SARIMANOK-The reincarnation of a goddess

While researching last week’s article about the Dhows that traded from the Arabian Gulf to the East African coast, we came across this wonderful short video made in 1986.

Being an avid reader and watcher of experimental expeditions, I’m surprised I had never heard of the Voyage of the SARIMANOK.

I grew up reading Thor Heyerdahl’s “Kon-Tiki”, (no less exciting for his theories being proven to be rubbish!) and Tim Severin’s “The Brendan Voyage” which set out to prove that an Irish monk in the sixth century might have sailed all the way across the Atlantic in a small leather skinned currach, thus beating Columbus to the New World by almost a thousand years. David Lewis’ journeys also fall into this genre.

In 1985, Bob Hobman and a crew of six sailors set out to cross the Indian Ocean, from Bali to Madagascar on a bamboo trimaran, to follow the direct east-west Indian Ocean track which the first Austronesian settlers of Madagascar may have taken.

The SARIMANOK was entirely made of vegetal elements, not a single nail was used, and was modelled upon the Filipino Vinta. There were no modern navigational instruments on board and the sailors relied only on the sun and stars to guide them. To make the experience more authentic, the crew ate only vegetables available at their point of departure. The ship is now at the Oceanographic Museum of Nosy Be in Madagascar.

And the name? “Sarimanok” is a bird in Filipino Mindanao mythology, a reincarnation of a goddess who fell in love with a mortal man. Today it symbolises wealth and prestige in the Filipino culture.

A brief dive down the rabbit hole of the web, provides me with no obvious conclusion as to whether, 35 years on, Hobman’s journey proved anything scientifically. We would love to hear from SWS readers with insights into this. However, my feeling is, that whatever the validity of the voyage as an empirical experiment, the journey itself, as a gesture of pure adventure, is worthy of the highest praise.