The Tioman Island Museum looks at the history of Pulau Tioman in the context of the Maritime Silk Routes that flourished for over 900 years during the 10th to the 19th centuries.

Through these waters, which were the domain of Orang Laut (sea gypsies) and the Orang Lanun (pirates), sailed Arab Sambuks, Chinese Junks, Portugese carracks and caravels, Dutch galleons and British East Indiaman laden with rich cargoes as they engaged in trade.

For those early sea farers, the island's prominent twin peaks of Nenek Semukut served as an important navigational aid for sailing through the South China Sea, while Tioman itself offered fresh water, food and shelter from the north-east monsoon.

The ceramics and other relics discovered from the wrecks off Tioman Island provide some evidence of maritime trade that once flourished and  that the island served as a trading site where the spices and other natural resources of Southeast Asia could be exchanged for goods from China, India, the Middle East and Europe.

There is evidence that the island has been inhabited for at least the past millenium by a fluctuating human population. Permanent inhabitation has been confined to the coast.

The Tioman Museum displays a modest collection of that include 11th to 19th century trade ceramics, coins, maps and sea charts, prints and paintings, and samples of the natural resources which were traded in the past. Together, they tell the story of Pulau Tioman when it served as an important link on the maritime trade routes of a bygone era.

Pix: Jean Martin (Maritimeasia) Oriental Ceramic Society, London