Srivijaya's Buddhist Monks: The Scholars Who Shaped Southeast Asia

The Srivijaya Empire: Southeast Asia's Forgotten Maritime Superpower — Fexingo History · Jun 7, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna explore the intellectual and spiritual heart of the Srivijaya Empire: its Buddhist monastic universities. While earlier episodes covered trade, inscriptions, and the Orang Laut, here we focus on the monks and scholars who made Srivijaya a global center of Buddhist learning. We discuss the Chinese pilgrim Yijing, who studied in Palembang and Muaro Jambi in the 7th century, and the Indian monk Atisha, who traveled to Srivijaya to study under the guru Dharmakirti. We examine the curriculum at Srivijaya's monasteries—Sanskrit grammar, logic…