Southern States
Tambralinga (2nd Century AD - 1277 AD)
Centered around present-day Nakhon Si Thammarat, its strategic position along maritime trade routes linking the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean enabled it to emerge as a dynamic center of commerce, religion, and cultural exchange in early Southeast Asia.
Tambralinga is mentioned in Indian literature as early as in the 2nd century. Scholars recognize Tambralinga as a kingdom that was centered around present-day Nakhon Si Thammarat. The name Tambralinga is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Tam’ (Pali ‘Tamp’), meaning copper, and ‘lingga’, a form that represents the Hindu deity Lord Shiva that symbolizes universal power. The kingdom had deep and sustained connections to Indian culture, particularly through Hinduism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Sanskrit language, and Indian ideologies. It was one of the most Indianized early kingdoms in Southeast Asia, serving as a cultural bridge between India and lands in present day Malaysia and Indonesia
The prosperity of Tambralinga resulted from its strategic role as a maritime trading hub where merchants arriving from the Indian Ocean and South China Sea would unload goods, transport them overland across the peninsula, and reload them on the opposite coast. This unique position enabled Tambralinga to facilitate the exchange of a wide range of commodities, including aromatic woods, spices, tin, gold, ivory and others.
In 927, Tambralinga’s king captured the kingdom of Lavo in central Thailand, and appointed his son Kampoch as Lavo’s ruler. Kampoch took the ex-Lavo queen as his consort and thereafter also married a Khmer princess, that bonded relationship with the Khmer empire.
In 1247, King Chandrabanu launched an attack to conquer Sri Lanka. Though unsuccessful, he was able to establish an independent regime in Jaffna, at the northern part of the island. However, in 1258, he lost control of Jaffna to the Pandyan Kingdom from south India. He again tried to retake the island in 1262, but was defeated and killed by the combined forces of the Pandya and Sri Lanka.
Weakened, the kingdom came to an end in 1277, and subsequently became known as the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom, and functioned as a tributary state under the Sukhothai Kingdom. Nevertheless, the legacy of Tambralinga was its exceptional impact on regional history as it marked the only time that a Southeast Asian power launched an overseas military expedition beyond the region.