New light on Hindu-Buddhist civilisation

Archaeologists from India, US, China and South East Asia will gather here Wednesday to throw light on the thriving Hindu-Buddhist civilisation and earlier cultures that existed in the ‘Bujang Valley in Malaysia’s Kedah state between the 5th to 14th century.

According to reports archaeologists had unearthed temple ruins and artefact’s dating back to more than 1500 years there.

Nearly 28 academic papers are scheduled to be presented at the international conference on “Bujang Valley and Early Civilisations” in South-East Asia organised by the centre and the Department of National Heritage of Malaysia.

Researchers from University Sains Malaysia (USM) recently found ancient furnaces for iron smelting in Jeniang, the size was estimated to be 35 km in radius compared to 15 kms in radius before.

“This means the Bujang Valley civilisation area encompassed about 1,000sq km three times the size of Penang island and not 400 sq km as thought before,” Team leader Assoc Prof Dr Mokhtar Saidin said.