Bujang Valley

The Bujang Valley or Lembah Bujang is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately 224 square km. Situated near Merbok, Kedah, between Gunung Jerai in the north and Muda River in the south, it is the richest archaeological area in Malaysia.

Archaeological research indicates that there was an old Hindu-Buddhist empire built here. The name itself is roughly translated into "Dragon Valley". The area consists of ruins that may date more than 1,500 years old. More than fifty ancient tomb temples, called candi, have also been unearthed, many of which were built during the Bujang Valley civilization's heyday. The most impressive and well-preserved of these is located in Pengkalan Bayang Merbok. The Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum is also located here.

Research also indicates that an ancient Hindu-Buddhist kingdom ruled here as early as 300 CE. Relics found at the site 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 has been invited for research and has 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 1200 years. The museum itself is inadequate and not organized, much of the findings are elsewhere scattered from Museum Negara to Singapore. There are also accounts by the students that many of the religious findings are either hidden or destroyed by the authorities to hide the real theory of the Kadaram (Kedah) Hindu civilization. Folk stories and oral history also provides place for a magnificent kingdom of jewels and gold. There are some oral history in India itself that suggests the presence of golden chariots and jewels in hidden caves at the Valley and Mount Jerai. Some visitors to the antiquity department at Muzium Negara has eye witness recollection of magnificent objects such as a 10 feet tall Raja Bersiung Throne and various idols and items from the Valley.

History

Early contact between the kingdoms of Tamilakam and the Malay peninsula had been very close during the regimes of the Pallava Kings (from the 4th to the 9th Century C.E.) and Chola kings (from the 9th to the 13th Century C.E.). The trade relations the Tamil merchants had with the ports of Malaya led to the emergence of Indianized kingdoms like Kadaram (Old Kedah) and Langkasugam.cite book | last = International Tamil Language Foundation| first = |title = The Handbook of Tamil Culture and Heritage| year = 2000| publisher = International Tamil Language Foundation| location = Chicago| pages = p. 877] Furthermore, Chola king Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to Kadaram (Sri Vijaya) during the 11th century conquering that country on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his protection and to have established him on the throne. The Cholas had a powerful merchant and naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Three kinds of craft are distinguished by the author of the "Periplus" – light coasting boats for local traffic, larger vessels of a more complicated structure and greater carrying capacity, and lastly the big ocean-going vessels that made the voyages to Malaya, Sumatra, and the Ganges.cite book | last = Sastri| first = K.A. Nilakanta|title = Cholas| origyear = 1935 | edition = fifth printing | year = 2000| publisher = University of Madras| location = Chennai| pages = pp. 86 & 318]

Kedah Inscription

In ancient Kedah there is an important and unmistakably Hindu settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported by Col. Low and has recently been subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah. The results attained show that this site was in continuous occupation by people who came under strong South Indian influences, Buddhist and Hindu, for centuries.cite book | last = Sastri| first = K.A. Nilakanta|title = South Indian Influences in the Far East| year = 1949| publisher = Hind Kitabs Ltd.| location = Bombay| pages = p. 82 & 84]

An inscribed stone bar, rectangular in shape, bears the ye-dharmma formula in South Indian characters of the fourth century A.D., thus proclaiming the Buddhist character of the shrine near the find-spot (site I) of which only the basement survives. It is inscribed on three faces in "Pallava script", or Vatteluttu rounded writing of the sixth century CE, possibly earlier.

In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 CE has been found. This was left by Kulothunga Chola I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.cite book | last = Arokiaswamy| first = Celine W.M.| title = Tamil Influences in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines| year = 2000| publisher = | location = Manila s.n.| pages = p. 41]

Kedah in Tanjore inscription

In the ancient city of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu are inscriptions dating from 1030 A.D. which mentions the victory of Rajendra Chola I over the Southeastern countries. The following are the places that Rajendra conquered:

*Kadaram (Kedah)
*Sri Vijaya (Palembang)
*Malaiyur (the Malayu of the 7th century, i.e. Jambi Kingdom)
*Mayuradingan (the Je-lo-ting of the Chinese on the Malay Peninsula)
*Ilangosagam (Langkasuka)
*Mappapalam, (Papphaal, placed by the Sinhalese chronicle Mahavamsa on the coast of Pegu)
*Mevilimbangan (identified with Karmaranga or Kamalanka on the isthmus of Ligor)
*Valaippanaduru (Pandurang, in Champa)
*Talaittakkolam (Takkola of Ptolemy and the Milindapandha, On the isthmus of Kra)
*Madalingam (Tambralingga, Chinese Tan-ma-ling, of which the center was at Ligor)
*Ilamuridesam (Lamuri of the Arabs, Lambri of Marco Polo at northern Sumatra)

References

ee also

* Sultanate of Kedah
* Langkasuka
* Early History of Kedah
* Red Earth Kingdom / Chi Tu

External links