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it was spiritually fulfilling. Near the base of the mountain the picturesque Sungai Merbok flowed from the wild inland into the Strait of Malacca. The river and possibly its tributary, Sungai Bujang, provided ample depth and space for ships to berth and for cargoes to be loaded upon them from the jetties on their banks. The Bujang must have been called thus due to the snake-like way in which the slender river wended across the land. The name was thus inspired from bhujanga , the Sanskrit word for a serpent. Incredibly, many of these iron-smelting furnances have been discovered intact by archaeologists and local residents in recent years. There are also other astounding remnants of the population that flourished there in ancient times. The land around the mountain was famed to be extremely rich in deposits of iron and other minerals. Most iconic ancient building Scores of artefacts, including religious buildings, statues and inscriptions from the Hindu-Buddhist civilisation of that period, have been excavated in Kedah, as well as in Seberang Perai and Perak. A fine collection of these precious items are on permanent display at the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum in Merbok, along the southern foothill of Gunung Jerai. Behind the museum lies the most iconic ancient structure in Malaysia – the Candi Bukit Batu Pahat ( see front cover pic ). This temple dates back to the period between the 7th and 12th centuries CE. Today, only the concrete base of the candi , as such ancient religious buildings are called in Malay, remains. The pillars and roof, made of wood, have not survived the ravages of time. But its architecture is still breathtaking to observe, what with the forested slope of the mountain in the background, as lush and naturally verdant as it was before.

The Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum gives visitors an awe-inspiring look into the distant past. – HIMANSHU BHATT/THESUN Bujang Valley reminds us that our ancestors were vibrant people linked to the wider world through trade, culture and ideas Reconnecting with a vanished civilisation

islands now known as the Andaman and Nicobar. Having restocked supplies and undertaken necessary repairs, it moves again, following the coastal outline of the Malay Peninsula that appears on the east. The vessel eventually reaches the southernmost point of the Andaman Sea where it meets the Strait of Malacca. It is then that the occupants of the ship spot the majestic landmark that they have long been waiting to see. Rising faraway along the horizon on land is an imposing and unmistakably

bulky mountain with a sharp peak looming as though welcoming their arrival into the strait. Ancient iron smelting For many, the mountain known as Gunung Jerai must have been sacred, and the voyage they were making akin to a pilgrimage. But there was another important purpose for the ship, filled with merchants, prospectors, navigators and monks, to have made the long and difficult trip. The land around the mountain was famed to be extremely rich in deposits of iron and other minerals. In fact, the iron was so abundant and pure that it was mined and smelted at various sites locally to be exported to other parts of the world, including Persia, Arabia, India and possibly even the Mediterranean territories of Greece and Rome. The area was spontaneously called Kattaaha , which is the Sanskrit word for a cauldron or heating pan. Indeed, such furnaces were used by hundreds of labourers employed at these sites to heat and melt the raw excavated iron to be shaped into ingots suitable for shipment. With mild adjustment in pronunciation over the centuries, the land of Kattaaha is now known as Kedah. And the vast basin south of Gunung Jerai that is most concentrated with ancient artefacts from that period is named the Bujang Valley. For the native people who inhabited the sprawling settlements around the magnificent mountain, the environment there was as geographically fortuitous as

BY HIMANSHU BHATT newsdesk@thesundaily.com

I MAGINE a scene from about 1,500 years ago of a trading ship made of solid timber unfurling its large sails and departing from a port somewhere along the eastern coast of India. Making its way southward on the stormy or placid waters of the Bay of Bengal, its sailors and passengers find rest weeks later among the cluster of

This Kala head (6th/7th century CE), carved from green schist stone as ornamentation for temple stairs, was found in Kampung Sungai Mas. – HIMANSHU BHATT/THESUN

The Perahu Sagor consists of original pieces of a boat built in the 3rd century CE for transporting goods along Sungai Muda. – HIMANSHU BHATT/THESUN