I have an interest in history, specifically the movement of peoples across regions and the settlements they founded. Sometimes when I am in a very old or ancient place, I try to imagine the sights and sounds of the place when it was thriving. On a visit to the Colosseum in Rome, I stood and looked around and somewhere in the back of my mind I could see and hear the crowds, the noise, the activity… One of my favourite photos from that visit was a picture of my feet and the feet of a few people around me - coincidentally all clad in sandals.
I had looked down at my feet for a moment and saw the symmetry with 2000 years before when other feet, similarly shod, stood on those very steps too, their owners watching Gladiators face imminent death in battle against man or beast.
One of these areas is Lembah Bujang, or the Bujang Valley. I’d come across it in 2007 when I was cycling through the area. I had then made a detour to check out the Museum, regularly signposted on my route. I had, for some reason, expected an easy ride down into a valley but instead faced the steepest climb of my ride. It was then that I realised valleys could be at a high altitude - they were, after all, simply the gap between two or more mountains.
And so Lembah Bujang turned out to be. The Museum was not a very inspiring place and as I could not then lock the bicycle and my bags anywhere safe, I could not explore the Chandis (burial structures) scattered around. I swore then that I would make a return trip but it wasn’t until 11 years later that I did. This time by car, and with my wife in tow.
Pantai Merdeka is at the mouth of the Merbok River and when I went there in 2007, there was a set of chalets which were being renovated, a large hawker centre, a broad expanse of beach and a seawall upon which I dozed through the hottest of the midday sun, as an endless line of fishing boats chugged past, bringing their catch up river.
We drove along a familiar hilly road and arrived at a place that tickled some memories though some changes were evident. The chalets were now a medium-sized resort and the hawker centre was still there. Even larger than I remembered, actually. There was a seawall still, but as it was high tide, I could not see if the beach still remained. I could see a narrow strip of sand not inundated by seawater so perhaps the wide expanse was still there. Across the river we could see some buildings, though overall the area did not appear over-developed.
What we could not find, though, was food and drink of any kind. It was Ramadhan and every single shop was closed. We walked around a little, looking for something, anything that might be open. A few workmen renovating some of the facilities were resting under a shelter and as we walked past I asked if there was anywhere we could have lunch and their answer was in the negative. And so, after walking around the entire area, we decided to drive back the way we’d come and hoped to find something to eat somewhere.
Perhaps Pantai Merdeka’s target audience is mainly Malay. I can’t help but think though that this is an opportunity lost - that there is here some potential for local or foreign tourism and if so, then services need to cater for all.
We eventually drove in to Sg Petani and found a fantastic lunch stop. An Indian Rice stall that looked unremarkable but the food turned out to be anything but. If you’re ever in Sg Petani, look for the Hong Leong Bank at Jalan Kampung Baru, Taman Patani Jaya.The stall is in the block next to it, along the main road.
Around the back of the museum, scattered in a large well-tended garden area are a few sets of Chandis, reassembled on this spot for visitors to look at. Also on display are some artefacts from the era. There were a few heavy stone presses which we thought were for threshing or husking grain but turned out to be for squeezing juice.
The name Bujang is based on the Sanskrit Bhujanga which means Serpent and so this area could be called Serpent Valley. It is the site of a Hindu-Buddhist settlement that dates back more than 2500 years. Like the museum, the Chandis we looked at here were not inspiring - poor signage and the fact they’ve been displaced somehow diminished the sense of wonder that we were looking at some very old structures.
And boy did we…
As we drew up to the only site with a carpark, a young man on a motorbike was dragging a barrier across the entrance. When I mentioned what we wanted to do though, he happily dragged it back and let us in, inviting us to take our time.
We left the car in the carpark which was big enough for a few coaches. There was even a public toilet structure as well as a ticketing booth. It was now near closing time though so the place was deserted save for those who worked on the site and who stayed overnight to protect the area.
We wandered in past the open gate. All around the site was oil palm estate but within it lay bare earth under a number of shelters. The various excavation plots were marked off with string so we could not get too close. The first one on the left had a sign that explained it was last an iron foundry and dated back to 100AD!
Around us were other plots with signage indicating what it was and when it dated back to. One further in was a large mound which had now been excavated to reveal a large circle of bricks with a circular opening in the centre. A large mirror hung from the roof, allowing us a glimpse into this hole. A banner hanging further back also showed a colour photograph with an overhead view of this structure.
Another plot was laid out in a checkerboard pattern and gave us some insights into the process of excavation. This plot had been divided into roughly one square meter sections. Each alternating square was then slowly excavated. As the hole grew, so did the walls around them. Artefacts could thus be found as the square was dug up, or revealed in the walls of the adjoining square, in 3D. Notes marking out discovered artefacts were pinned here and there.
