Southeast Asia 1200

The Chinese Jin Dynasty had driven the Song Dynasty to the south of China. But, in 1161, they won two decisive naval battles using new-fangled paddle-wheel warships mounted with trebuchets. Thereafter, they remained secure until the arrival of the Mongols. To the south, Srivijaya was in decline, enervated by competition between rival power bases in Palembang and Jambi, and progressively ousted from the Malay peninsula by the Pagan Empire, which reached its zenith under Narapatisithu (r. 1174–1211). The Pagan, in their turn, would then lose vitality, sapped by excessive donations of tax-free land to the Buddhist clergy. The Khmer were resurgent under Jayavarman VI (r. 1181–1219), who drove the Champa from his captured capital, Angkor, and eventually vanquished them after a long war. The Kediri in eastern Java also, briefly, posed a threat to Srivijaya’s waning maritime power, but were abruptly overthrown by the Singhasari (1122).