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(, ; Pali: , ; lit. "golden land") is a toponym, that appears in many ancient Indian literary sources and Buddhism texts such as the Mahavamsa ,"To Suvarnabhumi he Moggaliputta sent Sona and Uttara"; Mahānāma, The Mahāvaṃsa, or, The Great Chronicle of Ceylon , translated into English by Wilhelm Geiger, assisted by Mabel Haynes Bode, with an addendum by G.C. Mendis, London, Luzac & Co. for the Pali Text Society, 1964, Chapter XII, "The Converting of Different Countries", p.86. some of the Jataka tales,Sussondi-Jātaka, Sankha-Jātaka, Mahājanaka-Jātaka , in Edward B. Cowell (ed.), The Jātaka: or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births , London, Cambridge University Press, 1897; reprinted Pali Text Society, dist. by Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969, Vol. III, p.124; Vol. IV, p.10; Vol. VI, p.22J. S. Speyer, The Jatakamala or Garland of Birth-Stories of Aryasura, Sacred Books of the Buddhists , Vol. I, London, Henry Frowde, 1895; reprint: Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1982, No.XIV, Supâragajâtaka, pp.453-462. the Milinda Panha R.K. Dube, "Southeast Asia as the Indian El-Dorado", in Chattopadhyaya, D. P. and Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture (eds.), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization , New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, Vol.1, Pt.3, C.G. Pande (ed.), India's Interaction with Southeast Asia , Chapter 6, pp.87-109. and the Ramayana''.
Though its exact location is unknown and remains a matter of debate, Suvarṇabhūmi was an important port along trade routes that run through the Indian Ocean, setting sail from the wealthy ports in Basra, Ubullah, and Siraf, through Muscat, Malabar Coast, Ceylon, the Nicobars, Kedah and on through the Strait of Malacca to fabled Suvarṇabhūmi. (1963). 9780520054622, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520054622
Ian Glover, Emeritus Reader in Southeast Asian Archaeology at the University of London, has said: “It is widely accepted in the 21st century that Suvarnabhumi as reported in early Indian literature was not a specific location which can be marked on a map. Rather, it was an idealised place, perhaps equivalent to Atlantis in Western history, a distant somewhere to the east of India where traders, sailors, and Buddhist and Hinduism teachers went to make their fortunes and spread their teachings and bring back gold and other exotic products desired by a rising elite and the wealthy classes at home.”Ian Glover, “Suvarnabhumi – Myth or Reality?”, Banchā Phongphānit& Somčhēt Thinnaphong (ed.), Suvarnabhumi: the Golden Land: the New Finding for Suvarnabhumi Terra Incognita, Bangkok, Thailand, GISTDA and BIA, 2019, pp.11-16.
means 'golden land' or 'land of gold' and the ancient sources have associated it with one of a variety of places throughout the Southeast Asian region.
It might also be the source of the Western concept of Aurea Regio in Claudius Ptolemy's Trans-Gangetic India or India beyond the Ganges, and the Golden Chersonese of the Greek and Roman geographers and sailors. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to the Land of Gold, Chryse, and describes it as “an island in the ocean, the furthest extremity towards the east of the inhabited world, lying under the rising sun itself, called Chryse... Beyond this country... there lies a very great inland city called Thina”.Lionel Casson (ed.), Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Princeton University Press, 1989, p.91. Dionysius Periegetes mentioned: “The island of Chryse (Gold), situated at the very rising of the Sun”. Dionysios Oecumenis Periegetes (Orbis Descriptio), lines 589-90; Dionysii Orbis Terrae Descriptio
Or, as Priscian put it in his popular rendition of Periegetes: "if your ship… takes you to where the rising sun returns its warm light, then will be seen the Isle of Gold with its fertile soil."”At navem pelago flectenti Aquilonis ab oris / Ad solem calido referentem lumen ab ortu, / Aurea spectetur tibi pinguibus insula glebis”; Priscianus Caesariensis, Periegesis Prisciani (lines 593-594), in Habes candide lector in hoc opere Prisciani volumen maius, Venetiis, Boneto Locatello, 1496, p.281. Avienius referred to the Insula Aurea (Golden Isle) located where “the Scythians seas give rise to the Dawn”.Rufius Festus Avienius, Descriptio orbis terrae, III, v.750-779. Descriptio orbis terrae Josephus speaks of the " Aurea Chersonesus", which he equates with the Old Testament Ophir, whence the ships of Tyre and Israel brought back the gold for the Temple of Jerusalem."Solomon gave this command: That they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold."; Antiquities, 8:6:4. The city of Thina was described by Ptolemy’s Geography as the capital city of the country on the eastern shores of the Magnus Sinus (Gulf of Thailand).
