The History of Sumatran Oud: The Land of the Aromatics on the Strait of Malacca

When we speak of Sumatran oud, we are not speaking of a passing source on the map of fragrances, but of a land known since the Middle Ages as the land of the aromatics par excellence. Sumatra — the sixth-largest island in the world, and the western guardian of the Strait of Malacca, the greatest of the trade passages between India and China — carried to the world the camphor of Barus and its benzoin before its oud was mentioned, then oud merged into this venerable aromatic heritage. In this article we present a self-contained reference about Sumatra specifically: its volcanic mountains, its oud trees, its aromatic ports, its maritime kingdoms, its peoples, and its place in the oud trade in the past and the present. And it is the second article of our regional series on the origins of Indonesian oud, after Kalimantan oud.

The geography of Sumatra and the Barisan range

Sumatra extends along a long axis from the northwest to the southeast, and it is — with a known geographic generality — among the largest islands of the world in area and the largest of the islands of western Indonesia. But what distinguishes its geography from the other islands of the archipelago is not its breadth alone, but its mountainous backbone: the volcanic Barisan range that runs along the whole western coast of the island like a wall of peaks and volcanoes. This range gives Sumatra a different character; for the west is high and rugged, clothed in forests, while the east slopes toward low plains and swamps.

And the volcanic soil that the Barisan left behind, with the heavy rains and the high tropical humidity, created dense rainforests in which numerous plant species grow, and among them the trees of the genus Aquilaria in which oud forms. For the tree that may carry oud does not live alone, but within a complex forest fabric on the slopes of the mountains and their foothills and in the lowland at their edges.

But the most important geographic feature in the commercial story of Sumatra is not its interior, but its location. For the island guards the western bank of the Strait of Malacca, the narrow waterway that separates it from the Malay Peninsula, and which throughout history formed the greatest commercial artery between India and the Near East on one side, and China and East Asia on the other. Whoever controls Sumatra overlooks this passage, and whoever overlooks the passage possesses the key to a global trade.

And here emerges an essential difference between Sumatra and its sister Kalimantan in this series: for while the great rivers drew the story of Borneo oud and the routes of its transport from the interior to the coast, the story of Sumatra is a story of a sea and a strait before it is a story of a river. The geography that made Sumatra's aromatic glory is a geography of coasts and ports and maritime passages, not a network of interior rivers. And this location at the crossroads of the sea routes is what made the island a meeting place for all the aromatics, and oud among them.

The Sumatran oud trees

Sumatra is mentioned historically among the most important habitats of oud in the archipelago, and at the head of what is mentioned of them is the species Aquilaria malaccensis; which is among the most famous species of oud trees and the most widespread in this part of the world. And it has a special standing in the history of the regulation of the oud trade, since it was the first species of oud to be listed in the CITES convention in the year 1995, before the rest of the species were listed later — which we detailed in the CITES convention and the regulation of the oud trade.

And mentioned beside it — with an honest generality, not a decisive enumeration — is another species tied to this part of the world, Aquilaria hirta. And we stress that the mention of the species here is a botanical historical context that introduces the home of the tree, not a selling standard; for the distribution of the species in the tropical forest is a matter in which the local details overlap, and the material arriving at the market is described by its origin — Sumatra or its regions — more than it is described by its precise botanical name.

And the rule that governs oud in all its habitats applies to Sumatra: the healthy tree does not carry oud, but rather the dark aromatic resin forms when the tree is exposed to a wound or a fungal infection, so it responds over the course of years by secreting the material that we call oud. And for this reason oud remains scant by its nature, only a limited proportion of the trees carrying it. And we presented the wider transformation from dependence on the wild trees to managed cultivation in wild and cultivated oud.

And what matters in the Sumatran context is that oud was never the only fragrance that this land produces, but was one of a wide aromatic family. For Sumatra is a land that produces camphor and benzoin and oud together, and this juxtaposition between the aromatics on a single land is what grants Sumatran oud its distinctive context — and it is the axis of the following chapter.

Barus and the Sumatran heritage of aromatics

If you want the truest gate of entry into the aromatic history of Sumatra, it is the port of Barus on the western coast of the island. For Barus is a name that the ancient and medieval markets of the world knew with a wide fame, but not by oud first, rather by camphor. For fine Sumatran camphor was known globally by the name "Barus camphor" (kapur Barus) in relation to this harbor, until the name of the port became a trademark for the fine camphor in the markets of India, the Middle East, and China.

