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.