Srivijaya's River Diplomacy and the Mud of Palembang

The Srivijaya Empire: Southeast Asia's Forgotten Maritime Superpower — Fexingo History · Sep 21, 2026 · 11m · transcript

We’ve spent the last dozen episodes tracing Srivijaya’s naval power, its spice monopolies, and the devastating Chola invasions. But we haven’t really talked about the physical ground beneath those ships: the river city of Palembang itself. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the empire’s capital was built not on stone, but on water, mud, and bamboo. We look at the Telaga Batu inscription and the K'un-lun Po accounts to understand how a maritime state governed a labyrinthine archipelago without traditional fortresses. We’ll discuss the Orang Laut as both enforcers and guides, the…