Tambralinga
Tambralinga was an ancient kingdom located on the Malay Peninsula that at one time came under the influence of Srivijaya. The name had been forgotten. Early records are scarce but its duration is estimated to range from the seventh to the fourteenth century. Tambralinga first sent tribute to the emperor of the Tang dynasty in 616. In Sanskrit tambra means "red" and linga means "symbol" representing the divine energy of Shiva. By the end of the twelfth century, Tambralinga became independent of Srivijaya as the empire suffered a decline in prestige. At its height between the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, Tambralinga had occupied most of the Malay Peninsula and become one of the dominant Southeast Asian states. By the end of the fourteenth century, Tambralinga was recorded in Siamese history as Nagara Sri Dharmaraja Kingdom. References to a country named Poling appear in Chinese chronicles from the Tang period down to the early Ming period, they had sent tribute in 640, 648, 818, 860 and 873.
Many scholars identify Poling with Maling, Danmaling was one of the member-states of Sanfoqi in the central part of the Malayu Peninsula or now a day southern Thailand. Poling may be equated to Javaka in Sri Lankan materials, Savaka in Tamil inscriptions and Zabaka in Arabic records and Tambralingarath that appear in Indian sources. Although geographic location of Holing has been never mentioned in the reports of the pilgrims who had visited the kingdom, there are several reasons that suggest a location on Thai southern coast, where the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy said that the main port city of Takola Emporium was located during the first century. References to the Tang's Chronicles, at Holing on the day of the summer solstice, an eight-foot vertical stake of sundial would cast a shadow, around two feet long at the time of local noon that fell to the south side of the stake. By this information some scholars can determine that Holing was located at the latitude of 6 degrees, 8 minutes north.
The only part of Southeast Asia that reaches this particular latitude is located in the central part of southern Thailand above the Equator. In 671, the Chinese monk Yijing had a journey to seek the Pali Canon in India. After sailing for twenty days, his ship arrived in Foshih, the capital of Srivijaya Buddhist kingdom, where he "...landed and stayed six months learning the Sanskrit grammar. The king gave me some support and sent me to the country of Moloyu...." According to his record and Foshih were on nearly the same latitude but Holing was due east of the city of Foshih at a distance that could be spanned by a four- or five-day journey by sea while Moloyu was at a distance of fifteen-day journey by sea and had a location near to the Equator. Tambralinga was mentioned again in Tanjore inscription stone. At Brihadisvara temple in Thanjavur, the ancient city of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu are inscriptions dating from 1030 which mentions the victory of Rajendra Chola I over the Southeastern countries of Srivijaya kingdom.
The countries that Rajendra Chola I conquered were 13 countries including Madamalingam. This inscription mentions the name of Srivisayam as the capital of the kingdom and Mevilimbangam is another city. From Jue-Tang-Chu and Sin-Tang-chu chronicles in Ming period described the location of Sanfoqi that "the west bordering Topoteng, the north bordering Chenla, the south bordering Tomosang island and east bordering Po-li or Ma-li"; the boundary of this country is explained as follow: According to the inscription no.24 found at Hua-wieng temple in Chaiya near to Nakhon Si Thammarat, the ruler of Tambralinga named Chandrabhanu Sridhamaraja was the king of Patama vamsa. He began to reign in 1230, he had the Phrae Boromadhatu celebration in the same year. Chandrabhanu Sridhamaraja brought Tambralinga reached the pinnacle of its power in the mid-thirteenth century. From the Sri Lankan and Tamil materials, this Chandrabhanu was a Savakan king from Tambralinga who had invaded Sri Lanka in 1247, his navy launched an assault on the southern part of the island but was defeated by the Sri Lankan king.
However Chandrabhanu was able to establish an independent regime in the north of the island over the Jaffna kingdom, but in 1258 he was attacked and subjugated by the south Indian Emperor Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan. He was compelled to pay a tribute to the Pandyan Dynasty of precious elephants. In 1262 Chandrabhanu launched another attack on the south of the island, his army strengthened this time by the addition of Tamil and Sinhalese forces, only to be defeated when Pandya sided with the Sri Lankan side. Chandrabhanu’s son Savakanmaindan inherited the throne and submitted to Veera Pandyan's rule, received rewards and retained control over the northern kingdom, his regime too had disappeared following Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I's ascension to the Pandyan empire's throne and another invasion of the island by the army of the Pandyan Dynasty in the late 1270s. Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I installed his minister in charge of the invasion, Kulasekara Cinkaiariyan, an Aryachakravarti as the new king of Jaffna.
