New Light on Lembah Bujang (Letter to Editor)

An interesting article on Lembah Bujang which needs a deep analysis on the subject. This civilization is being forgotten and only given lukewarm reception. It’s only highlighted when new finding or sites are discovered, by the mainstream media.
My first knowledge about the subject was during my school day,a very brief introduction during history lesson which we all took lightly.
In 1985 after my SPM examination,my school cadet police platoon participated in the annual camping of all cadet police platoons from schools around Kuala Lumpur. lts happens to be I was one of the participants. The annual camping was held at Sungai Petani Field Force Police Camp.
During my training there,we were taught jungle survival and part of the course was that our platoon had to go through the jungle and return back to the camp. It was at this time during the training that l had my first encounter with the “Chandi”, the old remnants of Indian civilization.
One of my platoon members shouted: `This is the Chandi’. Being in my teen age l did not realize the significance and the importance of the place at the time.
After our long walk in the jungle and being tired, we all stood on the Chandi steps for awhile after which we were asked to move on. At the time the entire place was like a open park. There was no fencing or gates to protect or preserve the Chandis.
Now I hear there are some efforts being taken to preserve the old civilization and sadly at the same time that some of the old remnants of the civilisation are being destroyed.
It’s time now to look into the new findings seriously, to preserve the site and create more awareness among the public at large and especially among the school children about this once grand civilisation that laid the foundation for what we have in Malaysia today. This should be ideally done through the history subject.

History Enthusiast,

M. Loganathan.

Archive picture from Says.com

(The developer who destroyed the Candi is said to have agreed to rebuild it.)