Srivijaya's remains
Statues and inscriptions.
Khifzhon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Firzafp — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cendy00 — CC BY 4.0 · Cendy00 — CC BY 4.0
South Sumatra's provincial museum in Palembang, named after Balaputradewa, one of the best-known kings of the Srivijaya maritime empire, which ruled Southeast Asia's trade routes from Palembang between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. The museum shows Srivijaya's remains: stone and bronze statues, copies of ancient inscriptions and temple fragments, alongside collections on South Sumatra's cultures: gold-threaded songket textiles, jewellery, tools and old manuscripts. The highlight of its garden is a rumah limas, Palembang's traditional timber house, pictured on the ten-thousand-rupiah note. Entry is a token fee of about five thousand rupiah, and the museum opens in daytime on working days, so check hours before visiting. An hour is enough, and it is a good introduction before the Srivijaya archaeological park and the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II museum in the city.
Statues and inscriptions.
The house on the 10,000 note.
Gold thread.
North Palembang, on Jalan Srijaya
A Buddhist maritime empire founded at Palembang in the seventh century that controlled the Strait of Malacca and the region's trade for centuries, and was a centre of learning visited by monks from China and India.