And camphor was not alone; for Sumatra was also famed for benzoin — which is known locally by the name "kemenyan" — an aromatic resin extracted from trees that grow in the interior highlands, and it was among the sought-after aromatic goods of Sumatra. By this the island gathered three of the noblest aromatics that the earth produces: camphor, benzoin, and oud.

And here an honest clarification is required for the sake of precision: Barus was not in its foundation a port of oud, but was famed first and fundamentally for camphor and benzoin. For oud merged within this venerable Sumatran aromatic heritage and grew in its shadow; it was not the origin of Barus's fame. But this very juxtaposition is what grants Sumatran oud its symbolic value: for it is the fruit of a land that accumulated an expertise of centuries in gathering the rare aromatics and classifying them and exporting them, and a network of traders and intermediaries who dealt with the most precious of what is smelled. Oud here is an heir to an aromatic tradition, not a stranger newly arrived upon it.

And the meaning of that in practice is that Sumatra entered the world of the oud trade while carrying a ready structure: known ports, established sea routes, and a prior aromatic reputation. For when oud became a sought-after good, it found in Sumatra a land prepared to receive it within its existing aromatic system, not a land beginning from zero. This accumulated heritage — camphor and benzoin then oud — is what distinguishes the Sumatran tale from the other origins of oud.

Srivijaya and the guarding of the Strait of Malacca

The commercial story of Sumatra is not complete without the mention of the kingdom of Srivijaya, the great maritime empire whose center is mentioned to have been around Palembang in the southeast of the island. For Srivijaya — with a known historical generality — was among the greatest maritime and commercial powers in Southeast Asia for centuries, and its power rested upon one essential matter: control over the Strait of Malacca and the waterways surrounding it.

And the meaning of control over the Strait of Malacca is to command the greatest commercial artery between India and China. For every ship that carried the goods between the two great civilizations of Asia used to pass — for the most part — through this passage or what neighbored it, and whoever controls the passage controls the passing trade and reaps its fruits. By this Sumatra became, through Srivijaya, a central node in a global trade, not merely a local producer on the margin.

And this location commanding the sea passage is what makes Sumatra a different case in our regional series: for it did not content itself with producing the aromatics and exporting them, but controlled the road that the goods of others also cross. And from this location dominating the passing trade, it was natural for the aromatics of Sumatra — the camphor and the benzoin and the oud — to flow into the wider maritime networks extending toward India and China and the lands of the Arabs. And we devoted to this wider path — how Indonesian oud moved across the seas to the Arabian Peninsula — the history of the oud trade between Indonesia and the Arab world, and Sumatra is one of its most prominent tributaries.

And centuries after the decline of Srivijaya, there emerged in the north of the island the Sultanate of Aceh, an Islamic maritime and commercial power, which in its turn guarded this end of the Strait of Malacca and connected Sumatra with the trade networks of the Indian Ocean and the Islamic world. For the succession of the powers in guarding the strait — from Srivijaya to Aceh — shows how much this location was always coveted, and why Sumatra remained over the course of centuries at the heart of the maritime trade, not on its margins.

The peoples of Sumatra and the gathering of oud

Sumatra is not a single people, but a mosaic of multiple peoples who shared the island throughout history, and each of them has its place in the geography and in the aromatic economy. For on the coasts and the eastern regions the Malay were known, and they are among the most widely engaged of the island's peoples in the maritime trade and the intermediation. And in the north the Acehnese emerged, the people of trade and the sea and the state. And in the western highlands the Minangkabau were known, and in the interior highlands around Lake Toba the Batak were known.

And this distribution is not a passing demographic detail, but explains the structure of the gathering of the aromatics and their trade. For the peoples of the mountainous interior, among them the Batak, were the nearest to the habitats of the trees in the highlands and the forests, and from them the forest aromatics such as benzoin and what accompanies it are gathered. As for the coastal peoples of the Malay and the Acehnese, they were the nearest to the ports and the maritime trade networks, so they took on the transport of what is gathered from the interior to the global markets across the strait.

