Ancient Chinese Ceramics from Sri Lanka
A significant amount of ancient Chinese ceramic ware as hoards of shreds or complete ones has been unearthed from a number of locations in Sri Lanka. Majorly, they belong to the periods of six Chinese dynasties namely; Tang (618-907 A.D.), Five dynasties & ten kingdoms (907-979 A.D.), North & South Song (960-1279 A.D.), Yuan (1271-1368 A.D.), Ming (1368-1644 A.D.), and Qing [(1644-1912 A.D.) Jayasingha, 2014]. Although Sri Lankans produced earthenware ceramic since the early ages of its history, they did not develop a tradition of producing high-fired ceramic ware but managed to satisfy their needs with imported ceramic ware mainly from China, one of the world's leaders in the production of high-fired stoneware and porcelain ceramics. Since the beginning of the long-distance navigation of the Indian Ocean, Chinese trade ceramics began to appear in early port centres in Sri Lanka [such as Mathota (Mantai in Tamil)] from about the 8th century. Excavations have revealed Chine…
