This post will be divided into the following sections:

1. Disclaimer
2. Introduction to the “Mandala” Political Model
3. Early Recorded History of Sriwijaya
4. International Centre(s) of Buddhism
5. Sriwijayan Foreign Policy and Trade
6. Decline and Absorption by Singhasari-Majapahit
7. The Legacy of Sriwijaya Today
8. Conclusions
9. References

1. Disclaimer

Today the world is connected more than ever, but ironically, the vast swathe of information has overwhelmed us all. It is difficult to tell which sources of information are trustworthy, and which ones are, to borrow from the great philosopher Donald Trump, “fake news”. Thus, I believe that it is important for me to be transparent and begin this piece of writing with a disclaimer.

First of all, I am not a historian. My qualifications are in pharmaceutical science and I have a Masters’ degree in Biomedical Engineering. That being said, I have had the chance to work for the Indonesian Embassy in Spain for a few years, and I am in regular correspondence with networks from the Indonesian Foreign Service. My day-to-day routine requires me to keep up to date with national and international politics, study foreign languages, as well as to continuously learn about history and culture.

Secondly, I may have a bias when approaching the topic of Sriwijaya, especially on the theme of religion, as I myself am a practicing Buddhist. A lot of my studies about this are motivated by a desire to study the Hindu-Buddhist heritage of my own country and to preserve it. Indonesian Buddhists of various ethnic backgrounds: Chinese, Javanese and Palembang-Malays are particularly proud of Sriwijaya's legacy, as we shall see later in Section 7 of my essay.

Third, I will only be relying on published books and research journals, which I will provide the links for (wherever possible) so that you may check them out for yourself. An exception will be made for a picture of the Borobudur temple, as well as some sources for Section 7 “The Legacy of Sriwijaya Today”, as I will show some photos and videos of people in present-day Sumatra. I shall provide the original sources of those pictures/videos.

The goal of this essay is not to produce a peer-reviewed paper, but simply to provide you with some basic information about Sriwijaya. As such, my essay will be directed for a general audience and will skip some details for the sake of simplicity. I encourage you to give me feedback after you have read it and to point out mistakes

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Do your worst!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

They’re on standbi

Pilot on me!!

Nothing, he was gladiator.

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

[Removed]

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

You take away their little brooms

There hasn't been a post all year!

Why

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

After all his first name is No-vac

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap

There hasn't been a single post this year!

(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)

Nothing, it just waved

Him: I can explain everything!

(It's his best joke yet I think)

Bob

So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."

Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! 😀 Thank you for the awards.

Just to clarify, 12345678

Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...

Notices there's only 2;

Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."

I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.

I was just sitting there doing nothing.

But nobody ever mentions his sister, Onya, who invented the starter pistol.

“BOOM”?!