VISUALIZING SRIVIJAYA’S CIVILIZATION DURING THE 9TH CENTURY

Abstract

Srivijaya civilization flourished on Sumatera Island between the 7th and 13th centuries and was later famous as one of Asia's largest trading centres. Unfortunately, there have been few large-scale heritage structures and visual documents from Srivijaya, leading to a lack of visualization of the civilization in the past. Hence, the project introduced in this paper attempted to develop the visualization of Srivijaya during the 9th century, which was depicted in Indonesian history as the empire's golden period. The research began with intensive data collection involving a literature review, interviews with key experts, and field observations of the relevant museums and historical sites. The retrieved information was then analyzed and validated to formulate illustration guidelines to portray the Srivijaya civilization. The present study confirmed the lack of credible written resources to formulate more detailed illustration guidelines regarding the major limitation of producing Srivijaya civilization's visualization in the 9th century. Despite the popular knowledge that Srivijaya reached its golden period in the 9th century, there were very limited resources from the domestic and global literature that signified the situation of the empire during that time. Thus, the study suggested the necessity for developing a stronger database related to the Srivijaya's civilization. Likewise, the study would also like to underline the importance of increasing the number of knowledge holders to ensure that information about the Srivijaya culture can be passed down to future generations