Connecting Empires: Shipwrecks, Ceramics, and Maritime Trade in Ninth-Century Asia

NEW YORK, March 7, 2017 — Stephen A. Murphy, curator for Southeast Asia at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), Singapore, and curator-in-charge for the Tang Shipwreck Gallery at the ACM, tells the story of the discovery of the Belitung shipwreck and explores its precious cargo — now on display both in New York and Singapore. The exhibition Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia is co-organized by Asia Society and the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore. (56 min., 56 sec.)

Join Stephen A. Murphy, Curator for Southeast Asia at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), Singapore, and Curator-in-Charge for the Tang Shipwreck Gallery at the ACM, as he tells the story of the discovery of the Belitung shipwreck and explores its precious cargo now on display both in New York and Singapore. The exhibition Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia is co-organized by Asia Society and the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore. 

Stephen A. Murphy is curator for Southeast Asia at the Asian Civilisations Museum and curator-in-charge for the Tang Shipwreck Gallery. He holds a PhD from the Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS, University of London (2010). Dr. Murphy specializes in the art and archaeology of early Southeast Asian Buddhism. He has a particular interest in the period spanning the 7th to 9th centuries AD and looks at trade and connections between Southeast Asian cultures and the wider world of Tang China, India and beyond. He is co-editor of Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology, (River Books & The Siam Society, 2014), and has contributed papers to leading academic journals such as Asian Perspectives and the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Held in conjunction with the exhibition Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia, on view at Asia Society Museum from March 7 to June 4, 2017.