
  8. ↑ Height: 33.2 cm, diameter at the trunk: 14 cm.
  9. ↑ 浄瓶 . National Institutes for Cultural Heritage , accessed January 12, 2015 (Japanese).