In at least two senses, the rapid expansion of Tambralinga is exceptional in the history of Southeast Asia. In the first place, Can
Peopling of Thailand
The peopling of Thailand refers to the process by which the ethnic groups that comprise the population of present-day Thailand came to inhabit the region. The Tai migration from the northern mountains into Thailand and Laos was a slow process, with the Tai remaining near the mountainous area in the region, where they were able to use their specialized agricultural knowledge relating to the use of mountain water for rice production; the earliest Tai settlements in Thailand were in the river valleys in the northern reaches of the country. The Tai settled the central plains of Thailand and displaced and inter-bred with the pre-existing Austroasiatic population; the languages and culture of the Tai came to dominate the regions of both modern-day Laos and Thailand. In more recent times, many of the Tai tribes of Laos migrated west across the border, establishing communities in Thailand; the Laotian Tai ethnic groups referred to as the Lao, are clustered in the Isan region of Thailand. Comparative linguistic research seems to indicate that the Tai people were a proto-Tai–Kadai-speaking culture of southern China, like the Malayo-Polynesians, they may have been of Austronesian descent.
Prior to living in mainland China, the Tai are thought to have migrated from a homeland on the island of Taiwan, where they spoke a dialect of proto-Austronesian or one of its descendant languages. Unlike the Malayo-Polynesian group who sailed south to the Philippines and other parts of maritime Southeast Asia, the ancestors of the modern Tai-Kadai people sailed west to mainland China and traveled along the Pearl River, where their language changed from other Austronesian languages under the influence of Sino-Tibetan and Hmong–Mien language infusion; the coming of the Han Chinese to this part of southern China may have prompted the Tai to migrate once again. This time they went over the mountains of southern China into Southeast Asia through the mountains of Burma and Laos to the north of present day Thailand; the Tai ethnic groups are believed to have begun migrating south from China to Southeast Asia during the first millennium CE. While this theory of the origin of the Tai predominates, there is insufficient archaeological evidence to prove it, linguistic evidence alone is not conclusive.
In support of the theory, however, it is believed the O1 Y-DNA haplogroup is associated with both the Austronesian people and the Tai. Over the centuries, the Tai intermarried and absorbed many of the other populations who co-inhabited and/or politically occupied the region populations of Mon–Khmer and Chinese descent; this fusion of ethnicity has led to considerable genetic diversity in the modern Thai people, has resulted in a Tai population that differs in culture and apparel from the Tai ethnic groups who remained in China. Many of the individual Tai ethnic groups have assumed a common Thai identity and have adopted Thai cultural norms. There are presently more than 30 distinct Tai ethnic groups in Thailand, contributing nearly 85 percent of the nation's population; the genetic stratification of the ethnic clades of the Tai ethnicity is an ongoing topic of debate among linguists and other social scientists. The history of Chinese immigration to Thailand dates back many centuries, the specific Chinese ethnic groups which made their way to Thailand are numerous, although there is a greater concentration of Chinese from the southern provinces due to their geographic proximity to Thailand.
The Chinese are part of the greater Sino-Tibetan ethnicity which includes the Tibeto-Burmans. The Chinese immigrants were able to merge into the predominant Tai culture, have contributed to the economy and infrastructure of Thailand over the years; every king of the Chakri Dynasty, which rules Thailand, is part Chinese on his mother's side. Of note, the Khek River in Thailand derives its name from the Thai word Khek, the Thai name for the Hakka people of China who settled along its banks in Phitsanulok Province. Chinese traders in Thailand from Fujian and Guangdong Provinces, began arriving in Ayutthaya by at least the 13th century. Ayutthaya was under constant Burmese threat from the 16th century, the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Empire was alarmed by Burmese military might. From 1766-1769, the Qianlong Emperor sent his armies four times to subdue the Burmese, but all four invasions failed. Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese in 1767. During the Ayutthaya period, many Chinese traders and soldiers inter-married with local Tai, infusing Chinese culture into the population early in its history.
