ABSTRACT
Tambralinga is one of the small and shadowy States in early South East Asian history. Its geographical identity has been established with some certainty. The State is associated with the coastal lands round the Bay of Bandon in the narrowing waist of the Malay Peninsula. The evidence for its geographical identification has been drawn from a variety of documents. The ambiguity in the archaeological evidence has been matched by a lack of precision in references to the area in literary records. The vagueness of the knowledge concerning the political status of Tmbraliga can be partly attributed to the meagre and ambiguous data provided by Chinese references to the area. The latest Chinese notices about Tmbraliga were more concerned with its economics than with its politics. The final period of Tmbraliga history before the Thai conquest is fragmentarily documented in some Pya inscriptions from southern India, in the supplement to the Ceylon Mahvasa, and in the Pali Jinaklamlin Chronicle of Laos.
