Latest / The Srivijaya Empire: Southeast Asia's Forgotten Maritime Superpower — Fexingo History
The Srivijayan Monastery: A Buddhist University in the Jungle
While we have explored Srivijaya’s trade routes, shipwrecks, and naval power, this episode turns inward to its intellectual heart. We trace the journey of Yijing, a Tang dynasty monk who arrived in Palembang around 671 CE seeking advanced Buddhist texts unavailable in China. Living for years in what he called Zabag, Yijing documented a thriving center of Sanskrit learning that rivaled Nalanda in India. He described hundreds of Indian monks studying grammar, logic, and philosophy under Srivijayan patronage. This conversation examines how a maritime empire became a crucial link in the…
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