Suvarnabhumi
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the traditional geographical region in Southeast Asia. For Bangkok's international airport, see Suvarnabhumi AirportSuvarnabhumi AirportSuvarnabhumi Airport , also known as Bangkok International Airport, is an international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. It was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September...
.
Suvarnabhumi (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
) or Suvannabhumi (Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
) meaning the "Golden Land" or "Land of Gold", is a term coined by the ancient Indians which refers broadly to Lower Burma, Lower Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Lower Malay Peninsula
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
, the Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, but more generally accepted to refer more specifically to Lower Burma. Another term which was used by the ancient Indians is Suvarnadvipa which means the "Golden Peninsula/Island". Suvarnabhumi may have been used primarily as a vague general designation of an extensive region in Southeast Asia, but, over time, different parts of it came to be designated by the additional epithets of island, peninsula or city. In contrast the ancient name for the Indian subcontinent is Jambudvipa.
Nomenclature and Etymology
Suvarnabhumi and Suvarnadvipa (Sanskrit). The word Suvarnabhumi may be parsed into Suvarna, meaning "having a beautiful colour", "glittering", "golden" and bhumi holding the semantic field: "earth", "soil","territory","country","land". Hence, the term "Suvarnabhumi" may be rendered into English as "Golden Land". For the word Suvarnadvipa, dvipa mean a "land having water on two of its sides", which can mean "Peninsula" or "Island". Hence, the term Suvarnadvipa may be rendered into English as "Golden Peninsula" or "Golden Island".Origin
The reference to Suvarnabhumi appear in various ancient IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Latin, Arabic, and Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
writings. The name appear in the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
text (3rd century BC) in the form of Suvarnadvipa (the Golden Peninsula/Island) or Suvarnabhumi (the Golden Land), which can be assigned with certainty to Southeast Asia. Ancient Indian texts Arthasashtra of Kautilya (c. 300 BC), mentioned that the Brahmin Sanka sailed from Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
to Suvarnabhumi. Other ancient texts, such as the Kathakosa tells the story of Nagadutta who went to Suvarnabhumi with five hundred ships to conduct a profitable trade. The first Latin geographer who made a reference to a location in Southeast Asia is Pomponius Mela, who refer to the island of gold (Chryse) in his 'De Chorographia' (c. 45AD). The Greek mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who worked in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in the 2nd century A.D. used the name Chryse Chersonesos (Golden Peninsula/Island) to refer to an area which scholar have identified as the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The Amoghapasa inscription
Amoghapasa inscription
Amoghapasa inscription is an inscription inscribed on the back of pāduka Amoghapāśa as referred to in Padang Roco inscription. In 1347, Adityawarman added this inscription on back of the statue proclaimed that the statue portrayed himself. Today the inscription is stored in the National Museum of...
dated 1208 Saka (1286 CE) refer Sumatra as "Svarnabhumi", as counterpart of "Bhumijava" (Java). While the term Suvarnadvipa (Golden Island) is usually identified with the island of Sumatra, numerous Arab writers have identified the whole Malay archipelago as the location of Suvarnabhumi. In an illustrated ancient Nepalese manuscript, a picture is entitled "Suvarnnapure Sri-Vijaya-pure Lokanatha" or (the image of) Lokanatha (AvalokiteSvara) in Sri Vijaya-pura in Suvarnnapura, which refer to the powerful Sri Vijaya kingdom located in Southeast Asia. Even as late as the 16th century A.D., it have been recorded that Budhagupta, a Buddhist monk, visited two islands called Suvarnadvipa located in the eastern sea of India. In 1478, King Dhammazedi from the Mon kingdom of Ramannadesa, erected ten stone inscriptions written with Mon and Pali
Páli
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language. The inscriptions stated that his kingdom is also known as Suvannabhumi. The stone inscription is known among scholars as the "Kalyani Sima" or "Kalyani Inscription". The inscription deal mainly with the reform undertaken by the king to purify Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Buddhism in his kingdom. According to Tibetan source Dharmapala (7th cent. A. D.) and Dipankara Atisa (11th Century A. D.) have visited Suvarnadvipa.
Suvannabhumi and Buddhism
Suvannabhumi has been mentioned in various Theravada Buddhist text such as Milindapanha, Mahaniddesa and Jatakas. In the Sri Lanka chronicle MahavamsaMahavamsa
The Mahavamsa is a historical poem written in the Pali language, of the kings of Sri Lanka...
(4th Century AD), it stated that after the conclusion of the Third Buddhist Council
Third Buddhist council
The Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama in Pataliputra, supposedly under the patronage of Emperor Asoka. The reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption and bogus monks who held heretical views...
, two monk Sona and Uttara were sent to Suvannabhumi for missionary activities. It is known from local inscriptions that Theravada Buddhism definitely existed in Lower Burma by the 5th century AD. Chinese sources which have been dated to around 240 A.D. have mentioned a Buddhist kingdom by the name of Lin-Yang, which scholars have identified as the ancient Pyu
Pyu
Pyu city states were a group of city-states that existed from c. 2nd century BCE to late 9th century CE in present-day Upper Burma . The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant...
kingdom of Beikthano which is 300 km north of Yangon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
, the same Chinese sources also mentioned a kingdom by the name of Chin-Lin (“Golden Wall”) located on a large bay, which some scholar have identified as the Mon kingdom of Thaton.
See also
- PyuPyuPyu city states were a group of city-states that existed from c. 2nd century BCE to late 9th century CE in present-day Upper Burma . The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant...
- DvaravatiDvaravatiThe Dvaravati period lasted from the 6th to the 13th centuries. Dvaravati refers to both a culture and a disparate conglomerate of principalities.- History :...
- History of Burma
- History of ThailandHistory of ThailandTai peoples who originally lived in southwestern China, migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of many centuries. The oldest known mention of their existence in the region by the exonym Siamese is in a twelfth-century A.D. inscription at the Khmer temple complex of Angkor Wat in...
- Third Buddhist CouncilThird Buddhist councilThe Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama in Pataliputra, supposedly under the patronage of Emperor Asoka. The reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption and bogus monks who held heretical views...
- Asoka
- Suvarnabhumi AirportSuvarnabhumi AirportSuvarnabhumi Airport , also known as Bangkok International Airport, is an international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. It was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September...