‘Destroying candi as bad as murder’

Bujang Valley Study Circle chief V Nadarajan nevertheless welcomes rebuilding effort.

PETALING JAYA: Destroying a candi is equivalent to murder, according to Bujang Valley Study Circle chairman V Nadarajan.

He made the comment as he welcomed Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir’s announcement that the the candi at Bujang Valley Site 11 would be rebuilt.

“It would not be as authentic, but it teaches a lesson to those who destroy it,” he told FMT today. “Destroying it is equivalent to premeditated murder.”

Mukhriz said yesterday that the construction company that destroyed the candi had agreed to rebuild the the historical site at its own expense.

Controversy regarding the famed 8th century temple remnants known as Candi Sungai Batu or Bujang Valley Site 11 arose on Nov 29 when it was reported to have been destroyed by a housing developer.

The Tourism and Culture Ministry declared the area as a heritage site on Dec 3. The site has also been shortlisted for Unesco consideration as a world heritage site.

Kedah exco Tajul Urus Mat Zain added a new dimension to the controversy during the recent Umno general assembly when he said that gazetting the location as a heritage site would rob BN politicians of Malay votes.

This will not be the first time that Candi Sungai Batu will be rebuilt. It was damaged at least once before the recent destruction, but was reconstructed in 1974.

Bujang Valley is one of the earliest entry points to the Malay peninsula for ancient Indian sailors.

Excavations at the archaeological site have revealed the remains of a jetty, iron-smelting areas and a clay-brick monument dating back to 110 AD, which makes it the oldest man-made structure known in Southeast Asia.

Nadarajan, who is the author of Bujang Valley: Wonder That Was Ancient Kedah, recommended that the developer consult himself and the head of Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Global Centre for Archaeology, Mokhtar Saidin, in its reconstruction effort.

“Mokhtar can reconstruct and I can assist,” he said. “I have seen it 20 to 30 times and I have plenty of photographs.”