Srivijaya (-jaya meaning success or excellence) was an ancient kingdom on the island of Sumatra which was to influence much of the Malay Archipelago. Records of its beginning are scarce, and estimates are from 200s to 500s. It ceased to exist around 1400.

Srivijaya was centered in the coastal trading center of what is now Palembang. The empire was a thalassocracy and didn't extend its influence far beyond the coastal areas of the islands of Southeast Asia.

Travellers to these islands mentioned that gold coinage was in use on the coasts, but not inland.

Pagoda in Srivijaya style in Chaiya, Thailand

Some historians claim that Chaiya in the Surat Thani province in Southern Thailand was at least temporarily the capital of Srivijaya, but this claim is largely disputed. However Chaiya was probably a regional center of the kingdom. The temple Borom That in Chaiya contains a reconstructed pagoda in Srivijaya style.

The name of the empire was rediscovered by George Coedës in the 1920s, who noticed that the Chinese transcriptions interpreted as Sribhoja and the inscriptions in old Malay refer to the same empire.

History

The major cultural influence on these islands was Indic, first Hindu, then Buddhist. Buddhism came to Sumatra by year 425. Around 500 the roots of Srivijaya developed around present-day Palembang, around the year 600 Chinese records mention two kingdoms on Sumatra based at Jambi and Palembang, as well as three kingdoms on Java.

689 till 695 the Chinese monk I-Ching visited Palembang. His recordings are one of the rare sources about the early times of Srivijaya. At the same time the Jambi kingdom was taken over, starting the domination of the region through trade and conquest throughout the 7th-9th centuries. The kingdom helped spread the Malay culture throughout Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo. Srivijaya influence waned in the 11th century. The island was then subject to conquests from Javanese kingdoms, first Singhasari and subsequently Majapahit. At the same time, Islam made its way to the Aceh region of Sumatra, spreading through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders. By the late 13th century, the monarch of Samudra kingdom (in Aceh) was converted to Islam. At the same time Srivijaya became a tributary of the Khmer empire and later the Sukhothai kingdom.

By 1414 Parameswara, the last prince of Srivijaya converted to Islam, and started the Sultanate of Malacca on the Malay peninsula, which would fall August 24th 1511 to the Portuguese.

External links

• Review of Srivijaya resources on the Internet - but many are dead links already (http://www.antarakita.net/articles/srivijaya.html)