Kingdom of Ligor

Tambralinga kingdom was mentioned as a destination for Indian merchants in the 3rd century CE and developed into the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom or Kingodm of Ligor in around the 13th century CE.

During the late the 13th Buddhist century trade was firmly established between Tambralinga and Southern India especially Ceylon. This resulted in an “inter marriage” between India merchants and locals.

At that time Tambralinga reached its peak in terms of economic and political powers; it was also called Nakhon Si Thammarat, or Ligor a name related to the dominant religion of the kingdom at the time, Theravada Buddhism. It was then annexed by the powerful kingdom of Ayutthaya (from the Chao Phraya River basin) in around the fifteenth century.

Ligor was an early Theravāda Buddhist stronghold based on Sinhalese Mahāvihāra teaching, and thus significantly influenced the political center in Sukhothai.

The province came under the Srivajayan Empire in the 8th century. Later, with the arrival of Buddhist monks from Ceylon, the name was changed to the Pali-Sanskrit Nagara Sri Dhammaraja (City of the Sacred Dhaima King) from which Thai phonetics created Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

In 1631 Raja Ungu of Patani Kingdom dispatched her Patani army to Ligor to liberate it from Siam control. In the aftermath of the battle, the Patani army captured two ships belonging to Siam including two Dutch traders.

Ligor was recaptured by Siamese forces. However, the two Dutch traders were still missing. This incident brought the Dutch, who were hitherto neutral observers, into the war on the side of Siam.

In the year 1765, Ayutthaya faced a grave threat like never before. The Burmese had invaded the kingdom, taking advantage of internal turmoil and division in the Siamese royal family.

In the aftermath of the war, the governor of Ligor declared his territory an independent kingdom. The new ruler of Ligor then marched his army and captured Chaiya, Chumphon, Ranong, Phuket and extended his reach as far south as Pattani and Satun.

In the absence of a higher power, the ruler of Ligor simply carved out his own kingdom in the south of Siam after the fall of Ayutthaya. At the end of the 19th century the kingdom was finally fully absorbed into Siam.
Kingdom of Ligor

Tambralinga attack Sri Lanka (1247)

Tambralinga was a kingdom comprising a considerable area of the Malay Peninsula with Ligor as its capital. Tambralinga became an important center of the Thevada Buddhist School. Pali literature from Sri Lanka regarded Tambralinga as important twelfth century center of Buddhist scholarship.

After the invasion of Rajendra Cola the Srivijaya kingdom has hardly any political control over the Malay Peninsula. Until the thirteenth century Tambralinga was a pivot in politics of the southern Bay, also having asserted its independence on the century.

Dharmaraja Chandrabhanu was a king of the Tambralinga which active period 1230-70. In 1247 he sent an expedition to Sri Lanka with the ostensible aim of obtaining a Buddhist relic and controlled the northern part of the islands.

Dharmaraja Chandrabhanu spent more than 30 years in the conquest of Sri Lanka.

But its move to take over the whole island was frustrated by the Pandyans from south India who attacked Tambralinga in alliance with Ceylon. In 1270 Chandrabhanu attacked Sri Lanka again and was defeated by the Pandays badly enough that Tambralinga had not recovered when attacked by the Siam twenty years later.

Its rapid rise to prominence since the 13th century till beginning of 14th century, Tambralinga had occupied the entire Malay Peninsula and become one of the dominant Southeast Asian States.

By the end of the 14th century, Tambralinga had become part of Siam named Nakhon Si Thammaraj.

Tambralinga attacks Sri Lanka (1247)

History of Tambralinga

Tambralinga is one of the small and shadowy States in early South East Asians history. The area was settled by Indian immigrants early in the first century.

Tambralinga emerges from the end of the tenth and the beginning of eleventh century.

The State is associated with coastal lands round the Bay of Bandon in the narrowing waist of the Malay Peninsula. Sometimes it is referred to as the State in the Ligor area.

Tambralinga sought to cultivate relations with both China and Srivijaya in the eleventh century, to balance dangers from Angkor, and later Pagan, and the Colas of South India. In 1170 Tambralinga sent an independent embassy to China.

Tambralinga became an important center of the Theravada Buddhist school.  Pali literature from Sri Lanka regarded Tambralinga as an important twelfth-century center of Buddhist scholarship.

In 1247, Chandrabhanu of Tambralinga sent an expedition to Sri Lanka with the ostensible aim of obtaining a Buddhist relic, and occupied part of the island.  The invasion occurred when Parakramabahu II was the Sinhalese king ruling at Dembadeniya.

Later in 1258 a Pandya prince, Jatavarman Sundara Pandya invaded Sri Lanka, defeated an alliance of Tambralinga forces.

In 1270 Chandrabhanu attacked Sri Lanka again and was defeated badly enough and had not recovered when attacked by the Thais twenty years later.
History of Tambralinga