REVIEWING THE ROLE OF THE MALACCA STRAIT

REVIEWING THE ROLE OF THE MALACCA STRAIT

The Strait of Malacca is one of the most strategic straits in Asia. This strait is located between two countries, Indonesia (Sumatra) and Malaysia. This strait also has a very important and very vital role. What are the roles of the Malacca Strait?

According to brainly.co.id, the Malacca Strait has been a very strategic area since the days of the Sriwijaya Kingdom. This strait becomes the entry route for foreign traders, a crossing route for students who will study in India, as well as the gateway to the entry of Islam in the archipelago.

The position of the Malacca Strait in the world of trade and shipping is very important, considering the position of the Malacca Strait which divides the two countries also has an important impact on kingdoms in the archipelago. Foreign traders from the plains of east Asia (China) and also India passed through the Malacca Strait to reach the archipelago and stopped at royal-owned port ports around the Malacca Strait such as the Srivijaya kingdom to peddle the merchandise they brought from China and India, as well as nation-wide traders. the nation also carried out their trade in the Malacca Strait.

The impact for the kingdoms in the archipelago was the recognition of their main commodity in trade by foreign traders who stopped at their port airports. The position of the Strait of Malacca is also very important in the world of shipping, the shipping pattern at that time which was still based on the wind climate affected various shipping activities such as fishing, fishing, cross-sea trade, inner or outer shipping that crossed the Malacca Strait. The Malacca Strait was often crossed by various merchant ships which caused the traffic of the Malacca Strait to be very dense and crowded. When this strait was under the Sriwijaya Kingdom. The Srivijaya Kingdom which regulated shipping traffic at that time was in accordance with the rules set by the kingdom. This shows that the Malacca Strait has an important role in the world of shipping because this strait is often traversed by various types of ships, be it merchant ships or ships from kingdoms in the archipelago as well as in the Malaya and Tumasek regions (Singapore).

During the Srivijaya Empire, this kingdom was very active in sending students who wanted to study Hinayana Buddhism to India. The Sriwijaya Kingdom is actively holding student exchanges who want to study Buddhism in India, besides Sriwijaya being the center for teaching Buddhism in the archipelago, how do students who are going to study in India get there? The answer is by making a voyage to India, which route to take? The answer is that students who want to study in India go on a voyage to India through the Strait of Malacca for 6 months or depending on how the prevailing wind patterns are, students who want to study in India must go through the voyage through the Malacca Strait with the route of travel.

Sriwijaya- Strait of Malacca- Bay of Bengal- India

The route for this journey took 6 months

The Malacca Strait also has an important role in the spread of Islam in the archipelago, based on the Gujarat theory (put forward by Snouck Hurgronje and J. Pijnapel), it is said that Islam entered from Gujarat India-the Strait of Malacca (Pasai) spread to Java and other parts of the archipelago. It is also proven by the tombstone of Sultan Malik As-Salih and the strong Sufism pattern. Evidence that the role of the Malacca Strait in the spread of Islam in the archipelago is very important because it is the gateway to the entry of Islam in the archipelago. And from the Malacca Strait, Islam could enter and develop so that the Islamic Kingdoms were born, which had control over almost the entire archipelago and had strong naval vessels such as the kingdoms of Aceh and Sriwijaya to protect their territorial sea sovereignty. Until now, the Malacca Strait is still the center of trade and shipping for Asian nations.

 (Summarized from various sources)

Photo source: economibisnis.com