ABSTRACT
Southeast Asia has long been deemed an integral part of the Sino-centric tributary system in East Asia. Studies since 1980s suggest that this region was far from a backwater, or simply an intermediate area interfacing the Indian and Confucian civilizations. Fierce competition for survival and domination among voluminous regional polities had characterized inter-polity relations in this region throughout the era before the arrival of European colonizers. 1 Against this backdrop, dynamism of inter-polity action-reaction should be considered with a tradition of knowledge in this region, the “mandala” concept.
