Palembang, The Land of Sriwijaya Kingdom

Palembang is the second biggest city in Sumatera after Medan. It is very old, even the oldest city in Indonesia. A few days ago – when this posting written – on June 17, 2008, Palembang celebrated its 1325^th anniversary.

This city was founded by Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa, in 683 AD (605 Saka). He was the first king ruled the Sriwijaya kingdom. The center of this kingdom, according to the history, was located in Palimpong, which is known as Palembang nowadays.

Based on the root of the word “Sriwijaya,” we can imagine how great this kingdom was in its golden time. According to Sanskrit Shri means shining, or radiant, and vijaya means victory or excellent. So Sriwijaya means a kingdom which is shining and emerging the victory.

The center of this kingdom – revealed by the France researcher, Pierre-Yves Manguin - was on the bank of Musi river, between Singguntang hill and Sabokingking. Other resources we can use to trace it were many inscriptions founded in and around Palembang. One of them is the Telaga Batu inscription. The shape of this artifact is pentagon with seven heads of cobra. There is a small bowl with a nozzle in the bottom side.

According to archeologists, this artifact was used to assign persons who held important official positions in the kingdom. They swore to be loyal toward the kingdom by drinking the water which was flown through this nozzle. As a tool to appoint the dignitaries, automatically this artifact should be well taken care and kept in the capital of the kingdom.

Based on these facts, there’s no doubt that Palembang has once been the heart of the great kingdom in Asia, the central of Srivijaya, the outstanding and great kingdom with its very powerful naval armada.

It’s obvious that Palembang has already been 14 centuries old now. What an age! Though it’s been very old, it doesn’t mean that it’s weak and powerless, but on the contrary, along this age, this city become more mature in anticipating any changes that take place globally.