Page 17 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

even the shadow of its glory would still be told about the great stories repeated in a
nostalgic moment. That’s it—if a historical romanticism Yamin created is kept on track
then the fall of Majapahit shall mean the second era of Nusantara in unity shall come to an
end as well. But, in the turbulent never ending history, the power of history which has been
exposed by the boost of nationalist spirit eventually succeeded in establishing a modern
country—the Republic of Indonesia, a unity of national politics which went ashore to the
coast of hopes to fight for.
If only there is or isn’t any note to be used as a measurement to determine the level
of luck of the center of power then indeed it has to be said that the Sriwijaya kingdom—a
system of power which Yamin said as the first uniting power in the history of the nation—is
not as lucky as Majapahit. Wasn’t the glory of Majapahit recorded and remembered and
even its fall was said in a saying—“sirna ilang krta ning bhumi”? This saying did not only
express the coming of “the end period”, but also functioned as the number of years (1470
Caka or 1478 AD). However, it was not like that with Sriwijaya—its dynamics of historical
journey was known but its initial era could only be identified after the understanding on
the historical symbol was obtained, which was presented by the inscriptions left, while its
ending was based more on the hypothesis which came from the understanding of various
sets of events it experienced—the attack from the Chola kingdom and Pamalayu which
was conducted by Kertanagara from the Singasari kingdom at the end of 13th century.
Moreover, was what happened approaching the end of 14th century when Sriwijaya, which
showed the impression of not wanting to admit the dominance of Majapahit, which was
attacked and destroyed by this center of power rising up at the eastern tip of Java island.
Then, allegedly after experiencing the almost total damage, the remains of the center
of Sriwijaya kingdom became a stopover and inhabitance of Chinese pirates. As of the
incidence, the name of Sriwijaya was slowly forgotten and eventually just disappeared in
memory, but its historical appearance was unlikely to just vanish. So, no wonder there had
been debates up to 1970s on the location of the center of Sriwijaya kingdom.
If the pages of history shall be turned over again then it will be clear that once in the era
of Sriwijaya kingdom was not only a center of political power with trading and maritime
activities incomparable in the Nusantara waters. According to a foreign report, especially
from China and India, the capital of Sriwijaya was one of the centers of knowledge
where the scientists thoroughly learned the teaching and philosophy of Buddhism. The
role of Sriwijaya as the center of knowledge was told by I Tsing, a Buddhist monk, who
purposefully came to live in Sriwijaya to explore Buddhism before continuing his study

Introduction 17

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