Located right at the cross-roads of world trading routes, Southeast Asia has been very open towards various influences from the outside. All of those influences was absorbed and adopted into local culture, then expressed into our unique but yet closely linked culture, language, artifacts, architecture, and urban form.

The trading exchanges took place mostly in and around the South China Sea, Java Sea, and Melaka Strait — which could be perceived as the Mediterranean of Asia — lying between two great sub-continents (China and India), and between two great oceans (Pacific and Indian). Since 1st century the coastal regions and their hinterlands therefore became fertile grounds for the growth of new civilizations, new blends of urbanism and architecture.

Prior to the arrival o the European in early 15th century, Emperor Yongle appointed Zheng He as Admiral to lead a Ming Dynasty's armada to extend friendship and trade relations into the Indian Ocean — and also to bring the whole world into the sphere of Ming influence. His expeditions (1405–1433) had planted seeds of new settlements and consolidated all overseas Chinese settlements under Ming's authority.

This article is to celebrate Southeast Asian cultural diversity in both social and material levels. It will explore the heritages, links and connections of Admiral Zheng He in the coastal regions of Southeast Asia, especially in the urban culture, settlement structures and its architecture. Here history is perceived as a layering process rather than a linear succession of events. Thus in this sense, the city or settlement can be seen as a repository of cumulative memory of its inhabitants along time, a unique formation of urban culture and identity.

ZHENG HE's VOYAGES

From around 800 until 1368 (the end of Yuan dynasty, the beginning of Ming dynasty) Chinese merchant vessels began to visit Southeast Asia and travel as far as India. Srivijaya was the main port of call for the Chinese junks. During this period, Chinese diasporic settlements developed in the existing ports or they formed new settlements in coastal regions of Southeast Asia.

Islam entered Southeast Asia through two different routes: northern and southern. The northern route was through the ancient land route which connected Europe, Arabia, Persia, central Asia, and China — known as the “Silk Road”. The southern route was from Arabia through India, then to Aceh at the tip of Sumatra through sea route — known as the “Ceramic Route”.