This area had been an oil palm estate and oil palm trees had been grown over these plots until the significance of the area became known and there was commitment to doing an archaeological dig. In the last few years, quite a few areas have been marked off for digs and they were similar to the one we were now in, save for not having any visitor facilities.
On a normal day I guess there would be a guide here to explain things. On this evening we had only the signs and a few quick questions asked of the young man who’d let us in.
From what we could tell, the Sg Batu area has been populated since around 100AD and was settled for at least a thousand years. Quite remarkable. Sg Batu itself is a small river just at the back of this site we were in. It fed into the much larger Sg Merbok which headed out to the sea where we were earlier in the day - at Pantai Merdeka. Abundance of fresh water was probably the reason this area could remain populated for such a long time.
As I looked around at the oil palm plantations surrounding us, I wondered what else it was about this place that compelled a little knot of civilisation to plant itself here for over a thousand years. What manner of man had trudged through jungles to reach this point? Why had they wandered these hills and how did they live?
We spent an hour or so wandering around the site then told the young man we’d seen earlier we were leaving and we dragged the barrier across behind us as we drove out. I’d certainly like to come back again one day when there is a guide we can pose some of our questions to. There’s so much of our history that’s been buried (pun intended) and I’d like to know more about the Peninsular’s early inhabitants.
I'd encourage you to go have a look at Sg Batu as well. A lot of our history has been hidden by historians and educators who favoured an Islamic slant, ignoring the fact a Hindu and Buddhist empire once had an outpost here.
I had looked down at my feet for a moment and saw the symmetry with 2000 years before when other feet, similarly shod, stood on those very steps too, their owners watching Gladiators face imminent death in battle against man or beast.
Before the time of Christ or the Romans, there were people here.
Long before the Roman Empire was even a bright idea in a hunter-gatherer’s limited mind, there were people already settled in the Malay Peninsula. The earliest visitors and colonisers were people form South Asia, who’d travelled through what is now Burma and Thailand to settle in the northern part of the Peninsular.
One of these areas is Lembah Bujang, or the Bujang Valley. I’d come across it in 2007 when I was cycling through the area. I had then made a detour to check out the Museum, regularly signposted on my route. I had, for some reason, expected an easy ride down into a valley but instead faced the steepest climb of my ride. It was then that I realised valleys could be at a high altitude - they were, after all, simply the gap between two or more mountains.
And so Lembah Bujang turned out to be. The Museum was not a very inspiring place and as I could not then lock the bicycle and my bags anywhere safe, I could not explore the Chandis (burial structures) scattered around. I swore then that I would make a return trip but it wasn’t until 11 years later that I did. This time by car, and with my wife in tow.
I remembered a beach...
We drove northwards from Penang one morning, taking a detour to a little beach area called Pantai Merdeka, hoping to stop there for lunch. I’d spent an afternoon here on my ride and I hoped there’d still be a hawker centre we could have lunch at.Pantai Merdeka is at the mouth of the Merbok River and when I went there in 2007, there was a set of chalets which were being renovated, a large hawker centre, a broad expanse of beach and a seawall upon which I dozed through the hottest of the midday sun, as an endless line of fishing boats chugged past, bringing their catch up river.
We drove along a familiar hilly road and arrived at a place that tickled some memories though some changes were evident. The chalets were now a medium-sized resort and the hawker centre was still there. Even larger than I remembered, actually. There was a seawall still, but as it was high tide, I could not see if the beach still remained. I could see a narrow strip of sand not inundated by seawater so perhaps the wide expanse was still there. Across the river we could see some buildings, though overall the area did not appear over-developed.
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| This little kitten ambled along with us for a couple of hundred meters. |
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| Everything was shut and mostly devoid of life, except for these two girls zooming around on an electric scooter. |
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| Boat ramp for launching the life guard vessel. |
What we could not find, though, was food and drink of any kind. It was Ramadhan and every single shop was closed. We walked around a little, looking for something, anything that might be open. A few workmen renovating some of the facilities were resting under a shelter and as we walked past I asked if there was anywhere we could have lunch and their answer was in the negative. And so, after walking around the entire area, we decided to drive back the way we’d come and hoped to find something to eat somewhere.
Perhaps Pantai Merdeka’s target audience is mainly Malay. I can’t help but think though that this is an opportunity lost - that there is here some potential for local or foreign tourism and if so, then services need to cater for all.
Past Padi fields and into the valley
We headed back out past the beautiful padi fields, full of young green padi, poking up through the surface of the irrigated plots. This part of the country is really the rice-bowl of the nation and the miles and miles of padi fields can be exquisitely picturesque, depending on the season.
