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This Expedition was approved by:

The
Royal Geographical
Society

The Borobudur Ship Expedition took place during the 6 months from August 2003 until February 2004. The epic voyage demonstrated ancient trading links between Indonesia and Africa (in particular East Africa and Madagascar).

The expedition also proved that it would have been possible for  traditionally built double outrigger vessels (dating back to early 8^th Century AD as depicted at the Borobudur Temple, Indonesia) to have sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and as far as West Africa - a migration that some commentators believe was made by ancient Indo-Malay peoples.  

This website pays tribute to the expedition and the sponsors, supporters and crew who enabled this outstanding achievement.

An Obituary - Assad Abdullah al-Madani

Pak Assad was a strong and honourable man who had an unusual talent for ship building and producing robust and good looking ships. He was able to build Samudra Raksa  (defender of the seas) - a replica of one of the ships shown on the Borobudur temple reliefs - with little more than a balsa wood model that Nick Burningham had created to help him. Thus there were never any elaborate drawings for the design of the ship and even if there were he probably would not have used them. After all he had built about 40 large boats all from the line of sight and a master craftsman’s intuition. 

 His strength of character, honesty and ability to build the Borobudur ship (now at the Borobudur museum) in less than 6 months in 2003 was testimony to his skills as a highly accomplished boat builder. Samudra Raksa’s successful voyage across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope to Ghana in West Africa was no small part down to Pak Assad’s skills in building a well balanced, relatively sleek but robust vessel. He died from a stomach complaint on 3^rd May 2009 at the age of about 75. He will be very much missed by all who knew him.

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