And within this fabric fall the extractors and gatherers of oud: people of knowledge of the forest who distinguish the trees that carry the signs of infection, and enter the depths of the forest searching for them. And we stress here the correct naming: these are extractors and gatherers of oud, not "hunters"; for the work is a precise knowledge-craft closer to reading in the forest than to a chase, an inherited knowledge that is transmitted by practice and accompaniment, not by books.

And this division — the people of the mountainous interior gather, and the people of the coast transport and trade across the strait — is a social and economic structure that explains how the aromatics of Sumatra, and oud among them, arrived from the heights of the Barisan to distant markets. And it is a structure we are keen to respect all of whose links when we speak of the origin of any piece: from the eye that read the tree, to the hand that carried it to the port, to the boat that crossed the strait with it.

The local names and the character

In Sumatra — as in Indonesia generally — oud is called locally "gaharu." And it is useful for the tracer to distinguish this name from its two neighbors in the Sumatran aromatic system: for benzoin is known by the name "kemenyan," and camphor by the name "kapur." These three names walk side by side in the aromatic history of the island, and knowing the differences between them protects from confusing different goods that a single land gathered.

As for the character of Sumatran oud, it is described in the market — by what is common and with reservation — as having a distinctive presence that the people of expertise know. And we affirm that descriptions like these are general and relative, since the character varies according to the tree and the infection and the processing and the region within the island, and ought not to be taken as a decisive rule. For natural oud is diverse by its nature, and the aromatic description remains an impression to be taken as a guide, not a decisive verdict.

And it is important to realize that "Sumatra" is a wide region, not a single point, in which the habitats are distributed between a north and a south and a west, and each region has its features. And to review what we offer of this origin, you will find the Sumatran oud collection a suitable starting point, within the wider picture of Indonesian oud with its multiple origins.

Sumatra in the modern oud trade

Sumatra remains today among the known origins from which Indonesian oud is mentioned in the markets, an extension of its historical role as a land of the aromatics. But the modern trade is governed by considerations that were not present to the same degree in the past, and at their head the documentation and the sustainability. For oud today is a material whose trade is internationally regulated, and the Sumatran species Aquilaria malaccensis specifically has a location in this framework as the first species of oud to be listed in the CITES convention, as we showed in the guide to the regulation of the oud trade.

And connected to the documentation is the matter of sustainability; for the historical pressure on the wild trees pushed toward approaches more aware of preserving the resource, a transformation whose features we presented in wild and cultivated oud. And the region whose trade rests upon a living forest and a venerable aromatic system needs its resources to be managed in a way that guarantees their continuation for the generations, not their depletion.

And our position at Oud Treasure on Sumatra is frank and warm: we are keen on a direct relationship with the extractors of oud and its intermediaries in the region, so that the oud arrives from the Sumatran land of the aromatics to the assemblies of the Gulf through the shortest and clearest possible chain. For where the strait carried the camphor of Barus and its benzoin to the world in the past, Sumatran oud arrives to us today as an heir to a venerable aromatic tradition. And for whoever searches for the quantities, we clarify our options in the wholesale oud collection, and for whoever wants to begin the journey of tasting we recommend the oud samples. And to place all of that in its wider context, the reader will find the complete picture in our comprehensive guide on the history of oud.

Read also

This article is the second of a regional series, each of which we devote to one of the origins of oud. Issued from it so far:

• The history of Kalimantan oud and its trade: from the forests of Borneo (where the rivers tell the story of oud, unlike the maritime strait of Sumatra)

And among the episodes we are working on within the series:

• The history of oud in Papua and eastern Indonesia: where the genus Gyrinops rules (sea and air transport, unlike the rivers of Kalimantan)
• The history of gaharu in Maluku: oud in the original Spice Islands
• The history of gathering oud in Sulawesi: the island of the sailors and the intermediaries
• The history of Merauke oud and its relation to the Merauke region (the far east where Gyrinops prevails, against the west of Sumatra)

And these guides may also be of use to you:

• The history of oud: how did it travel from the forests of Southeast Asia to the Arabian Peninsula?
• The history of the oud trade between Indonesia and the Arab world
• From wild oud to the farms: how has the oud industry changed through history?
• Why is oud subject to the CITES convention? A guide to the regulation of the oud trade
• A guide to Indonesian oud: the origins and the grades