“…Furthermore, Southeast Asian nations south of Vietnam did not approach territory, historically in the same way as China (and to some extent, Vietnam). For those nations which were maritimebased, territories were not clearly demarcated, and power revolved around the mandala (Alverdian, 2022;Gin, 2022;Dellios, 2003). The mandala concept delimited the scope of influence of a King through the idea of a cakravartin (powerful ruler) where power was the strongest in the centre of the circle (which could be the place of his palace) and as one moved further away from the centre, the authority of the powerful ruler weakened (Ahamat & Alias, 2018).…”