The strongest power on the isthmus, in the campaign board's reading, and the only one on the peninsula that behaves like a state: a Buddhist seat on a coastal plain with rice behind it, a road west over the Banthat hills to the Andaman sea and the reach to send men overseas.
The Chinese write it Dan-mei-liu in the Song record (from 970; embassies in 1001, 1016 and 1070) and, if the identification holds, Dan-ma-ling in the Zhufan zhi (about 1225); the English Wikipedia article on Tambralinga calls that second identification dubious and cites Roderich Ptak for a place in the Tembeling country of Pahang. The Tanjore inscription of 1030/31 names Madamalingam among the places struck in 1025, and a Pallava-script inscription at Wat Phra Mahathat, which the same article dates to the fifth century, names the Siva of Tambralinga. Its holy site is the great reliquary stupa of Wat Phra Mahathat, whose bell-shaped tower is later work over an older foundation, so the site is certain and the fabric of 1200 is not.
No king is named for 1 January 1200 and no source settles whose man he is: Jambi, Angkor, Pagan or nobody. The Nakhon chronicle is legend and is not used.
Who holds it
- Name
- The king of Tambralinga: not known
- Title
- Lord or headman of Nakhon Si Thammarat
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The king of Tambralinga: not known
How things stand that morning
Not recorded. A rising Buddhist rice state whose king and overlord are not known.
Council
No headman, judge or council is named in any source.
Communities
A Buddhist order at Wat Phra Mahathat with links to Sri Lanka (the campaign board's inference); no other community is named.
Fairs and markets
None known; trade follows the monsoon.
Militia
No source.
Walls and castle
No wall or citadel is known; the stupa is the landmark.
Trade and crafts
Rice of the plain; tin gravels at Ron Phibun; the Trang road for goods between the Andaman sea and the gulf.
Places of note
- Wat Phra Mahathat: The great reliquary stupa; its own religious record is Wat Phra Mahathat.
- Ron Phibun tin: Tin gravels behind Nakhon, the only significant metal Tambralinga holds directly (board).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board says Tambralinga is 'rising and unremarkable' on 1 January 1200 and 'the strongest power on the isthmus'; the strength is an inference from its rice and its road, not a record. Chandrabhanu (1230, some argue 1244) is later.
Evidence: Fair for the existence of a Buddhist state here in the twelfth century (the stupa, the Chinese and Chola notices); nothing names a ruler for 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Tambralinga
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.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- 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.
- 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
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (English): Tambralinga
- D. K. Wyatt on Tambralinga and Grahi, as summarised in the English Wikipedia article on Tambralinga
- Tanjore (Thanjavur) inscription of Rajendra Chola, 1030/31, as reported in the brief and the English Wikipedia article on the Chola invasion
- Chinese Wikipedia, San-fo-qi (paraphrase of the Zhufan zhi list of fifteen dependencies)
- 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.