Shining Victory

In the early 21st century, Surat Thani is a quiet place; most travelers consider it just an essential stop in the way to Koh Samui. Yet, few cities in Thailand have a richer or more varied story. Knowing at least its headlines is essential for enjoying the sights.

In the very far past, the Tapi River Basin – where Surat is located - was home to Semang and Malayan tribes; Indian migrants enriched these communities and spread out Buddhism. Everything was peaceful, until the days of the Shining Victory arrived in the 3rd century.

The Srivijaya Kingdom

In the past, I wrote a journal titled the Invisible Champa Kingdom, which dealt with an almost forgotten kingdom that occupied in the past what now is southern Vietnam and adjacent areas. Yet, the Champa Kingdom was never forgotten: its people and structures can still be seen.

Unlike it, the Srivijaya Kingdom was completely forgotten, until its existence was deduced in 1918 by the French historian George Coedès. Later, it was proven. In the 1990s it was even shown that the centre of Srivijaya was in Palembang, along the Musi River in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

One of the reasons for its elusiveness was its variety of names: in Sanskrit it was called Yavadesh, in Pali appeared as Javade, in Arabic it was known as Zabag and the Khmer knew it as Melayu. It appeared in many old manuscripts, but every time with a different name. It existed between the 3rd and 13th centuries, though the earliest solid proof of its existence dates back only to the 7th century when a Chinese monk visited the kingdom, and named it "Sanfogi," adding yet another name to the collection. Moreover, the Chinese characters have been transliterated in various forms.

The name used by its denizens - Srivijaya - is interesting; in Sanskrit, "sri" means "shining" and "vijaya" means "victory." This case was not a Pygmalion Prophecy, despite the kingdom success for a while.

Srivijaya was quite different from other empires and kingdoms in the area since it was a thalassocracy, meaning a kingdom dominating mainly the coasts and maritime trade routes in a given area.
In the beginning, it controlled the trade routes of commodities grown out in the Musi River Basin. The main products were camphor, aloes, cloves, sandal-wood, nutmegs, and cardamom, though various metals were included in this golden basket. Afterwards it began expanding and gained control over the Sunda Strait from Palembang and the Malacca Straits from Kedah.

This part of the Silk Road controlled much of the trade between China and India. Charging a toll on passing ships, the kingdom accumulated wealth of mythical dimensions.

Due to this central position, the kingdom also played a crucial role in the history of mainland Southeast Asia. During the 7th century, the Champa Kingdom became a though competitor of Srivijaya. In response, the king (actually he was called a maharaja, literally "great king") conquered the Champa city of Indrapura. Later in the same century, the Khmer King Jayavarman II expelled Srivijaya and founded the Khmer Empire.

However, this early defeat of Srivijaya did not stop the kingdom. Other territories were conquered and held under a tighter control due to their strategic importance. By the twelfth century, the kingdom included parts of Sumatra, Ceylon, the whole Malay Peninsula (including Surat Thani and other locations within modern Thailand), Western Java, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, Borneo, the Philippines (the Visaya Islands in the central Philippines were named after the kingdom), and the Sulu Archipelago. Its core was the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java. At its peak, the kingdom was a stronghold of Vajrayana Buddhism, attracting scholars from far away.

"Shining Victory" was the kingdom’s name, but reality was somewhat different. In 1025, Rajendra Chola, the Chola king from Coromandel in South India, conquered Kedah from Srivijaya. During the following twenty years, the Cholas conquered other territories belonging to the kingdom until they were eventually defeated.

The weakened Srivijaya Kingdom never fully recovered. It fell prey to the thalassocracies weakness: they are susceptible to attacks from inland. Javanese inland kingdoms, namely Singhasari and Majapahit, slowly subjugated Srivijaya. Yet, in the early 13th century Srivijaya still ruled parts of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and western Java (Sunda).

Sultanate of Malacca

In 1288, Palembang - Srivijaya’s capital - was conquered by the Javanese. By 1293, Majapahit ruled much of Sumatra. Then, sedimentation on the Musi river estuary cut the kingdom's capital off from direct sea access and the kingdom lost its core revenues. During this period, most of this area also converted to Islam.

Following this disasters, Srivijaya became for a short time tributary of Angkor and later of the Thai Sukhothai Kingdom. The last inscription in which a crown prince is mentioned, dates from 1374.

Shortly after, in 1401, the last Srivijayan was expelled from Temasek – his last stronghold - by a Majapahit invasion. He headed north and founded the Sultanate of Malacca in 1402.

Surat Thani and Chaiya

Chaiya in the Surat Thani province was a regional centre of the Srivijaya Kingdom. The temple of Borom That in Chaiya contains a reconstructed pagoda in Srivijaya style. Chaiya’s name is apparently derived from its earlier Malay name "Cahaya" ("glow"). After the fall of the Srivijaya, the area was divided into the cities Chaiya, Thatong (now Kanchanadit) and Khirirat Nikhom.

Kingdom of Nakhon Si Thammarat

Political vacuum is an oddity; here it did not materialize. South of Surat Thani, the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat became a kingdom controlling much of the northern Malay Peninsula after the fall of Srivijaya. Surat Thani and Chaiya became part of this kingdom.

It was known as the Kingdom of Nakhon Si Thammarat (or Negara Sri Dharmaraja – Negara is the Pali equivalent of Nakhon – city in Thai), or Ligor to European traders.

This kingdom wasn’t independent; it paid tribute to the Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai in the 13th century and later to the Kingdom of Ayutthaya in the 15th. Nakhon Si Thammarat was listed as one of 8 Great Holy Cities (phraya maha nakhon) forming the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

Integration into Modern Thailand

After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese in 1767, Nakhon Si Thammarat enjoyed a short period of independence, but was quickly subdued by King Taksin, who expelled the Burmese invader and moved the kingdom’s capital to Thonburi.

The Surat Thani area was under the jurisdiction of Nakhon Si Thammarat until they were merged into a new province named Chaiya in 1899. In 1915, King Rama VI visited the area and renamed it Surat Thani. Following several other changes, the provincial capital was moved to the city of Surat Thani directly at the shore of the Tapi River in World War II.

If this history wasn’t rich enough, the town was conquered by Japanese troops landing from the sea in 1941. The new town hall location is the result of the destruction of its former structure during the war.

Who would suspect all this excitement while enjoying a barbecued crab by the Tapi riverside?

From journal Haunting Hues