Srivijaya
Srivijaya was a Buddhist thalassocracy (meaning an empire at sea) based on the island of Sumatra with its capital being (most likely) Palembang (to which the Chinese referred as Jugang meaning giant city/harbor). The empire spanned from the Malay peninsula to central Java. Srivijaya was founded around the year AD 650 and (barring a 20 years period of Chola rule in the XI century) existed as an independent state until 1288 when it was the conquered by the kingdom of Singhasari (which after a civil war 5 years later became the empire of Majapahit). Majapahit ultimately put an end to Srivijaya in 1398 by crushing the last remnants of the old empire, those being the kingdom of Singapura and absorbing its territory into Majapahit proper. Srivijaya was a major trading center, controlling both the straits of Malacca and Sunda, w ith ports located along the entirety of northern Sumatra, it was responsible for the flow of goods (such as rice, cotton, indigo, silver, gold, aloe,...