Far East Kingdoms

Kota Mahligai (Malays)
c.AD 1390 - 1457

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Modern Thailand occupies much of the Indochinese peninsula in South-East Asia. It is bordered by Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Burma. From the twelfth century onwards Thais expanded outwards, predominantly southwards into the Malay-Thai peninsula. State-building swiftly followed in Early Thailand to create a patchwork of kingdoms and minor principalities.

The Malay state of Kota Mahligai (shown in some references as Kota Malikha) was located in the central zone of the Malay peninsula, in what is now southern Thailand. The name translates as 'citadel town', but the location of that citadel has been lost to history.

The state itself - little more than a regional city state - was founded sometime before AD 1390 but details appear to be thin on the ground for any part of its brief history of at least seventy-or-so years. Like its lead city, its precise location is not known.

Following its establishment and after a period in which, generally, it was a vassal of Ayutthaya, Kota Mahligai transformed itself. A new capital was founded and the state was reborn as the sultanate of Patani. As a chronicle of the Patani kingdom, the Hikayat Patani backs up this fact by stating that, having been founded following the eleventh century decline of Langasaka, Kota Mahligai was the immediate predecessor of Patani.

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(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, from A History of Thailand, Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit (2005), from Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopaedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Keat Gin Ooi (ABC-Clio, 2004), from Early Mainland Southeast Asia, C Higham (River Books Co, 2014), from Encyclopaedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations, Charles F W Higham (Facts on File, 2004), and from External Links: The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, George Coedès (Walter F Vella (Ed), Susan Brown Cowing (Trans), University of Hawaii Press, 1968, and available online via the Internet Archive), and Patani in the Beginning of the XVII Century, Wayne A Bougas (Persee), and A Thai Version of Newbold's 'Hikayat Patani', David K Wyatt (Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, December 1967, available via JSTOR), and Thailand (World Statesmen), and Who's Who in the Malay Annals, P E de Josselin de Jong (Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1961, available via JSTOR).)

before 1390

The Malay state of Kota Mahligai is founded at a now-unknown location in the central part of the Malay peninsula. It is a local successor to the failed state of Langasaka and a direct predecessor of the Patani state.

?

Defeated & killed by Chau Sri Bangsa.

?

Raja.

? - c.1457

Son. Refounded the state as Patani.

c.1457

In this year the state of Kota Mahligai is refounded. According to the Hikayat Patani (a later chronicle), Phaya Tunakpa, ruler of Kota Mahligai, founds the city of Patani on a site upon which he had previously spotted an albino mouse-deer. The capital of Kota Mahligai is abandoned to disappear from history.

Today's Pattani province in southern Thailand is known for its rich cultural heritage, stunning natural landscapes, and vibrant local communities as one of four provinces which comprise this far southern area with its diverse population of Thai Buddhists, Thai Muslims, and ethnic Malay Muslims