In the late-18th century, King Taksin of Thonburi, himself half-Chinese encouraged Chinese immigration and trade. Settlers came from Chaozhou prefecture in large numbers. By 1825, the population of Chinese in Thailand had reached 230,000, it grew due to a constant stream of Chinese immigrants to the country throughout the 19th century. Early Chinese immigration consisted entirely of Chinese men, who, of necessity, married Thai women; the children of such intermarriages were called meaning ` children of Chinese' in Thai. The Chinese population in Thailand had risen to 792,000 by 1910. By 1932 12.2 percent of the population was ethnic Chinese. The corruption of the Qing dynasty and the massive population increase in China, combined with high taxes, caused many families to leave for Thailand in search of work and a better life; those who came before the First World War came overland or by sailboats called sampams, while after World War II most arrived by steam ship. The earlier tradition of Chinese-Thai intermarriage declined once larg
Thailand
Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand and known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country; the capital and largest city is a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar, its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Various Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, the Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as Ngoenyang, the Sukhothai Kingdom, Lan Na and the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which rivaled each other.
European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, one of the great powers in the region. Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai's reign declining thereafter until being destroyed in 1767 in a war with Burma. Taksin reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom, he was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the first monarch of the Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom, which lasted into the early 20th century. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Siam faced pressure from France and the United Kingdom, including forced concessions of territory, but it remained the only Southeast Asian country to avoid direct Western rule. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, Siam became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to "Thailand". While it joined the Allies in World War I, Thailand was an Axis satellite in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup revived the monarchy's influential role in politics.
Thailand became a major ally of the United States and played a key anti-communist role in the region. Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. In the 21st century, Thailand endured a political crisis that culminated in two coups and the establishment of its current and 20th constitution by the military junta. Thailand is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under a military junta. Thailand is a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and remains a major ally of the US. Despite its comparatively sporadic changes in leadership, it is considered a regional power in Southeast Asia and a middle power in global affairs. With a high level of human development, the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, the 20th largest by PPP, Thailand is classified as a newly industrialized economy. Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia.
The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By outsiders prior to 1949, it was known by the exonym Siam; the word Siam may have originated from Pali or Sanskrit श्याम or Mon ရာမည. The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word; the word Śyâma is not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion. Another theory is the name derives from Chinese: "Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century; the Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam." A further possibility is that Mon-speaking peoples migrating south called themselves'syem' as do the autochthonous Mon-Khmer-speaking inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula. The signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium, giving the name "Siam" official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed to Siam from 1946 to 1948. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means "free man" in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs".
A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai means "people" or "human being", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word "Thai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon" for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai/Tai would have evolved from the etymon *kri:'human being' through the following chain: *kəri: > *kəli: > *kədi:/*kədaj > *di:/*daj > *dajA > tʰajA2 or > tajA2. Michel Ferlus' work is based on some simple rules of phonetic change observable in the Sinosphere and studied for t
Pattani Kingdom
Pattani or the Sultanate of Patani was a Malay sultanate in the historical Patani Region. It covered the area of the modern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala and much of the northern part of modern Malaysia; the 6–7th century Hindu state of Pan Pan may or may not have been related. Langkasuka was a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, founded in the region as early as the 2nd century CE, which appeared in many accounts by Chinese travellers, the most famous of whom was the Buddhist pilgrim I-Ching; the kingdom drew trade from Chinese and local traders as a stopping place for ships bound for, or just arrived from, the Gulf of Thailand. Langkasuka reached its greatest economic success in the 6th and 7th centuries and afterward declined as a major trade center. Political circumstances suggest that by the 11th century Chola invasion, Langkasuka was no longer a major port visited by merchants. However, much of the decline may be due to the silting up of its harbour, shown most poignantly today because the most substantial Langkasukan ruins lie 15 kilometres from the sea.
