What is "sanfotsi"

Sanfotsi , also written as Sanfoqi, was a wealthy trading polity in Southeast Asia mentioned in Chinese sources dated from the Song dynasty circa 12th century. In 1918, George Cœdès concluded that Chinese forms of San-fo-ts'i (Sanfoqi), Fo-ts'i (Foqi), Fo-che (Foshi), Che-li-fo-che (Shilifoshi), which correspond to Arabic Sribuza and can be reconstructed as Śribhoja, are names referring to Srivijaya empire, located in Palembang, South Sumatra, in present-day Indonesia.

According to Chinese sources, Sanfotsi was an empire that controlled many territories in the strait of Malacca, eastern Sumatra and the Malay peninsula. It was purportedly a large thalassocracy ruled by a high-king exercising sovereignty over several states that were dependencies of Sanfotsi. Although some considered Sanfotsi to refer to Palembang proper, recent scholars say its territorial extent was more vast.