Hello Bookaroo.
For many years the kingdom was thought to be a myth. Sanskrit document reveled the presence of this once flourishing kingdom almost totally unknown to westerners.
Srivijaya empire, maritime and commercial kingdom that flourished between the 7th and the 13th centuries, largely in what is now Indonesia. The kingdom originated in Palembang on the island of Sumatra and soon extended its influence and controlled the Strait of Malacca.
Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th to 11th century AD. Srivijaya was the first polity to dominate much of western Maritime Southeast Asia. Due to its location, Srivijaya developed complex technology utilizing maritime resources.
Wherever the Srivijayan empire traveled, they brought monks to spread the word. Buddhist education provided by Srivijayan monks was crucial in the spread of Buddhism through South East Asia. Lands conquered by the empire were successfully converted to the religion.
Srivijaya was also a religious centre in the region. It adhered to Mahayana Buddhism and soon became the stopping point for Chinese Buddhist pilgrims on their way to India. This led to huge depositories of artifact gems and gold donated by passing pilgrims to the temples for veneration.
The Cholan invasion led to the fall of the Sailendra Dynasty of Srivijaya and the Chola invasion also coincides with return voyage of the great Bengali Buddhist scholar Atiśa (c. 982–1054) from Sumatra to India and Tibet in 1025 CE.
Decline and Fall of Srivijaya happened because
Srivijaya presented a tempting target for foreign powers and for pirates. In 1025, Rajendra Chola of the Chola Empire based in southern India attacked some of the Srivijayan Kingdom's key ports in the first of a series of raids that would last at least 20 years.
It was these raids that devastated the kingdom forcing temples monks to bury treasure exactly like the Vikings did to settlements around the British isles. The kingdom collapsed and never recovered and went into decline. The Buddhist monasteries fell in decline.
Sumatra was known as the island of gold and Dynasty of Srivijaya rivaled in magnificence any Inca dynasty ruler covered in gold.
Here reconstruction of what a Srivijaya noble women wore. below.
Today many monasteries have been destroyed. Some times the jungle reveal its secret just as elusive and enticing as any south American culture.
Crow
