Seeking the onetime 'Venice of the East'

Seeking the onetime 'Venice of the East'

Zulkifli Mohamad, Contributor, Palembang, South Sumatra

"Why Palembang?" a colleague asked when I told of my plans to
spend a weekend in the capital of South Sumatra.

My obvious comeback was to look for the remnants of Sri
Wijaya, the famous maritime kingdom of Southeast Asia, which led
to its being called the "Venice of the East" from the 7th century
to the 9th century.

Although he helped me get the information I needed to travel
to the city, he warned me that there was little left to see of
the glory of Sri Wijaya, now most frequently spelled Sriwijaya,
which had once spanned across Southeast Asia.

"It's not like Majapahit, with temples scattered all around,"
he said of the country's other great kingdom.

So, I set off for Palembang, stopping at a small hotel listed
in the Lonely Planet guide. I then made my first trip out onto
Jl. Sudirman, one of the city's main streets, to get some food as
the city slipped into the darkness of the evening.

I tasted my first empek-empek, the Palembang food speciality,
cakes made of fish and flour, fried and served with a sauce made
from chili, garlic and brown sugar, very much in the same style
as the Chinese yong tau foo, for a light dinner.

Then it was back to my gloomy hotel room, where I read up on
old research papers published in the 1970s about Sri Wijaya's
origins. Historians are still debating about the actual site of
the kingdom; one theory has it that Palembang was the island
capital and Chaiya in Thailand the mainland capital. Another
theory suggested that the capital was in Chih Tu (presently
Kelantan of northeast peninsular Malaysia) or even Lang-Ya-Shiu
or Langkasuka (now Pattani in the southern part of Thailand).

But perhaps the center of the administration shifted from one
place to another following the power of the king and family. Even
in Palembang, the researchers are still working on the actual
site of Sri Wijaya. The only Sri Wijaya writing is from the
journal of I Tsing, a Chinese trader who traveled from Canton to
Palembang in 671 before continuing his journey to India in 672.

Accompanied by a guide, my first destination to visit was
Bukit Seguntang, about seven kilometers from the city center,
which was considered the holy hill for the people at the time,
mainly Buddhist Mahayana. Archeological excavations have
uncovered building bricks and roof tiles (believed to be the
remnants of a vihara (temple) on top of the hill, which stands 27
meters above sea level), as well as a Buddhist statue in the
style of the Sri Wijaya kingdom (the statue is now at the
National Museum in Jakarta).

Bukit Seguntang is still considered a sacred place, protected
by guardians of the many cemeteries on the hill, believed to be
the princesses and warriors of the Sri Wijaya kingdom. My guide,
who told me that he was the descendent of the Palembang sultanate
with Javanese royal blood, took me to the Archaeology Park of the
Sri Wijaya Kingdom.

There is an inscription that symbolizes the birth of the Sri
Wijaya Kingdom written in Pallava, an old Malay language. It says
the king and his 20,000 soldiers built a settlement known as Sri
Wijaya in 683 AD around the foot of Bukit Seguntang. One of the
displays is a brick structure excavated from Pulau Cempaka
(Cempaka Island), with interconnected canals found in the park,
which can be navigated toward the Musi River, the famous waterway
that cuts through Palembang.

In my mind I was thinking, "But what's left to be found of Sri
Wijaya?" We went onto the Museum of South Sumatra, the state
museum. Indeed, it is a must-visit museum, if you would like to
know more about Palembang and not just about Sri Wijaya. It
houses some of the most recent archaeological findings, as the
most important ones are in the National Museum. Still, its
stories about the region's history are very useful because they
points out how to discover the Palembang sultanate's history, the
arts and crafts, incl.

At the back of the museum, there's a "rumah limas",
traditional house, synonymous with Palembang, although,
unfortunately, it was closed on the day I visited. I walked
around and looked at some of the traditional houses still in use
in the area.

It is said that the special character comes from the shape of
the roof, which is pyramidal or trapezoidal-shaped. Another
interesting identity is the three tilted ends of the roof, a
characteristic that bears some resemblance to Chinese temples and
houses of the nobility.

The house of a well-known weaver, known as the "House of
Zainal", though newly constructed, attempts to reconstruct the
Palembang house, and it is a charming new addition in the middle
of the old houses. Zainal also created a small arts and crafts
exhibition in one of the rooms, styled with Palembang wedding
decorations and songket, the traditional textile of the area.

The next day I went in search of the wet market. That led me
along the end of the little alleyways at the edge of the
riverbank. Rakit houses float by on bamboos underneath, people
with their baskets and boxes wait for the boat to cross the river
to the village. The village is an idyllic picture, featuring old
houses, large and small, with clay roof tiles.

Certainly, it made for a peaceful morning to sit down, sip my
Sumatran coffee and breakfast on Padang food while watching the
water life of Palembang pass by along the Musi, all 80 kilometers
of it, as the Ampera Bridge, built in the 1960s, stands strongly
over it. This 1.77-kilometer-long bridge was built in honor of
the sacrifices made for the independence fight.

I later walked to the site of Mesjid Besar (the Grand Mosque),
which is going through massive renovation to return it to the old
design of the Palembang sultanate. The mosque is a hodgepodge of
various designs from construction carried out in 1897, 1930, 1952
and the 1960s, but I could not enter it because work was under
way.

The street behind the mosque was such a delight for me as it
was full of shops and workshops selling Palembang's famous
furniture and lacquerware. Along the street I found three little
shops selling antiques, from ceramics to old brassware. The last
shop on the street was a real treasure trove -- with a collection
from Sri Wijaya, Palembang, Lampung and other places.

I found two krises believed to be from Sri Wijaya and another
from a smaller kingdom upriver from Musi. It brought my trip to a
satisfying end, but I told myself that I would return to
Palembang, more interesting than my friend had said it would be,
especially for a cruise along the Musi.