The oldest building to be recorded in Southeast Asia has been discovered in the Bujang Valley. It is a clay brick ritualistic monument that has been dated back to 110 AD. Hismanshu Bhatt has the story in theSun: The Bujang Valley rises at last THE next time you happen to be anywhere near the northern side of Penang or the southwestern stretch of Kedah, turn your gaze northward; you will see in the horizon the silhouette of a large mountain with a sharp peak.
I strolled around Market Street, Chulia Street and Jalan Kapitan Keling from 8.00pm and the place was bustling with activity. Some quick impressions of the George Town World Heritage City Day celebrations: Entire stretches of roads were closed to vehicles. But people didn’t seem to mind at all. They just soaked in the festive atmosphere along the streets. And they actually looked happier and more relaxed without the traffic around them. Instead of businesses being affected, cafes, restaurants and shops in Little India and elsewhere were packing in the crowds, and their doors were kept open later later than usual.
Bujang Valley, one of several Indianised kingdoms in Southeast Asia, existed long before neighbouring empires such as Majapahit (1200 AD) and Sri Vijaya (700 AD). View Larger Map The early Bujang Valley civilisation between the first and the fifth century (earlier than previously thought) was probably based on animism before coming under Hindu and Buddhist influence from the fifth to the fourteenth century. Now, here’s the strange thing: most Malaysians and visitors know about Malacca and Penang as historical sites, but few have even heard of the Bujang Valley. (Today is actually George Town World Heritage City Day, a holiday in Penang from this year.) In fact, very few residents of Penang and Kedah know about the fascinating archaeological museum amidst reconstructed Hindu and Buddhist temple foundations, discovered in the valley and relocated to the museum grounds, near a gurgling stream on a lush hill-slope in Merbok in Kedah. The [Read more]
The Penang Forum, a coalition of public interest groups and individuals, notes with dismay that Boustead is claiming compensation from the MPPP for consequential losses in having to reduce its hotel from 12 to five storeys. Before the matter develops further, perhaps Boustead would wish to reconsider its position carefully taking the long-term big-picture view and the following. Boustead should not have been given approval for 12 storeys in a heritage area in the first place by the previous administration. It was the Federal Government that chose to apply for and accept having George Town and Melaka jointly inscribed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, which brought with it several obligations, one of which was to restrict the height of new buildings in the core zone. The Penang Government was merely its fulfilling international obligation. Not to have done so was unthinkable; losing the listing so soon after getting [Read more]
You know they are supposedly “upgrading” the Penang Hill Railway. So what’s going to happen to all the vintage machinery (scroll down that page to see the equipment) that pulls up the funicular trains? There are two sets of such equipment to pull up the trains, one at the middle station and the other at the summit station. The other day, I met a friend and he told me that someone from the UK was in Penang recently, interested in acquiring the wheel that pulls the cable (and the trains) up. Apparently, there is a funicular railway in Devon in the UK that is interested in the equipment.