Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Naming Mobile Vessels: Kundika, Kendi, and the Problem of Classification across Maritime Asia

Xiyue Zhang*
New York University

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This article studies how water vessels identified as kundika, kendi, and junchi acquired different material, functional, social, and museum identities across maritime Asia. Instead of using these terms as names for one fixed type, it compares historical texts, archaeological reports, museum catalogs, object records, and field photographs to separate vessel form, production, handling, and recorded context. Song-Yuan Cizao ceramics provide the central case. Cizao workshops reproduced forms already circulating in Southeast Asia through local clay bodies, glazes, and decoration, but production and circulation alone do not show consumers' religious identities or individual functions. Evidence from Muslim maritime settings shows that the vessels could support controlled pouring and ritual washing, not a universal Islamic use. Later cases from Banten, China, Iran, and European collections separate court use, remaking in new materials, physical changes, and museum naming. The article argues that material translation and reclassification should be linked only when evidence from the context identifies the makers, users, collectors, or catalogers involved. It also treats naming as evidence: historical translations and modern catalog terms make comparison possible, but they may hide differences in construction, handling, and use. Similar form and circulation alone do not prove that function or cultural identity stayed the same.

Keywords: kundika; kendi; Cizao; material translation; reclassification
Published: October 20, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.38056
Volume: CHR Vol.125
pp. 63-77
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