Town · Langkasuka on the Patani plain · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tak Bai

The river mouth between the Patani country and the Kelantan delta, a boundary of sorts and a landing for coastal craft (board).

No boundary is attested; the Kolok is the modern frontier.

Who holds it

Title
Lord or headman of Tak Bai
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.

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 Langkasuka

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.
  • 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

  1. 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.