Bujang Valley

The Bujang Valley (Malay: Lembah Bujang) is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately 224 square kilometres (86 sq mi) situated near Merbok, Kedah, between Gunung Jerai in the north and Muda River in the south. It is the richest archaeological area in Malaysia.[1]

A seated Bodhisattva carved in terracotta, from site 21/22

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These archaeological remains show that there was a Hindu-Buddhist polity here. In Sanskrit the term bhujanga refer to serpent, thus the name itself is roughly translated into "Serpent Valley".[2] The area consists of ruins that may date more than 2,535 years old. More than fifty ancient tomb temples, called candi (pronounced as "chandi"), have also been unearthed. The most impressive and well-preserved of these is located in Pengkalan Bujang, Merbok. The Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum is also located here. In the area of Bujang Valley known as Sungai Batu, excavations have revealed jetty remains, iron-smelting sites, and a clay brick monument dating back to AD 110, making it the oldest man-made structure to be recorded in Southeast Asia.[3]

The local rulers adopted Hindu-Buddhist Indian cultural and political models earlier than those of Kutai in eastern Borneo, in southern Celebes or Tarumanegara in western Java, where remains showing Indian influence have been found dating from the early 5th century. Relics found in the Bujang Valley are now on display at the archaeological museum. Items include inscribed stone caskets and tablets, metal tools and ornaments, ceramics, pottery, and Hindu icons.

For the past two decades, students from universities around Malaysia have been invited for research and have done their graduate works at the Valley. Much of the historical links is still vague considering not many of the scriptures and writings survive. Even the temples did not survive the onslaught of age because their wooden roofing has rotted and withered over the past 1,200 years. The museum itself is inadequate and not organised, much of the findings are elsewhere scattered from Museum Negara to Singapore (which once formed a part of Malaysia). Folk stories and oral history also provide place for a magnificent kingdom of jewels and gold. Outside peninsular and insular Southeast Asia, oral history in India suggests the presence of golden chariots and jewels in hidden caves at Bujang Valley and Mount Jerai. Some visitors to the antiquity department at Muzium Negara has eyewitness accounts of magnificent objects such as a 10-feet-tall Raja Bersiung Throne and various idols and items from the Valley.

On 1 December 2013, it was reported that, a 1,200-year-old Hindu Temple at the site, identified as Candi No. 11, had been demolished by a land developer.[4] Candi 11 was one of the most ancient of the old Kedah kingdom and was amongst 17 registered candi.[5] In the face of public criticism, the Kedah State Government sought to deflect blame by claiming that it was powerless to do anything because the land was privately owned and further, that the site had not been gazetted as a historical site.[6] After the controversy, the Tourism and Heritage Ministry has agreed to consider gazetting the Bujang Valley as heritage site [7]

Before the 1970s, the research in Bujang Valley was done by western archaeologists, the most prominent ones include H.G .Quaritch Wales, Dorothy Wales, and Alastair Lamb.

After the 1970s, local archaeologists were trained to continue the research there. With the strong support of the Malaysian Government, excavations and reconstructions of sites were done in Bujang Valley by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University of Malaysia in collaboration with The Department of Museums and Antiquity. The most prominent local archaeologist who did research in the Bujang Valley was Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) who wrote and publish countless books and articles on this topic. He introduced a periodisation of the history of Bujang Valley as well as a theory which explains about the process of indigenisation of the Indian Culture which formed the socio-economic make up of the polity.

Other earlier local archaeologist who significantly contributed to the research of Bujang Valley include Leong Sau Heng (University of Malaya), Mohd Supian Sabtu (University of Malaya), Kamarudin Zakaria (Museums Department), Zulkifli Jaafar (Museums Department), and Zuliskandar Ramli (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). After 2008, The Centre for Global Archaeological Research (CGAR) from University Sains Malaysia, led by Mohd Mokhtar Saidin explored a new archaeological complex which reveals dozens of new sites, said to be dated from 2nd Century C.E.

Presently, a number of new researchers are being trained in local and foreign universities to continue the research in Bujang Valley in the future. They were trained in a number important sub-disciplines of archaeology which include Epigraphy, Palaeography, Hindu-Buddhist Architecture, Metallurgy, historical archaeology, Maritime Archaeology and Palinology which will contribute immensely to future research.

In 2014 candi 11 was demolished by the developer for building of the housing project, the issue was highlighted by media, as the result of that the government now employed a security guard to safeguard some candis particularly the Candi Batu Pahat at museum site.

The Bujang Valley is currently in the process of being nominated by Malaysia into the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2013. In 2017, the government announced that they will make more research and conservation efforts in the valley to preserve its outstanding universal value. The site's inclusion to the world heritage list is backed by diplomats from India, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Japan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.[8][9][10]