More Evidence of Two “Javas”
I have made the argument that there was a trans-peninsular empire/polity in the area of Songkhla – Kedah that foreigners referred to by the name “Java/Jaba,” and that it was…
More Evidence for the Trans-Peninsular Crossing at Kedah – Songkhla
In the previous post, I mentioned that there was a tribute mission from the Chola Kingdom in 1015 that was led by a certain Suolisanwen (娑里三文) with a deputy envoy…
When the Cham Ruled the Seas
In Song dynasty era sources, there is a “surname” that appears in numerous records about tribute missions coming from Southeast Asia (and beyond), and that is “Pu” 蒲. This character…
The Angkorian Independence from Java “Myth”
Several years ago, when I first started researching about “Srivijaya” and quickly realized that a place name in Chinese sources (Sanfoqi) that scholars thought indicated that supposed polity on Sumatra…
The Myth of Jambi as a Capital of “Srivijaya”
I was reading a book that was published in 2022 called The Oxford Handbook of Early Southeast Asia. It contains a chapter on “Srivijaya” by Pierre-Yves Manguin.In that chapter, there…
Geography and a New Story of Early Southeast Asian History
In recent years I’ve written some articles about early Southeast Asian history, and I don’t like how have written those articles.When you write for a “scholarly” audience, there are certain…