Patani became part of the Hindu-Buddhist Empire of Srivijaya, a maritime confederation based in Palembang. Srivijaya dominated trade in the South China Sea and exacted tolls on all traffic through the Straits of Malacca. Malay culture had substantial influence on the Khmer Empire, the ancient city of Nakhon Pathom; the founding of the Islamic kingdom of Patani is thought to have been around the mid-13th century CE, with folklore suggesting it was named after an exclamation made by Sultan Ismail Shah, "Pantai ini!". However, some think. An alternative theory is. Local stories tell of a fisherman named Pak Tani, sent by a king from the interior to survey the coast, to find a place for an appropriate settlement. After he established a successful fishing outpost, other people moved to join him; the town soon grew into a prosperous trading center. The authors of the 17th–18th century Hikayat Patani chronicle claim this story is untrue, support the claim that the kingdom was founded by the Sultan; the Patani kingdom's golden age was during the reign of its four successive queens from 1584, known as Ratu Hijau, Ratu Biru, Ratu Ungu and Ratu Kuning, during which the kingdom's economic and military strength was increased to the point that it was able to fight off four major Siamese invasions, with the help of the eastern Malay kingdom of Pahang and the southern Malay Sultanate of Johor.
In the 14th century CE, King Ram Khamhaeng the Great of Sukhothai, occupied Nakhon Si Thammarat and its vassal states – including Patani. The Thai Ayutthaya kingdom conquered the isthmus during the 14th century CE, bringing it into a single unified state, with Ayutthaya as a capital, many smaller vassal states under its control; this consisted of a self-governing system in which the vassal states and tributary provinces owed allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya, but otherwise ran their own affairs. A sheikh named Sa'id or Shafi'uddin from Kampong Pasai (presumably a small community of traders from Pasai who lived on the outskirts of Patani healed the king of a rare skin disease and after much negotiation, the king agreed to convert to Islam, adopting the name Sultan Ismail Shah. All of the sultan's officials agreed to convert. However, there is fragmentary evidence that some local people had begun to convert to Islam prior to this; the existence of a diasporic Pasai community near Patani shows the locals had regular contact with Muslims.
There are travel reports, such as that of Ibn Battuta, early Portuguese accounts that claimed Patani had an established Muslim community before Melaka, which would suggest that merchants who had contact with other emerging Muslims centres were the first to convert to the region. During much of the 15th century Ayutthaya's energies were directed toward the Malay Peninsula the trading port of Malacca, which fell under the rule of the Malacca Sultanate. Ayutthaya's sovereignty extended over the Malay states south of Tambralinga. Ayutthaya helped develop and stabilise the region, opening the way for lucrative trade on the isthmus; this attracted Chinese merchants seeking speciality goods for the Chinese market. The 16th century witnessed the rise of Burma, which under an aggressive dynasty had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on Ayutthaya. A second siege led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564; the royal family was taken to Bago, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king.
With the brief decline of Ayutthaya's hegemony in this period, Patani may have become independent temporarily. King Dhammaraja was a Siamese noble of the Sukhothai dynasty, was the King of Phitsanulok - an important city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Dhammaraja became the King of Ayutthaya by aiding the Burmese King in the siege of Ayutthaya in 1568. After, taking over Ayutthaya, Bayinnaung installed Dhammara as a vassal king. After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584; the Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions. Thai independence was restored by Dhammaraja son, King Naresuan the Great, who rebelled against the Burmese and by 1593 had driven them from the ki
Srivijaya
Srivijaya, was a dominant thalassocratic Indonesian city-state based on the island of Sumatra, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 8th to the 12th century. Srivijaya was the first unified kingdom to dominate much of the Indonesian archipelago; the rise of the Srivijayan Empire is seen to run parallel to the end of the Malay sea-faring period. Due to its location, this once powerful state developed complex technology utilizing maritime resources. In addition, its economy became progressively reliant on the booming trade in the region, thus transforming it into a prestige goods based economy; the earliest reference to it dates from the 7th century. A Tang Chinese monk, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for six months; the earliest known inscription in which the name Srivijaya appears dates from the 7th century in the Kedukan Bukit inscription found near Palembang, dated 16 June 682. Between the late 7th and early 11th century, Srivijaya rose to become a hegemon in Southeast Asia.