Some have speculated that this country refers to the Kingdom of Funan. The main port of Funan was Cattigara Sinarum statio (Kattigara the port of the Sinae).George Coedès, review of Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese (Kuala Lumpur, 1961), in T'oung Pao 通報, vol.49, parts 4/5, 1962, pp.433-439; Claudius Ptolemy, Geography, Book I, chapter 17, paragraph 4; Louis Malleret, L’Archéologie du Delta du Mékong, Tome Troisiéme, La culture du Fu-nan, Paris, 1962, chap.XXV, "Oc-Èo et Kattigara", pp.421-54; "Mr. Caverhill seems very fairly to have proved that the ancient Cattagara sic is the same with the present Ponteamass Banteaymeas, and the modern city Cambodia Phnom the ancient metropolis of Sinae, or Thina", The Gentleman's Magazine, December 1768, "Epitome of Philosophical Transactions", vol.57, p.578; John Caverhill, "Some Attempts to ascertain the utmost Extent of the Knowledge of the Ancients in the East Indies", Philosophical Transactions, vol.57, 1767, pp.155-174.
Due to many factors, including the lack of historical evidence, and the absence of scholarly consensus, various cultures in Southeast Asia identify Suvarṇabhūmi as an ancient kingdom there, and claim ethnic and political descendancy as its successor state.Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, The Ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Chieng Mai, Silkworm Books, 2010, p.55. As no such claim or legend existed before the translation and publication of the Edicts, scholars see these claims as based on nationalism or attempts to claim the title of the first Buddhists in Southeast Asia.
The oldest archaeological evidence of Indianized civilization in Southeast Asia comes from central Burma, central and southern Thailand, and the lower Mekong Delta. These finds belong to the period of Funan Kingdom or Nokor Phnom, present-day Cambodia, and South Vietnam including part of Burma, Laos, and Thailand, which was the first political centre established in Southeast Asia. Taking into account the epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the Suvarṇabhūmi mentioned in the early texts must be identified with these areas.Pang Khat, «Le Bouddhisme au Cambodge», René de Berval, Présence du Bouddhisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1987, pp.535-551, pp.537, 538; Amarajiva Lochan, "India and Thailand: Early Trade Routes and Sea Ports", S.K. Maity, Upendra Thakur, A.K. Narain (eds,), Studies in Orientology: Essays in Memory of Prof. A.L. Basham, Agra, Y.K. Publishers, 1988, pp.222-235, pp.222, 229-230; Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, The Ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Chieng Mai, Silkworm Books, 2010, p.55; Promsak Jermsawatdi, Thai Art with Indian Influences, New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1979, chapter III, "Buddhist Art in Thailand", pp.16-24, p.17. Of these areas, only Funan had maritime links with India through its port at Óc Eo. Therefore, although Suvarṇabhūmi in time was broadly applied to all lands east of India, particularly Sumatra, its earliest application was probably to Funan. Furthermore, the Chinese term of “Funan” for Cambodia, may be a transcription of the " Suvaṇṇa" in “Suvaṇṇabhumī”.
In December 2017, Dr Vong Sotheara, of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, discovered a Pre-Angkorian stone inscription in the Province of Kampong Speu, Basedth District, which he tentatively dated to 633 AD. According to him, the inscription would “prove that Suvarnabhumi was the Khmer Empire.” The inscription was issued in the reign of Isanavarman I (616–637 AD) of the Cambodian Chenla, the successor of Funan and the predecessor of Khmer Empire. The inscription, translated, read:
“The great King Isanavarman I is full of glory and bravery. He is the King of Kings, who rules over Suvarnabhumi until the sea, which is the border, while the kings in the neighbouring states honour his order to their heads”.The Inscription is the oldest found mention of Suvarṇabhūmi in Southeast Asia, identifying it with Chenla. The inscription is now exhibited in the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. However, his claim and the findings are yet to be peer-reviewed, and remain in doubt with other historians and archaeology experts across the region. Rinith Taing, “Was Cambodia home to Asia’s ancient ‘Land of Gold’?”, The Phnom Penh Post, 5 January, 2018.
There are several sites within Mon State that local archaeologists cite as Suvarṇabhūmi. Suvarnabhumi City in Bilin Township is one such site with limited excavation work. The site, called Winka Old City by other archaeologists, contains 40 high-grounds of which only four have been excavated. The Winka site, along with nearby walled sites like Kyaikkatha and Kelasa, have been dated as early as the sixth century. While the archaeology of early Lower Burmese sites requires more work, other urban centres in Myanmar like the Sri Ksetra Kingdom in modern Pyay were Buddhist as early as the 5th century.
