I have recently written a long 2-part article that demonstrates that there was never a kingdom called “Srivijaya.” The first part will be published in a few days.

Much of the information that was used to create the history of that supposed kingdom came from Chinese sources, and I have been able to demonstrate that this information was not about a place on the island of Sumatra. Instead, it was about a place on the Southeast Asian mainland – Kambuja, that is, Angkor.

What does the history of Southeast Asia then look like when we view the information that was previously used to write about “Srivijaya” from that perspective? I haven’t had time to fully research and write this yet, so what follows is a “draft” outline of what I now know/think.

1) There was never a major kingdom on Sumatra like the imagined “Srivijaya,” but of course, there were small kingdoms there, such as one at Jambi and another at Palembang. It was probably the ruler of one of these places who created the Kota Kapur Inscription in 686 which mentions “His Majesty Vijaya” (Sri Vijaya).

2) Angkor was much more “international” than historians have realized. I think the best way to think of this is to recall what places like Ayutthaya were like.

The Thai/Siamese were, for the most part, not a sea-faring people, and as a result, much of the trade at Ayutthaya was carried out by foreigners, and there were sections of the city where they resided. Some of those foreigners also became very powerful and got involved in politics.

A closer examination of the Chinese sources (that people previously believed were about “Srivijaya”) will reveal the same thing about Angkor. The Khmer are not a sea-faring people, and therefore, much of Angkor’s trade was conducted by foreigners, and there are tantalizing indications that they may have gotten involved in politics (see below).

I wrote a blog post about this a couple of years ago:
https://leminhkhai.blog/abus-sris-and-yang-po-kus-arabs-in-10th-and-11th-century-cambodia/

3) Prior to the fourteenth century, the trading world of Southeast Asia was divided between two “powers” – Angkor and a place on the Malay Peninsula around what is now Songkla. Angkor controlled a sea route to India and the Middle East that went down the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula and then up through the Straits of Melaka.

The other polity (known in Chinese sources as Shepo/Dupo), controlled trans-peninsular trade at the Kra Isthmus. I wrote about this earlier here:
https://leminhkhai.blog/the-singora-angkor-rivalry-the-greatest-story-of-premodern-southeast-asian-history-youve-never-heard/

This makes perfect sense. While archaeologists have found plenty of artifacts on the Kra Isthmus, that region has not played a major role in the written history of premodern Southeast Asia, but in looking at the evidence from this new perspective, it will become clear that the Kra Isthmus was an extremely important place for international trade.

4) The fourteenth century was a major turning point in Southeast Asian history, as the above two “powers” were replaced by two new powers: Majapahit and Ayutthaya.

There is a text from the mid-fourteenth century, the Nagarakretagama, which describes the extent of the empire of Majapahit. It shows that it claimed control over various places in island Southeast Asia, including Jambi and Palembang.

However, Chinese sources (when we understand that they are recording information about Angkor rather than “Srivijaya”) as well as Siamese and Khmer sources, demonstrate that in the second half of the fourteenth century (i.e., after the Nagarakretagama was compiled), Majapahit attacked Angkor and ended up controlling a part of the Lower Mekong Region.

In other words, Majapahit was way more powerful than I think historians have ever realized.

At the same time, the newly-established kingdom of Ayutthaya also attacked Angkor, and in addition, it extended its control to the south into the area of the Kra Isthmus.

The expansion of these two new empires brought to an end the power and influence of Angkor and the polity that had controlled the trade across the Kra Isthmus, as these two powers basically divided Southeast Asia into their spheres of control and influence.

5) In between the spheres of influence of Majapahit and Ayutthaya was the area where Melaka emerged in the early fifteenth century.

The rise of Melaka has to be linked to this major power transformation. My guess would be that the traders from India and the Middle East who had previously sailed to the western side of the Kra Isthmus relocated down the western coast of the Malay Peninsula to Melaka.

6) Were some Cambodian rulers foreigners? While inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer were created in Cambodia as early as the fifth and seventh centuries, respectively, the extent Cambodian written chronicles contain information that only begins in the fourteenth century.

The late historian Michael Vickery was perplexed by the names of the earliest Cambodian rulers in the chronicles, as they did not seem “Khmer,” and they were different from the names that one found in the earlier inscriptions.

The second part of the article that I have written will show that some of those people interacted with, and gained support from the people who had occupied part of the lower Mekong region. These people may have been from Majapahit. Could it be that the earliest recorded Cambodian rulers had some foreign connection (which thus made it easy for them to interact with other foreigners)?

Again, the history of Ayutthaya would indicate that such a development should not surprise us. However, this is a topic that I’m still wondering about (just as Vickery wondered about the “strange” names of the early Cambodian rulers in the Chronicles). I haven’t found evidence that can persuasively make this point, but perhaps there are details in inscriptions that would help resolve this issue one way or the other.

In any case, I know that there will be people who will not like hearing that “Srivijaya” never existed, however, the story that emerges when we gain a more accurate understanding of the historical sources is absolutely AMAZING!!!