But few recall Zheng He, the Chinese commander of the Ming dynasty Treasure Fleet, whose epic voyages 600 years ago took him as far as the Swahili coast of Africa – a hundred years before Columbus discovered America or da Gama landed in India.
You would think that a seven-foot-tall eunuch admiral leading an armada of 300 gigantic Chinese junks would be one of history’s more memorable figures, but surprisingly little has been recorded about Zheng He (pronounced "Cheng Ho"). His name and exploits were recently made famous by fledgling historian Gavin Menzies, whose book 1421 posits the tantalizing theory that Zheng He arrived in America before Columbus did.
"I love Menzies because he started the whole Zheng He madness," says National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita. "It’s because of Menzies’ book that I was interested in covering Zheng He myself."
Yamashita is a modern-day explorer drawn to nomads like himself. His most recent story for National Geographic Channel (NGC) was on Marco Polo, which was also released as a photo book and documentary.
To unravel the mystery of Zheng He, Yamashita followed his trail for a year armed with his own mini-fleet of Canon 35mm cameras and what eventually amounted to 1,000 rolls of film. He documented the entire journey in pictures, which are currently on exhibit at Muzium Negara, the National Museum of Malaysia.
Together with NGC Asia’s senior vice president David Gunson and Peter Lee, Malaysia country manager of exclusive sponsor Cathay Pacific, Yamashita was in Kuala Lumpur recently to promote NGC’s two-hour special Treasure Fleet: The Adventures of Zheng He, which will premiere tonight at 8 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel in the Philippines.
For the multi-million-dollar production, complete with Forbidden City locations and CGI to replicate towering ships that would have dwarfed Columbus’s vessels, Yamashita had to retrace his route a second time with the film crew, led by director Jonathan Finnigan.
"Zheng He followed the trade winds, which blew every explorer in the same direction: the sea Silk Road," he says.
Born in a landlocked province in Kunyang, China, Zheng He had unlikely beginnings for a sailor. He would have had to walk 30 days before reaching the nearest ocean. He was from Central Asia and lived in a Mongol village, so he wasn’t even Chinese. His father was a hajji who went to Mecca, and his family was Muslim.
Ming troops, in a protracted campaign against the Mongols, came to their village to wipe out any remnants. Zheng He’s father was killed, while the women were taken into the royal harem. The young explorer-to-be was ritually castrated and put into service at the Ming court where, because he was a eunuch and no threat, he was able to get close to Emperor Zhu Di. "He distinguished himself in battle with Zhu Di, and because of that became his most trusted aide," recounts Yamashita. "And he was rewarded with the job of commander of the fleet. So it was actually Zhu Di who had the vision to send Zheng He on these amazing voyages."
From 1405 to 1433, he went on seven epic journeys, trading in porcelain, silk, lacquerware and fine-art objects, and sailing as far away as Africa. Historians argue that China could have used its navy – with some 3,000 vessels, the largest in history until the present century – to establish a great colonial empire 100 years before the European age of exploration and expansion.
But they didn’t, which makes you wonder what his Treasure Fleet was after. According to Yamashita, aside from regular trade for profit, the Chinese were interested in something called "tribute trade."
"They were accepting gifts to the emperor in recognition of China as the great superpower that it was in the 15th century," says Yamashita. "They were sailing 300 ships. Some were as big as 400 feet with 27,000 soldiers, which means they were ready for anything. I think they were really showing off, basically saying, ‘Hey, guys, don’t mess with us.’But the important point is that they weren’t there to conquer or to enslave or to colonize, and that’s a big deal considering that was foremost on Europeans’ minds when they came in this direction."
To recreate Zheng He’s expeditions, Yamashita and company went to Vietnam, Indonesia, up the Malacca Straits to the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka and India, followed by the Persian Gulf, down through the Arabian peninsula to Oman and Yemen, ending at the Swahili coast of Africa and Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar.
America was not one of their stops.
"We went where Zheng He was known to have gone," says Yamashita. "Menzies has some interesting theories, but there’s not a scholar anywhere that would back him up on visiting America. It stands to reason that the Chinese – who meticulously recorded everything in every dynasty – would have made mention of the fact that he made it to America. National Geographic is interested in fact, not conjecture."
Most unforgettable in Yamashita’s mind is Yemen, the Muslim country he says has remained the most frozen in time since the 15th century. "The geography is spectacular: high mountains and hot deserts and wonderful blue-green water on the coast." Shunned because of its terrorist reputation, the NGC group found Yemen actually safe for tourists. More amazingly, all the sights described by Zheng He 600 years ago are still there and perfectly preserved.
"Men still wear tunics and everyone carries a dagger," marvels Yamashita. "Women are fully veiled as they were in the 15th century."
In Kenya, Yamashita encountered another mystery: a tribe called Famao who believe they are descended from Zheng He’s sailors. According to oral history, there was a shipwreck, and Chinese sailors swam ashore and intermarried with the population. The story caused such a stir the Chinese government has been there taking DNA samples, as well as National Geographic with Spencer Wells, who’s doing a DNA study all over the world.
"They are light-skinned and have tons of Ming pottery shards they use for decoration in their houses," says Yamashita. "How can they have no knowledge of Zheng He and yet have this in their oral history? I’ll let you decide."
Yamashita describes how Zheng He’s travels led him to champion the ordinary peoples he met around the world – maybe because of his own marginalization as a minority. In a stellae (stone tablet) he left in Sri Lanka, written in the three languages used by Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, "he makes a plea for religious equality and freedom in an age where there was a lot of killing going on in the name of religion. So we see him as a very modern visionary," says Yamashita.
Perhaps Zheng He’s explorations could have led to China’s supremacy as a world power, centuries before their equally formidable power today. "We could have all been speaking Chinese," laughs Yamashita.
Instead, the Chinese abruptly dismantled their navy, and Zheng He and his Treasure Fleet vanished. "Zheng He died on his final trip and was probably buried at sea," says Yamashita, who attributes the navy’s disappearance to a combination of events that led to the building of the Great Wall, and a power struggle between the prosperous eunuchs and the more pragmatic Confucian scholars.
All will be revealed in the documentary tonight. For now, Yamashita, who spends six months of every year working in Asia and the other six caring for a photographic library in Chester, New Jersey, is working on a book about Zheng He, and may focus his telephoto lens in the future on another mythical Chinese figure: Chairman Mao, "the father of modern-day China, and therefore another interesting character."
Like many artists, the photographer is proudest of his current work and full of admiration for his current subject. "Here you have this Chinese guy who, fully 100 years before Magellan and Columbus and Vasco da Gama, was sailing in every known part of the ocean well before the European age of exploration. This is a true Asian hero."
Michael Yamashita’s photo exhibit will be on display at the National Museum of Malaysia until Jan. 31.