page_title: Langkasuka
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Langkasuka / Location
caption_attribution_description: English: Mao Kun map from Wubei Zhi, among the places shown are: from top right to left, Songkla (孫姑那), Langkasuka (狼西加), Kelantan river (吉蘭丹港), Trengganu (丁架路)
context_page_description: Langkasuka was an ancient Malay kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. The name is Sanskrit in origin; it is thought to be a combination of langkha for "resplendent land" -sukkha for "bliss". The kingdom, along with Old Kedah, is probably among the earliest kingdoms founded on the Malay Peninsula. The exact location of the kingdom is of some debate, but archaeological discoveries at Yarang near Pattani, Thailand suggest a probable location. The kingdom is believed to have been founded in the 2nd century.
  According to the legend given in the Kedah Annals, the kingdom was founded and named by Merong Mahawangsa. Another proposal suggests that the name may have been derived from langkha and Ashoka, the legendary Mauryan Hindu warrior king who eventually became a pacifist after embracing the ideals espoused in Buddhism, and that the early Indian colonizers of the Malay Isthmus named the kingdom Langkasuka in his honour. Chinese historical sources provided some information on the kingdom and recorded a king Bhagadatta who sent envoys to the Chinese court.
context_section_description: Chinese and Arab sources placed the ancient kingdom on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula.  The New Book of Tang mentioned that Langkasuka bordered on Pan Pan, and a map in the Ming Dynasty military treatise Wubei Zhi locates it south of Songkla near Pattani River.  A 15th century Arab text similarly places the kingdom south of Songkla.  The only contradictory information comes from a later Malay text Hikayat Marong Mahawangsa which placed it on the west coast as the predecessor of modern Kedah, although its sovereign had some association with Pattani.  Chinese, Arab and Indian sources all considered Kedah and Langkasuka to be separate geographical entities. The Javanese poem Nagarakretagama placed it north of Saiburi, however it appears to imply that it was originally located on the west coast but was transferred later to the east.
  In 1961, taking account of the various sources, the geographer and historian Paul Wheatley concluded that Langkasuka should be located near to the modern town of Pattani. French archaeologist and historian Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h concurred, and proposed the former estuary of the Pattani River near Yarang as the likely location of Langkasuka.  He also suggested that whole area between Pattani, Saiburi and Yala may be part of Langkasuka. Modern archaeological explorations have uncovered ruins near Yarang, a village fifteen kilometers south of Pattani, which may be of the city described in Liangshu.  The city was located inland 10 miles from the coast and connected to the rivers leading to the sea via canals.  Silting of the waterways may have led to its decline.
caption: Mao Kun map from Wubei Zhi showing Langkasuka (狼西加) near the top right (Songkla further to its right, and Kelantan River and Trengganu to the left).
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