ShipWrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds

Arts Science Museum

A class outing was held around May or so to the newly-opened Singapore Arts Science Museum @ Marina Bay. The trip there was to visit an exhibition named "Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds". It is a newly opened exhibition in February 19 (it ended in 31st July) to let the public know more about merchant wares along the Silk Road. There were many eye-opening things to be promised, so I felt quite excited about going there.

We were going as a class to the museum along with our then-form teacher, Mr Ho, and another class, which he was also under (for the subject). At 1415, we gathered at the carpark to take the attendance before going up the coach. The trip there took about roughly 20 mins or so. Unfortunately, there was no coach parking or a pick-up or drop-off point, so the coach had to let us alight at Raffles Avenue (on the side of the Floating Platform) and we had to get across the "Helix" bridge on foot. It was clear then and cloud formations in the sky, combining with the city skyline, made it rather spectacular. Many of my classmates, including myself, snapped down several pics of the skyline on the bridge itself, while servicemen and tourists alike watched from a side as curious as cats.

When we reached the other side of the bridge, we entered the exterior building of glass panels and steel skeleton. A welcome wagon was ready to receive us at the reception counter and the entrance to the museum. While the others streamed down like running water to deposit their bags ( I didn't bring mine), I took a quick look around the area, admiring the scenery, the architecture and the air-conditioning. We were given entry passes and ushered into the glass-walled lift, which took us to the top floor for a quick show and introduction of the museum. As the museum had just been opened to the public not too long ago, the carpet inside still smelled rather fresh. We took the seats and watched the short clip of 2 mins, introducing some of the world's most spectacular inventions from around the world, like the airplane and the Kongming lantern. We also viewed the interactive stations where we got to "mess around" with the postcard creator and the projectors showing a description about the artifacts shown.

After the top level, we went down to the lower level to "Shipwrecked". We learnt that these artifacts were recovered almost unharmed from a shipwreck of a dhow (a traditional Arab sail ship) that sank just off the coast of Indonesia. The first section introduced the China-India trade routes by sea. This was the time when trade with other countries was an extremely hot topic in China and India, where both countries traded very frequently, with India getting pottery and precious metals and China getting spices and other stuff. Section 2 shows the insights of the crew's life on board the ship at that time. Several artifacts were placed there, mostly personal items owned by the crew when they were still alive. These included dice (for gambling), money, cutlery, brushes and many more ornate items.

In the next section, we were shown a certain documentary of the discovery and the excavation of the cargo from the sea bed. As it was long and we didn't have all the time in the world to view it all, we simply skipped through it to the next important section: the wares themselves.
Changsha wares
Green-splashed dragon-headed ewer

Gold cup

Section 4 is so far the biggest and has the most artifacts in the whole exhibition. A whooping 450 artifacts are found in neat rows of showcases. The many lines of Changsha wares (namely plates) greeted us. I was amazed at the sheer number of them found. What's more, they were all unharmed. The plates were mass produced for selling to Indian traders. They packed them in some sort of baskets made of strapped cane and cushioned them with hay. This type of packaging saved almost 450 of those plates during the sinking of the ship. There was one particular plate that caught many people's eyes. In the center, there is a picture of what seems to be cabbage or lettuce painted on it. However, the guide told us it was actually the portrait of a Caucasian man!

The next section was of Green-splashed wares. These wares were of higher value and were more exquisite than the Changsha wares. Traces of jade can be found in it. The special item was the dragon-headed green-splashed ewer. This is some sort of jug that was used for decorative purposes. This ewer stood over a meter tall and was one of the exhibition's prized exhibits, so much so that it appears on the first page of the guide!

The last section is the metals. Gold and silver were also found in the shipwreck. These metals were the most prized possessions in the collection and many were recovered from the wreck. 29 Chinese mirrors were found in the wreck, which shows that these were mass produced for export and were not personal items of the ship's crew. One of the mirrors had been put up for display. This mirror was a special one as there was a date inscribed onto it.

After that, we were given some time to roam around until it was time to leave. I went around to complete the booklet that they had provided us with and to try to figure out the Caucasian man in the Changsha bowl. I also then went with some of my friends to try out a game in the first section. It was something like snakes and ladders, only that there were 25 steps and we could get kicked out of the game. The only thing interesting was the dice spinner. It was an electrical spinner where we pressed and held onto a button to get the spinner activated to spin the dice. It was interesting and fun to play with. I had never seen such a thing before. We literally spent the whole time there spinning the dice around and around.

Soon it was time to go.

I am very tempted to write the normal and plain, boring endings like " and then we went home"and "it was a fun and meaningful trip". Well, the trip was fun and enjoyable and meaningful, but i shall end off with this: I liked that electrical dice spinner.