An island group with deep water, good holding and streams that run all year, sitting exactly where a ship out of the Bay of Bengal wants to stop (board).
Pearl shell and sea slug come off the shallows around it. The campaign board adds limestone caves worked for swiftlet nests sold north to the Chinese market; we could not find the nest trade to China dated before the Ming, so that cargo is the campaign board's inference for 1200 and not a shown fact.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lord or headman of Langkawi: the island group at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal crossing
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
not known: no source names a lord, governor or headman for 1 January 1200
How things stand that morning
No lord, governor or garrison is named by any source for 1 January 1200. Treat as a landing or settlement on the route whose overlord, if any, is not known.
Wealth
Pearl shell and sea slug; swiftlet nests by the campaign board's claim.
Places of note
- The bird caves of Langkawi: Limestone caves worked for swiftlet nests (board; the pre-Ming nest trade is not shown).
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Thin: from the campaign board's inference, archaeology and later sources; nothing dated 1 January 1200 names it.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Malay ports
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 Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- 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.
- 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
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- 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.