ARCHÆOLOGY

A bronze Buddha believed to date back to the early Ming dynasty has been found on a remote beach in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, suggesting Chinese sailors made landfall in Australia over 500 years ago. Former Chinese president Hu Jintao claimed in a 2003 address in the Australian parliament that expeditionary Ming Dynasty Chinese fleets travelled to Australia in the early 15th century – 350 years before Captain Cook, and more than a century before Willem Janzoon and Dirk Hartog reached Western Australia, the latter hammering a pewter plate at Shark Bay. (English pirate William Dampier named Shark Bay after sailing there in 1699.)

Sydney University China expert Xiaohuan Zhao said the statue could date to the reign of either the Yongle emperor (140224) or the Xuande emperor (1425-35), but he thought it most likely came to Australia post-Ming dynasty. Two filmmakers, Shayne Thomson and Leon Deschamps, discovered it using metal detectors during filming for a documentary about French explorer Nicholas Baudin’s voyage to Australia in 1800-1804. They were looking for objects left behind by the French when they came across the Buddha, which weights 1kg (35oz) despite its small size. They described the find as possibly “evidence of the 1421 Chinese Ming Dynasty ‘Treasure Fleets’ exploration of Australia”. A former curator at Melbourne’s Chinese Australian History museum, Paul Macgregor, was sceptical, suggesting the statue could be a 19th century replica brought to Australia by Chinese pearlers. (It’s not clear from the report whether the statue has been authenticated beyond doubt as early Ming.) Times, 9 Feb; news.com.au, 10 Feb 2019.