History of Palembang

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This city was born on pepper, raised on tin, grew rich on oil. By tradition an old oriental trading center, for 500 years up to the 13th Century Palembang was one of the principal ports of the world, a central point for the bulk of the Indonesian islands' trade. In the first quarter of the 7th Century here was the first tangible signs in the whole archipelago of the arrival of Mahayana Buddhism (a full 100 years later it shows up in the inscriptions of Candi Kalasan in Central Java). On his way to India a Chinese-Buddhist pilgrim, I Tsing, arrived at Sriwijaya University in 671 A.D. and spent 6 months studying Sanskrit. On his way back to China in 68E A.D. he stayed 4 years, writing his memoirs and giving a valuable description of the city. As a predatory power, Palembang was once the capital of the Sriwijaya Empire (7th-12th C.), 'The Phoenicians of the East'. Tamil, Persian, Arabic, Greek, Cambodian, Siamese, Chinese and Burmese were spoken in its giant marketplace. A thousand ships laid at anchor and it sent its mercenaries as far as Mesopotamia. It had a huge money bazaar. Thousands of scholars and monks learned Buddhist teachings and translated Sanskrit texts here. It reached its zenith at the beginning of the 11th Century. Then in 1028 A.D. it was brutally attacked by a jealous Chola king from South India and it never recovered. By the end of the 13th Century Sriwijaya had splintered into 8 smaller kingdoms, the largest of which, Malayu, was centered on Jambi and became a strong maritime power. Finally, with the rise of Melaka in the 14th Century, Sriwiajaya became a remote backwater. There are few physical remains of the kingdom. The region around Palembang still produces fine woven fabrics and performs unique Hindu-like dances, though these are a sad remnant of its past great days. South Sumatran dancers wear elaborate tree-like headdresses with glittering pendants and festoons, or crowns, and carry gold gilt fans. Wedding costumes are still patterned after the royal courts of the old medieval empire with a flap on the groom's headdress preventing him from looking at the bride.