It was involved in close interactions rivalries, with the neighbouring Java and Champa. Srivijaya's main foreign interest was nurturing lucrative trade agreements with China which lasted from the Tang to the Song dynasty. Srivijaya had religious and trade links with the Buddhist Pala of Bengal, as well as with the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East; the kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century due to various factors, including the expansion of the rival Javanese Singhasari and Majapahit empires. After Srivijaya fell, it was forgotten, it was not until 1918 that French historian George Cœdès, of École française d'Extrême-Orient, formally postulated its existence. Srivijaya is a Sanskrit-derived name: श्रीविजय, Śrīvijaya, it was known in many names, including Javanese: ꦯꦿꦶꦮꦶꦗꦪ, Sundanese: ᮞᮢᮤᮝᮤᮏᮚ, Thai: ศรีวิชัย RTGS: Siwichai, Khmer: ស្រីវិជ័យ Srey Vichey, Burmese: သီရိပစ္စယာ Thiripyisaya, Chinese: 三佛齊 Sanfoqi. In Sanskrit, śrī means "fortunate", "prosperous", or "happy" and vijaya means "victorious" or "excellence".
Thus the combined word Srivijaya means "shining victory", "splendid triumph", "prosperous victor", "radiance of excellence" or "glorious". Historians of early 20th-century that studied the inscriptions of Sumatra and the neighboring islands, thought that the term "Srivijaya" refer to a person's name — a king to be exact; the Sundanese manuscript of Carita Parahyangan composed around the late 16th-century in West Java, mentioned vaguely about a princely hero that rose to be a king named Sanjaya that after secured his rule in Java — involved in battle with the Malayu and Keling, against their king named "Sang Sri Wijaya". The term Malayu is Javanese-Sundanese term to refer Malay people of Sumatra, while Keling — derived from historical Kalinga kingdom of Southern India, refer to people of Indian descent that inhabit the archipelago. Fascinatingly, the name Srivijaya still being found in this local manuscript, although was mistakenly refer to a king. Subsequently, after studying both local stone inscriptions and Chinese historical accounts, historians concluded that the term "Srivijaya" refer to a polity or a kingdom.
Little physical evidence of Srivijaya remains. There had been no continuous knowledge of the history of Srivijaya in Indonesia and Malaysia. Contemporary Indonesians those from the area of Palembang, had not heard of Srivijaya until the 1920s when the French scholar, George Cœdès, published his discoveries and interpretations in the Dutch- and Indonesian-language newspapers. Cœdès noted that the Chinese references to "Sanfoqi" read as "Sribhoja", the inscriptions in Old Malay refer to the same empire; the Srivijayan historiography was acquired and established from two main sources: the Chinese historical accounts and the Southeast Asian stone inscriptions that have been discovered and deciphered in the region. The Buddhist pilgrim Yijing's account is important on describing Srivijaya, when he visited the kingdom in 671 for six months; the 7th-century siddhayatra inscriptions discovered in Palembang and Bangka island are vital primary historical sources. Regional accounts that some might be tales and legends, such as the Legend of the Maharaja of Javaka and the Khmer King provides a glimpse of the kingdom.
Besides, some Indian and Arabic accounts describes vaguely about the riches and fabulous fortune of the king of Zabag. The historical records of Srivijaya were reconstructed from a number of stone inscriptions, most of them written in Old Malay using Pallava script, such as the Kedukan Bukit, Talang Tuwo, Telaga Batu and Kota Kapur inscriptions. Srivijaya had become a symbol of early Sumatran importance as a great empire to balance Java's Majapahit in the east. In the 20th century, both empires were referred to by nationalistic intellectuals to argue for an Indonesian identity within an Indonesian state that had existed prior to the colonial state of the Dutch East Indies. Srivijaya, by extension Sumatra, had been known by different names to different peoples; the Chinese called it Sanfoqi or Che-li-fo-che, there was an older kingdom of Kantoli, which could be considered the predecessor of Srivijaya. Sanskrit and Pali texts referred to it as Javadeh, respectively; the Arabs called the Khmers called it Melayu.
While the Javanese called them Suvarnabhumi, Suvarnadvipa or Malayu. This is another reason. While some of these names are reminiscent of the name o
Malacca Sultanate
The Malacca Sultanate was a Malay sultanate centred in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks c. 1400 as the founding year of the sultanate by a Malay Raja of Singapura, Parameswara known as Iskandar Shah. At the height of the sultanate's power in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important entrepots of its time, with territory covering much of the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands and a significant portion of the northern coast of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia; as a bustling international trading port, Malacca emerged as a centre for Islamic learning and dissemination, encouraged the development of the Malay language and arts. It heralded the golden age of Malay sultanates in the archipelago, in which Classical Malay became the lingua franca of the Maritime Southeast Asia and Jawi script became the primary medium for cultural and intellectual exchange, it is through these intellectual and cultural developments, the Malaccan era witnessed the enculturation of a Malay identity, the Malayisation of the region and the subsequent formation of an Alam Melayu.
