The Bujang Valley: Malaysia's Ancient Hindu Heartland

Before Islam, before the sultanates, before the British — a sprawling complex of Hindu-Buddhist temples stood in the Bujang Valley of Kedah, in the far north of the Malay Peninsula. For over a thousand years, this was a crossroads of the Indian Ocean trade, where Sanskrit inscriptions, Tamil merchants, and Chinese pilgrims met. Episode 197 of The Story of Malaysia digs into the archaeology of Sungai Batu — the oldest evidence of civilisation in Malaysia, dating back to the 5th century BCE — and the red earth that rewrites the peninsula's history. We trace the rise and fall of Kedah Tua, the Sailendra and Chola connections, and the mysterious abandonment of the temples. And we ask the uncomfortable question: why did a civilisation this sophisticated vanish so completely that even its stones were forgotten? With Lucas and Luna walking through the ruins, the inscriptions, and the debates among archaeologists, this is a story about how we know what we know — and what we might never know about Malaysia's deepest past.

#BujangValley #KedahTua #SungaiBatu #MalaysianHistory #HinduBuddhist #Archaeology #Srivijaya #Sailendra #CholaDynasty #IndianOceanTrade #AncientMalaysia #SoutheastAsianHistory #HistoryPodcast #FexingoHistory #MalayPeninsula #HinduTemples #BuddhistMonuments #Langkasuka

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