Reading Response 3

Chinmay Khandwala

Although the Arab geographical knowledge after 1000 CE of the Land of Waq Waq and its people failed
to include current information and created confusions in applying the data to South East Asia, there
were still bundle of things to appreciate. Geographic treatises, travel narratives and the description of
fauna, vegetation and people were one of them. The presence of Xylophones on the West African Coast
are symbolic of the transfusion of how practices and cultures of South East Asia have seeped as the
earliest Xylophones are from South East Asia. Coming to the instance of Yayoi Japan, where the richness
in technologies was far more enduring than what Indonesians were able to do in Madagascar it will be
interesting to inquire more about the details. Lastly, the sea going talents of older times exhibited by
Austronesians and inherited by Indonesians will always remain a phenomena to wonder.