The scholarly search for Suvannabhumi within Myanmar is attached to various nationalistic and religious narratives about Suvannabhumi. The fifteenth century legend of Shwedagon Pagoda enshrining a few hairs of the Buddha brought back by Mon merchants highlights the cultural significance placed on early Buddhist missionaries in Myanmar. In many such legends, the narrative of the conversion of Suvarṇabhūmi is that it Burmanizes key historical Buddhist figures.
According to Thai chronicles, around 241 BCE, during the times that two named Sona Thera and Uttara Thera came from Magadha to spread Buddhism to Suvarṇabhūmi, the majority of the kingdom's population were Mon people, while Thai people arrived later, around 50 BCE. The Suvarnabhumi Kingdom was destroyed by the invasion of Funan around the 1st-2nd centuries, and most of its population was forcibly moved to Funan resulting in it being left abandoned. After Funan lost to Bhavavarman I of Chenla in 550, Suvarṇabhūmi de facto became a tributary state of Chenla as well.
The kingdom's area reached Lamphakappa Nakhon (ลัมภกัปปะนคร, present-day Lampang) in the north, and was ruled in mandala style with five royal cities, including Suvarnabhumi (the present old town of Nakhon Pathom), Ratchaburi, Singburi, Phetchaburi, and Tanintharyi.
The area surrounding the old capital of Suvarnabhumi was resettled in 590 when Sri Sittichai Phromthep (ท้าวศรีสิทธิไชยพรหมเทพ) from Yossothon (possibly the city in Chenla) established the new city, Nakhon Chai Si (old name of the present-day Nakhon Pathom). Most of its population were Thai people from the Ngao River, Yom River, and Salween River river basins. Lavo Kingdom was also founded during such a period. Both later created a new kingdom, Dvaravati; however, the new capital together with the other nearest settlement, Pong Tuek (พงตึก, present-day Ratchaburi) were sacked by Chenla 300 years later, around the 8th-9th centuries. After that, the center of Dvaravati culture shifted to Lavo Kingdom, and the people of the sacked Dvaravati moved westward and founded a new city in 807 in the area of the present-day Ladya subdistrict, Kanchanaburi (Kanchanaburi old city) while the affected area was almost left abandoned. The new settlement was named Suvarṇabhūmi and was then renamed Sri Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi, respectively.
At the peak of power around the 13th-14th centuries, the border of the new Suvarṇabhūmi or Suphannabhumi met Lavo Kingdom at the Pasak River in the east, the west to Dawei on the coast of the outer sea (Andaman Sea), northwest to the south of Mawlamyine, which was the sea trading harbor of the Chaliang Kingdom (Si Satchanalai), while the south to the tip of the Malay Peninsula, and the north to Phraek Siracha (present-day Sankhaburi). In 1351, the Suphannabhumi Kingdom was merged into its succeeding state, Ayuttaya, after its last ruler, Uthong, moved eastward to create a new capital Ayutthaya on present-day Ayutthaya Island.
The term Suvarṇabhūmi ('land of gold') is commonly thought to refer to the Southeast Asian Peninsula, including lower Burma and the Malay Peninsula. However there is another gold-referring term Suvarnadvipa (the Golden Island or Peninsula, where “– dvipa” may refer to either a peninsula or an island), which may correspond to the Indonesian Archipelago, especially Sumatra. Both terms might refer to a powerful coastal or island kingdom in present-day Indonesia, possibly centered on Sumatra or Java. This corresponds to the gold production areas traditionally known in Minangkabau Highlands in Barisan Mountains, Sumatra, and interior Borneo. The eighth-century Indian text Samaraiccakaha describes a sea voyage to Suvarnadvipa and the making of bricks from the gold rich sands which they inscribed with the name “ dharana” and then baked.Dube, 2003: 6 These pointing out to the direction of western Insular Southeast Asia, especially Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Java.
Benefitting from its strategic location on the narrow Strait of Malacca, the insular theory argued that other than actually producing gold, it might also be based on such a kingdom's potential for power and wealth (hence, "Land of Gold") as a hub for sea-trade also known from vague descriptions of contemporary Chinese pilgrims to India. The kingdom referred to as the center of maritime trade between China and India was Srivijaya. Due to the Written Chinese, however, the interpretations of Chinese historical sources are based on supposed correspondences of ideograms – and their possible phonetic equivalents – with known toponyms in the ancient civilizations. Hendrik Kern concluded that Sumatra was the Suvarnadvipa mentioned in ancient Hindu texts and the island of Chryse mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and by Rufius Festus Avienius.H. Kern, "Java en het Goudeiland Volgens de Oudste Berichten", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Volume 16, 1869, pp.638-648.[7]; See also Gabriel Ferrand, "Suvarņadvīpa", in L'empire sumatranais de Crivijaya, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1922, p.121-134.
