A brick stupa in the Srivijayan manner, the finest early Buddhist building standing on the peninsula and the reason Chaiya has been argued over as a capital for a century; the present form of the stupa is much later than 1200.
The Avalokitesvara bronzes found in the district are, in the campaign board's judgement, the best sculpture the Malay world produced, and a bronze Buddha of the district carries the Old Khmer inscription of 1183 that names the commander of Grahi and the Malayu maharaja. Whose monks served the stupa in 1200 and how it was endowed are not recorded; its patron in 1183 was the commander of Grahi.
Who holds it
- Title
- The monastic community of Chaiya, not named
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names an abbot, priest or headman of this house for any date near 1 January 1200.
Overlord
The commander of Grahi (Galanai in 1183); the maharaja of Malayu in 1183.
What it holds
- The shrine or temple and what the campaign board and the remains show of its endowment
How things stand that morning
Standing; the monastic community and its lands are not recorded.
Where the sources disagree
- The stupa's present form is much later; the site is firm, the fabric of 1200 is not.
Evidence: Fair for the site and the 1183 pedestal; the stupa's 1200 fabric and community are not shown.
On the map: A point only: no land of its own is recorded.
Primary sources for Grahi
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
- The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (English): Chaiya district
- Wikipedia (English): Melayu Kingdom
- OMNIA board note (a lead only, checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.