Le goût chinois pour les nids de salanganes et ses répercussions économiques en Indonésie (XVe/XVIe-XXIe s.)

Abstract

This article attempts to trace the historical development of the Chinese taste for bird’s nests and its impact on the Indonesian economy. The term yanwo or "swiftlet’s nest" appears apparently for the first time in a dietary compendium, the Yinshi xu zhi (Essential Knowledge for Eating and Drinking ; 1368), which stresses prevention rather than treatment. It seems that the nests were first collected in South China and eaten locally by commoners before being imported from the South Seas, especially from Champa and Insulinde during the 15th or early 16th century. In the 1590s this taste for bird’s nests was extensively shared by the elite and had spread to Northern provinces. The booming consumption of this delicacy during the following centuries resulted in a huge quest for swiftlet’s caves all over the Archipelago, and in the control of the bird’s nest trade, at first by Indonesian rulers and subsequently by the Dutch authorities. The big novelty in the bird’s nest production was a progressive shift from collecting cave and cliff nests to the practice of swiftlet farming. This swiftlet farming began in the late 1960s and developed tremendously since the 1980s in connection with political changes, and with an increasing demand from mainland China. Indonesia is now the biggest supplier of bird’s nests in the world.

Dubois and beyond: The historical background of cave exploration in Sumatra

“…Another tradition indicates that Admiral Zheng He brought back edible swiftlet nests to the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) as tribute from his voyage to various kingdoms in the South China Sea. The existence of this trade in swiftlet nests has been more firmly reported in Chinese pharmacopoeiae from both the Ming and the Qing (AD 1636(AD -1912 Dynasties (Salmon 2008). What this might suggest is that, as local Chinese swiftlet nesting colonies became depleted, the value of finding alternative sources outside China became apparent.…”

“…Aceh, also outside Dutch control, had a welldeveloped swiftlet nest harvesting operation on the west-coast island of Kluang (de St. Pol Lias 1879, 1891; Wallon and Hervey 1881). Nests from Aceh were exported through the ports of Junk Ceylon (now Phuket), Penang and Singapore (Salmon 2008). Marsden (1811), in his History of Sumatra, noted that there was an important trade in layang-layang nests on the river Krui, extending about four miles inland from the southwest coast of Sumatra.…”

Quaternary Palaeontology and Archaeology of Sumatra

“…Another tradition indicates that Admiral Zheng He brought back edible swiftlet nests to the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) as tribute from his voyage to various kingdoms in the South China Sea. The existence of this trade in swiftlet nests has been more firmly reported in Chinese pharmacopoeiae from both the Ming and the Qing (AD 1636-1912) Dynasties(Salmon 2008). What this might suggest is that, as local Chinese swiftlet nesting colonies became depleted, the value of finding alternative sources outside China became apparent.The fact that China and India had already opened trade routes to Sumatra, Borneo and Java prior to the voyages of Admiral Zheng He might explain the various Hindu and Buddhist mythological references associated with Indonesian caves.…”

“…The south-coast caves of Nangosarie and Goa Dahar, as well as Goa Gede near Samarang were under the control of various Javanese rajas. (Salmon 2008). Marsden (1811), in his History of Sumatra, noted that there was an important trade in layang-layang nests on the river Krui, extending about four miles inland from the southwest coast of Sumatra.…”