The Chinese pilgrim and Buddhist scholar Yijing (義淨), visited the kingdom of Srivijaya on Sumatra in 672 and identified it with Suvarnadvipa, the Island of Gold (金洲 jin-zhou).“Yi-tsing designates this country both under the name of Fo-che and Che-li-fo-che; he twice calls it 金洲 kin-tcheou "the island of gold": "金洲 kin-tcheou Jinzhou exactly embraces Suvarna-dvipa.” Gabriel Ferrand, « Le royaume de Çrivijaya », Journal Asiatique, tome xiv, Juillet-Août 1919, p.155, citing Edouard Chavannes, Mémoire composé à l'époque de la grande dynastie T'ang sur les religieux éminents: qui allèrent chercher la loi dans les pays d'Occident, par I-Tsing (Memoire composed in the time of the Great T'ang dynasty on the eminent religious who went to seek the Law in the countries of the West, by Yijing), Paris, E. Leroux 1894, pp.179, 181, 186; I-ching, Chinese Monks in India: Biography of Eminent Monks who went to the Western World in search of the Law during the Great T'ang Dynasty, translated by Latika Lahiri, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1986, pp.120, 137.
The interpretation of early travel records is not always easy. Javanese embassies to China in 860 and 873 CE refer to Java as rich in gold, although it was in fact devoid of any deposits. The Javanese would have had to import gold possibly from neighbouring Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula or Borneo, where gold was still being mined in the 19th century and where ancient mining sites were located.Colless, 1975; Miksic, 1999: 19; Manning et al., 1980 Even though Java did not have its own gold deposits, the texts make frequent references to the existence of goldsmiths, and it is clear from the archaeological evidence such as Wonoboyo Hoard, that this culture had developed a sophisticated gold working technology, which relied on the import of substantial quantities of the metal.Wahyono Martowikrido, 1994; 1999
The Padang Roco Inscription of 1286 CE, states that an image of Buddha Amoghapasa Lokeshvara was brought to Dharmasraya on the Upper Batang Hari - the river of Jambi - was transported from Bhumi Java (Java) to Suvarnabhumi (Sumatra), and erected by order of the Javanese ruler Kertanegara: the inscription clearly identifies Sumatra as Suvarṇabhūmi.Gabriel Ferrand, "Suvarņadvīpa", in L'empire sumatranais de Crivijaya, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1922, p.123-125; See also George Coedès, Les états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie, Paris, De Boccard, 1948, p.337.
Butuan on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao was so rich in treasures that a museum curator, Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, stated it was even richer than the more well-known western maritime kingdom of Srivijaya; “The astonishing quantities and impressive quality of gold treasures recovered in Butuan suggest that its flourishing port settlement played an until recently little-recognized role in early Southeast Asian trade. Surprisingly, the amount of gold discovered in Butuan far exceeds that found in Sumatra, where the much better known flourishing kingdom of Srivijaya is said to have been located.” This despite that most of the gold of Butuan were already looted by invaders.
The history of geography thus shows us how the Gold and Silver Islands were constantly, so to speak, wandering towards the East. Marco Polo spoke, in the most exaggerated language, of the wealth of gold in Zipangu, situated at the extremity of this part of the world, and had thus pointed out where the precious metals should preferably be sought. Martin Behaim, on his globe of 1492, revived the Argyre and Chryse of antiquity in these regions.
In 1519, Cristóvão de Mendonça, was given instructions to search for the legendary Isles of Gold, said to lie to "beyond Sumatra", which he was unable to do, and in 1587 an expedition under the command of Pedro de Unamunu was sent to find them in the vicinity of Zipangu (Japan). The Travels of Pedro Teixeira, tr. and annotated by W.F. Sinclair, London, Hakluyt Society, Series 2, Vol.9, 1902, p.10; H. R. Wagner and Pedro de Unamuno, "The Voyage of Pedro de Unamuno to California in 1587", California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jul., 1923), pp. 140-160, p.142.[8] According to Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, in 1528 Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in the ship Florida on a voyage from the Maluku Islands to Mexico reached a large island which he took for the Isla del Oro. This island has not been identified although it seems likely that it is Biak, Manus Island or one of the Schouten Islands on the north coast of New Guinea. “Alvaro de Saavedra….anduvieron 250 Leguas, hasta la isla del Oro, adonde tomaron Puerto, que es grande, y de Gente Negra, y con los cabellos crespos, y desnuda”; Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano, Madrid, 1601, Decada IV, libro III, cap.iv, p.60. June L. Whittaker, (ed.), Documents and Readings in New Guinea History: Pre-history to 1889, Milton, Jacaranda, 1975, pp,183-4.
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