ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the use of cowrie money in some Southeast Asian societies. It firstly discusses the major cowrie money zone in pre-modern Thailand, based on textual sources from Thai inscriptions, traditional chronicles and legal codes. It then provides a holistic view of the cowrie money in Southeast Asia by paralleling both western and Chinese observations. The existence of cowrie money in mainland Southeast Asia nearly two millennia ago illustrates the far-flung influence of the Indian Ocean and thus sheds new light on Southeast Asia’s history, the Indian Ocean world and Asian interactions.