In the year of 1511, the capital of Malacca fell to the Portuguese Empire, forcing the last Sultan, Mahmud Shah, to retreat to the further reaches of his empire, where his progeny established new ruling dynasties and Perak. The political and cultural legacy of the sultanate remains to this day. For centuries, Malacca has been held up as an exemplar of Malay-Muslim civilisation, it established systems of trade and governance that persisted well into the 19th century, introduced concepts such as daulat – a distinctly Malay notion of sovereignty – that continues to shape contemporary understanding of Malay kingship. The fall of Malacca benefited Brunei when its ports became a new entrepôt as the kingdom emerged as a new Muslim empire in the Malay Archipelago, attracting many Muslim traders who fled from the Portuguese occupation after the ruler of Brunei's conversion to Islam; the series of raids launched by the Chola Empire in the 11th century had weakened the once glorious empire of Srivijaya.
By the end of the 13th century, the fragmented Srivijaya caught the attention of the expansionist Javanese King, Kertanegara of Singhasari. In 1275, he decreed the Pamalayu expedition to overrun Sumatra. By 1288, Singhasari naval expeditionary forces sacked Jambi and Palembang and brought Malayu Dharmasraya—the successor state of Srivijaya, to its knees. In 1293 Singhasari was succeeded by Majapahit ruling the region. According to the Malay Annals, a prince from Palembang named Seri Teri Buana who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great, stayed in the island of Bintan for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299; the Orang Laut, famous for their loyal services to Srivijaya made him king of a new kingdom called Singapura. In the 14th century, Singapura developed concurrently with the Pax Mongolica era and rose from a small trading outpost into a centre of international trade with strong ties with the Yuan Dynasty. In an effort to revive the fortune of Malayu in Sumatra, in the 1370s, a Malay ruler of Palembang sent an envoy to the court of the first emperor of the newly established Ming dynasty.
He invited China to resume the tributary system. Learning this diplomatic maneuver King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit sent an envoy to Nanking, convinced the emperor that Malayu was their vassal, was not an independent country. Subsequently, in 1377—a few years after the death of Gajah Mada, Majapahit sent a punitive naval attack against a rebellion in Palembang, which caused the complete destruction of Srivijaya and caused the diaspora of the Srivijayan princes and nobles. Rebellions against the Javanese rule ensued and attempts were made by the fleeing Malay princes to revive the empire, which left the area of southern Sumatra in chaos and desolation. By the second half of 14th century, Kingdom of Singapura grew wealthy. However, its success alarmed two regional powers at that time, Ayuthaya from the north and Majapahit from the south; as a result, the kingdom's fortified capital was attacked by at least two major foreign invasions before it was sacked by Majapahit in 1398. The fifth and last king, Parameswara fled to the west coast of the Malay Peninsula.
Parameswara fled north to Muar, Ujong Tanah and Biawak Busuk before reaching a fishing village at the mouth of Bertam river. The village belonged to the sea-sakai or orang laut which were left alone by Majapahit forces that not only sacked Singapura but Langkasuka and Pasai; as a result, the village became a safe haven and in the 1370s it began to receive a growing number of refugees running away from Mahapahit's attacks. By the time Parameswara reached Malacca in the early 1400s, the place had a cosmopolitan feel with Buddhists from the north, Hindus from Palembang and Muslims from Pasai. Legend has it that Parameswara saw a mouse deer outwit his hunting dog into the water when he was resting under the Malacca tree, he thought this bode well, remarking,'this place is excellent the mouse deer is formidable. Tradition holds that he named the settlement after the tree he was leaning against while witnessing the portentous event. Today, the mouse deer is part of modern Malacca's coat of arms; the name "Malacca" itself was derived from the fruit-bearing Melaka tree scientifically termed as Phyllanthus emblica.
