poobalan.com

While its a well-known fact that Lembah Bujang (Bujang Valley) hosts proof of early Hindu civilization, recent findings suggests that it may even predate Angkor Wat, making it the oldest civilization in the region (though I think local civilization existed before Hindus came to Southeast Asia, while some claim classic Angkor civilization was from 800-1300 AD).  The findings are remains of two buildings – an administration site and an iron smelter, calculated to be as old as 3rd century AD, predating Angkor (12th till 14th century). The iron smelter is a surprise as it indicates the technology was quite advanced at that time. According to one of the researchers:

“We have dated artifacts from what we believe are an administration building and an iron smelter to 1,700 BP (years before present) which sets the Bujang civilisation between the third and fourth century AD,” he told AFP.

“We have only one date so far so we can say it is one of the earliest civilisations in the region but with more dates we will be able to verify whether it is the oldest civilisation in the region,” he added.

Mokhtar said the iron smelter was a surprise find as it showed that such an early civilisation was already quite advanced technologically.

Most interestingly, one would say the original religion of northern Malaysia is Hinduism, just for the record 🙂

noelbynature says:

I think the comparison to Angkor is really a red herring – after all, many sites in Southeast Asia is older than Angkor and (the wat itself built in the 11th or 12th century). What’s really significant about the story is the evidence for iron smelting – in this case, it’s the earliest found in Malaysia so far, although it should be noted that the range of ironworking activities in Southeast Asia dates as early as 1,500 BCE and as late as 500CE – which makes the Bujang Valley site quite late on the scale.

Posted on March 18th, 2009