One More Time—Malay is Not the Land of Promise Part VII – What Were Chariots?

Continuing from the last several posts regarding the clues Nephi and Mormon gave us to find their Land of Promise, the subject of wheeled vehicles is considered and the meaning of the word “chariot.”

While Ralph Olsen talks about chariots being found in his Malay Peninsula Theory area for a Land of Promise, it might be of interest to know something about the word “chariot” and what it conveys to the western and the eastern mind.

When we talk of chariots in the west, we think of Charlton Heston in “Ben Hur” and the famous chariot race, depicting the types of chariots of the western world. The Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Gauls, and the Egyptians all had chariots as far as we know, that carried a driver and a spearman in the two wheeled vehicles usually drawn by a pair of horses. In cases of important people, kings, princes, etc., a third man was in the chariot with a shield to protect the important notable. In Assyria, even larger four-wheeled chariots drawn by four horses were used that carried four armed men, three warriors besides the driver.

However, in southeast Asia, including China, India, Indonesia, Siam (Thailand), Sumatra and Java, the word chariot does not bring up a Ben Hur image. Their chariots were of two basic kinds before the wheel was introduced into the areas. First was the palaquin, translated into English as a litter, chariot or car, sitting atop poles borne on the shoulders of slaves, soldiers or underlings—used primarily for transportation of important people. To the peasant, these were litters, but to the notables and kings, these were chariots—a term usually attributed to the gods who rode them through the skies.

In the case of war chariots, those of southeast Asia were small forts strapped to the backs of fighting elephants, especially adept at jungle warfare in the climate and flora of southeast Asia. Obviously, in such remote regions outside China proper, wheeled vehicles in the jungles, swamps, and river-strewn countries would be of little value—especially during a war campaign. Thus, depending on what part of the world one might find himself depends on how the idea of a chariot would be construed.

As can be seen, the chariots of Rome, Egypt, and Greece differed considerably from the war chariots (borne on fighting elephants) of India, China, Indonesia and Siam.

What the term chariot depicts may depend on what part of the world is being discussed

As for the Book of Mormon, we can depict the type of chariots that were meant by recognizing that Joseph Smith chose the word “chariot” in translating the reformed Egyptian character(s) in Mormon’s writing. To determine this, the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines a chariot as: “a half coach’ a carriage with four wheels and one seat behind, used for convenience and pleasure.” It also defines a chariot as: “a car or vehicles used formerly in war, drawn by two or more horses, and conveying two men each”

First of all, it might be of interest to know, that despite the well accepted use of chariots in the Old World, no full chariot was ever discovered, though a spoked wheel was found in the burials at Andronovo in Siberia, and in China, until 1933. Another find of importance took place there in 1955. The point is, until these were unearthed, the only evidence of horse-drawn chariots was in art and written records.

In addition, it is claimed that chariots were not used in Egypt until the 18th Dynasty, about 1550 to 1292 B.C.; however, chariots with spoked wheels pulled by horses were first claimed in Mesopotamia not long before the time of the Jaredites leaving there. Before then, the Mesopotamian chariots had solid wooden wheels and were pulled by tamed jacks or asses.

It might also be of note, that the earliest chariot depictions found in the Malay Peninsula were stone wheels in shrines around 1100 to 1200 A.D., such as the Phrygian God Cybele depicted here drawn by lions.

Full stone chariots were found in temples dating to the 13 to 15th century—relating to the mythical chariots the gods used—one was “massive with twelve pairs of wheels and drawn by seven horses” of the god Surya. However, what is often depicted as a “chariot” in the Malay historical sense, was nothing more than a car, sometimes open, built on poles and carried by slaves or underlings. Much later in history, solid wood wheels were added to these, but still pulled by human labor—called palanquins or palkhi in India, and sometimes elaborately decorated for royalty, which continued on down through time until replaced by rickshaws in the 1930s. Once the wheel was introduced into the culture, these “chariots” became much larger, carrying up to eight people like a huge, highly decorated wagon, yet still pulled by human labor in east and southern Asia.