We eventually drove in to Sg Petani and found a fantastic lunch stop. An Indian Rice stall that looked unremarkable but the food turned out to be anything but. If you’re ever in Sg Petani, look for the Hong Leong Bank at Jalan Kampung Baru, Taman Patani Jaya.The stall is in the block next to it, along the main road.
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| She's responsible for the great lunch we had. |
An 'ancient' museum of ancient stuff
Lunch done, we drove up that steep road to the museum, parked the car and walked in. No entrance fee is imposed and I am glad because the quality of the museum and the exhibits leaves a lot to be desired. Lighting is poor, the exhibits are poorly curated, the airconditioning is not switched on and on this sweltering day this was severely uncomfortable. We didn’t stay long.Around the back of the museum, scattered in a large well-tended garden area are a few sets of Chandis, reassembled on this spot for visitors to look at. Also on display are some artefacts from the era. There were a few heavy stone presses which we thought were for threshing or husking grain but turned out to be for squeezing juice.
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| You're at the Museum when you see this weird sculpture in the carpark. |
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| A large diorama showing the surrounding area. In 2007, I saw the hills and my blood froze - I hate cycling up hills... |
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| They were a pretty advanced civilisation even all those years ago. |
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| The sign says that big stone wheel was used to press cane juice. A mistake? |
The name Bujang is based on the Sanskrit Bhujanga which means Serpent and so this area could be called Serpent Valley. It is the site of a Hindu-Buddhist settlement that dates back more than 2500 years. Like the museum, the Chandis we looked at here were not inspiring - poor signage and the fact they’ve been displaced somehow diminished the sense of wonder that we were looking at some very old structures.
We dug up something much more interesting
We got back in the car and drove off to Sg Batu some kilometres away, along Highway 253. We’d seen signs for the digging sites there so thought we’d see more interesting things there.And boy did we…
As we drew up to the only site with a carpark, a young man on a motorbike was dragging a barrier across the entrance. When I mentioned what we wanted to do though, he happily dragged it back and let us in, inviting us to take our time.
We left the car in the carpark which was big enough for a few coaches. There was even a public toilet structure as well as a ticketing booth. It was now near closing time though so the place was deserted save for those who worked on the site and who stayed overnight to protect the area.
We wandered in past the open gate. All around the site was oil palm estate but within it lay bare earth under a number of shelters. The various excavation plots were marked off with string so we could not get too close. The first one on the left had a sign that explained it was last an iron foundry and dated back to 100AD!
Around us were other plots with signage indicating what it was and when it dated back to. One further in was a large mound which had now been excavated to reveal a large circle of bricks with a circular opening in the centre. A large mirror hung from the roof, allowing us a glimpse into this hole. A banner hanging further back also showed a colour photograph with an overhead view of this structure.
Another plot was laid out in a checkerboard pattern and gave us some insights into the process of excavation. This plot had been divided into roughly one square meter sections. Each alternating square was then slowly excavated. As the hole grew, so did the walls around them. Artefacts could thus be found as the square was dug up, or revealed in the walls of the adjoining square, in 3D. Notes marking out discovered artefacts were pinned here and there.
This area had been an oil palm estate and oil palm trees had been grown over these plots until the significance of the area became known and there was commitment to doing an archaeological dig. In the last few years, quite a few areas have been marked off for digs and they were similar to the one we were now in, save for not having any visitor facilities.
On a normal day I guess there would be a guide here to explain things. On this evening we had only the signs and a few quick questions asked of the young man who’d let us in.
From what we could tell, the Sg Batu area has been populated since around 100AD and was settled for at least a thousand years. Quite remarkable. Sg Batu itself is a small river just at the back of this site we were in. It fed into the much larger Sg Merbok which headed out to the sea where we were earlier in the day - at Pantai Merdeka. Abundance of fresh water was probably the reason this area could remain populated for such a long time.
As I looked around at the oil palm plantations surrounding us, I wondered what else it was about this place that compelled a little knot of civilisation to plant itself here for over a thousand years. What manner of man had trudged through jungles to reach this point? Why had they wandered these hills and how did they live?
We spent an hour or so wandering around the site then told the young man we’d seen earlier we were leaving and we dragged the barrier across behind us as we drove out. I’d certainly like to come back again one day when there is a guide we can pose some of our questions to. There’s so much of our history that’s been buried (pun intended) and I’d like to know more about the Peninsular’s early inhabitants.
I'd encourage you to go have a look at Sg Batu as well. A lot of our history has been hidden by historians and educators who favoured an Islamic slant, ignoring the fact a Hindu and Buddhist empire once had an outpost here.
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