Another account of the naming origin of Malacca elaborates that
History of Thailand (1932–1973)
The history of Thailand from 1932 to 1973 was dominated by military dictatorships which were in power for much of the period. The main personalities of the period were the dictator Luang Phibunsongkhram, who allied the country with Japan during the Second World War, the civilian politician Pridi Phanomyong, who founded Thammasat University and was prime minister after the war. A succession of military dictators followed Pridi's ouster—Phibun again, Sarit Thanarat Thanom Kittikachorn—under whom traditional, authoritarian rule was combined with increasing modernisation and Westernisation under the influence of the US; the end of the period was marked by Thanom's resignation, following a massacre of pro-democracy protesters led by Thammasat students. The military came to power in the bloodless Siamese revolution of 1932, which transformed the government of Siam from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. King Prajadhipok accepted this change but abdicated due to his strained relations with the government.
Upon his abdication, King Prajadhipok issued a brief statement criticising the regime. His statement included the following phrases—often quoted by critics of the slow pace of Siam's political development: The new regime of 1932 was led by a group of colonels headed by Phraya Phahol Pholphayuhasena and Phraya Songsuradej. In December they produced a constitution—Siam's first—which included a national assembly, half appointed and half indirectly elected; the people were promised that full democratic elections would be held once half the population had completed primary education—which was expected to be sometime in the 1940s. A prime minister and cabinet were appointed and a facade of constitutional rule was maintained. Once the new government had been established and the constitution put into effect, conflict began to erupt among the members of the new ruling coalition. There were four major factions competing for power: the older conservative civilian faction led by Phraya Manopakorn Nititada.
The first serious conflict arose in 1933 when Pridi was given the task of drafting a new economic plan for the nation. His radical programme called for the nationalisation of large tracts of farmland as well as rapid government-directed industrialisation, it called for the growth of higher education so that entry into the bureaucracy would not be dominated by royalty and the aristocracy. However, the plan was condemned by most of the government factions as being communist; because of its attack on private property, the members of the conservative clique were the ones most alarmed by Pridi's plan. They urged the Mano government to adopt policies that would reverse the course of the "revolution". However, when Phraya Mano attempted to do this and Phraya Phahol launched a second coup that toppled the Mano government. Phraya Pahon was made the new prime minister, his new government excluded all of the royalists. A royalist reaction came in late 1933 when Prince Bovoradej, a grandson of Mongkut and one-time minister of defence, led an armed revolt against the government.
He mobilised various provincial garrisons and marched on Bangkok, capturing the Don Muang Aerodrome along the way. The prince accused the government of disrespecting the king and promoting communism, he demanded that the government leaders resign, he had hoped that some of the garrisons in the Bangkok area would join the revolt, but they remained loyal to the government. Meanwhile, the navy left for its bases in the south. After heavy fighting in the northern outskirts of Bangkok, the royalists were defeated and Prince Bovoradej left for exile in French Indochina. One effect of the repression of the insurrection was the diminution of the king's prestige. After the revolt started, King Prajadhipok declared in a telegram that he regretted the strife and civil disturbances, it is not clear whether he was motivated by a fear of being captured by rebels, a fear of being viewed as a supporter of the rebels, or a wish to avoid further choices between Phahol and Bovoradej. Either way, the fact remains that at the height of the conflict, the royal couple took refuge at Songkhla.
The king's withdrawal from the scene of the fighting was interpreted by the victorious party as a sign that he had failed in his duty. By refusing to give his full support to the legitimate government, his credibility was undermined. A few months in 1934, King Prajadhipok, whose relations with the new government had been deteriorating for some time, went abroad to receive medical treatment. While abroad, he carried on a correspondence with the government that discussed the terms under which he would continue to serve as a constitutional monarch, he requested the continuation of some traditional royal prerogatives. The government, would not agree. In his abdication speech, Prajadhipok accused the government of having no regard for democratic principles, employing methods of administration incompatible with individual freedom and the principles of justice, ruling in an autocratic manner and not letting the people have a real voice in Siam's affairs. In 1934, the Press Act came into effect, forbidding the publication of any material deemed to be detrimental to the public order or to undermine morals.
The law has been enforced to the present day. Reaction to the abdication was muted. Everybody was afraid of; the government refrained from challenging any assertions in the king's abdication statement for fear of arousing further controversy. Opponents of the government kept quiet after the
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