KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — The developer who tore down a millennia-old temple ruin in Lembah Bujang has agreed to reconstruct the historical monument on its original site, Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has confirmed.
He said Bandar Saujana Sdn Bhd also agreed to bear the costs to rebuild the prehistoric temple ruin.
“[The developer] regret their action and have agreed to cordon off the site from their housing development project.
“The company agreed to rebuild the candi structure based on the original plan, at the original site 11,” he told reporters after chairing the state executive council meeting in Alor Star yesterday, according to media reports.
He said the state has also engaged Universiti Sains Malaysia’s director of the Centre for Global Archaeological Research Malaysia, Prof Dr Mokhtar Saidin, and his team to propose a comprehensive plan to develop Lembah Bujang into a world-class archaeological site.
The demolition of candi number 11 was discovered by local historian Datuk V. Nadarajan and highlighted in local media by Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P. Ramasamy on November 30, triggering national anger at the treatment of the country’s historical monuments.
A spokesman for the developer previously said it was not aware that the temple ruin was a historically-significant site.
Lembah Bujang is the richest archaeological site in Malaysia and the home of the oldest man-made structure recorded in Southeast Asia — a clay brick monument nearly 1,900 years old.
Excavations on the site have also uncovered jetty remains, iron smelting sites and relics with Hindu and Buddhist influences that point towards a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom there as early as 110 CE.
