# Bujang Valley: Ancient Temples and Evidence of Old Kedah's Civilisation

> A 224-square-kilometre valley in Kedah holds more than 50 Hindu-Buddhist temples and an iron-smelting site over 2,000 years old — the oldest physical evidence of organised settlement and international trade in the land that is now Malaysia.

- Category: malaysia
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/malaysia/bujang-valley

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On a flat plain near Gunung Jerai, among paddy fields and oil palm plantations, lie ancient bricks laid out centuries before Melaka existed as a port. Some of them form the base of Hindu temples. Others are iron-smelting furnaces. No sultan who ever ruled from here has a name known today — but what the society that built these temples and furnaces left behind makes the Bujang Valley one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia.

## A valley, not just one site

The Bujang Valley is not a single location. It refers to an area of roughly 224 square kilometres around Merbok, Kedah, stretching between Gunung Jerai and the mouth of Sungai Muda, with Sungai Merbok flowing through it into the Strait of Melaka. According to the Department of National Heritage (Jabatan Warisan Negara), the area holds evidence of organised settlement from the first century CE — making it one of the oldest physical records of civilised life in the land that is now Malaysia.

Within this valley, researchers have identified more than 50 Hindu-Buddhist temples, a large-scale iron-smelting site at Sungai Batu, and structures such as jetties and tiled roofs suggesting ancient port activity. The National Archives of Malaysia (Arkib Negara Malaysia) also records three main temples that have been most studied and can be visited today: Candi Bukit Batu Pahat, Candi Pengkalan Bujang and Candi Pendiat.

## Iron before temple bricks

Before the temples were built, the people of the Bujang Valley were already carrying out something rarer for the region at the time: large-scale iron industry. The Department of National Heritage records that the iron-smelting site at Sungai Batu began around the first century CE and operated continuously until the eighth century, with one furnace in the Jeniang area dated to around the third century CE. The iron produced was not merely for local use — the quantities point to production for export.

The research team that has worked longest at the site is the Centre for Global Archaeological Research (CGAR), Universiti Sains Malaysia, which began excavations in 2007 with support from the Department of National Heritage. CGAR researchers have also suggested that iron-smelting activity there may have begun much earlier — they point to dates as far back as 788 BCE based on analysed charcoal samples. This estimate remains under discussion and may change as new excavations proceed; what is not disputed is that Sungai Batu holds one of the earliest evidence of iron industry ever recorded in Southeast Asia, predating sites such as Angkor Wat and Borobudur in age.

## Temples you can visit today

Candi Bukit Batu Pahat is the best-known temple in the Bujang Valley — the only ruin that has been reconstructed on its original site, with a layout resembling a Hindu temple. Candi Pengkalan Bujang, originally located on the eastern bank of Sungai Bujang, has also now been reconstructed near the museum. Candi Pendiat completes the three main sites that are the focus of study and visits.

According to the National Archives of Malaysia, these temples are estimated to have been built between the fourth and twelfth centuries CE, with Candi Bukit Batu Pahat itself dated to around the sixth century. Their design — granite bases, brick structures, and small inner chambers for religious objects — reflects Hindu and Buddhist architectural influence from southern India, which arrived through maritime trade rather than conquest.

## A port before it was an archaeological site

The Bujang Valley's importance is not merely religious. The Department of Museums Malaysia (Jabatan Muzium Malaysia) explains that the area functioned as a port centre connecting traders from east and west — China, India, Arabia and local Malay traders — from roughly the third to the twelfth centuries CE. Its position near the Strait of Melaka made it a natural stopover for ships waiting for the monsoon winds to shift between China and India.

Physical evidence for this role includes trade ceramics, glass beads, spices and metal artefacts found across the site — goods that arrived through trade networks rather than being produced locally. It is this combination of religious temples and trade artefacts that sets the Bujang Valley apart from other archaeological sites: it was not merely a place of worship, but an international trade crossroads that also became a centre for the spread of religion.

## A discovery that began with a colonial officer

The modern history of studying the Bujang Valley began more than a century before the first scientific excavation. According to a study published in the *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* (2018), the Hindu-Buddhist ruins in the valley were first reported in the 1830s to 1840s by James Low, a British colonial officer based in Penang. Nearly a century passed before the first systematic excavation was carried out before World War II by H.G. Quaritch Wales together with his wife, Dorothy — their work was the first to try to establish the scope and origins of the civilisation that left these temples behind.

The site-numbering system still used today — such as "Site 8" for Candi Bukit Batu Pahat — originates from that early research, and continues to be used by modern researchers including the USM team that has continued excavation work at Sungai Batu since 2007.

## Protection as national heritage

The importance of this site is now officially recognised. Through an order gazetted on 31 March 2021 (P.U.(A) 152), Candi Bukit Batu Pahat (Site 8) together with several other sites was declared National Heritage under the National Heritage Act 2005, giving it formal legal protection from encroachment or unauthorised development.

The main collection of artefacts found across the valley is kept and displayed at the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum (Muzium Arkeologi Lembah Bujang) in Merbok, which was officially opened on 23 January 1980 by the then Sultan of Kedah, His Royal Highness Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah. The museum remains the only museum in Malaysia dedicated to archaeological collections as evidence of a trade centre and the spread of Hindu-Buddhism in the region.

## Common misconceptions

**"The Bujang Valley is the name of an ancient kingdom."** It is not — the Bujang Valley is the name of a modern archaeological area. The name of the kingdom associated with it, such as Old Kedah, is a separate historical label and is still debated among scholars in terms of its actual scope and boundaries.

**"All the temples here are still in their original condition."** Most of the temples that can be visited today have been rebuilt (reconstructed) by archaeologists based on the original ruins, not structures that have remained intact since ancient times.

**"This site is only about the Hindu religion."** Archaeological evidence shows a layer of Buddhist influence also existed alongside Hindu influence, with some structures — such as the monument at Sungai Batu — linked to even earlier animist elements.

## What's next

To understand how early kingdoms like this relate to the region's recorded history, read [Langkasuka](/en/malaysia/langkasuka), another Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in the upper peninsula often mentioned alongside Old Kedah in Chinese historical sources. To see how this region later transformed into an Islamic Malay sultanate that dominated regional trade centuries later, read [the Melaka Sultanate](/en/malaysia/melaka-sultanate).

## Sources

- Tapak Arkeologi Sungai Batu & Jeniang, Kedah (Abad Pertama Masihi, 2,000 Tahun) — https://www.heritage.gov.my/en/kraf.html?view=article&id=46%3Aarkeologi-penyelidikan-arkeologi-di-malaysia-tapak-arkeologi-sungai-batu-jeniang-kedah-abad-pertama-masihi-2-000-tahun&catid=17%3Ainfo-jwn (Jabatan Warisan Negara)
- Perintah Warisan Kebangsaan (Perisytiharan Warisan Kebangsaan) Tapak Warisan 2021 — Lot 764, Candi Bukit Batu Pahat (Tapak 8) & 3 Lagi, P.U.(A) 152 — https://www.heritage.gov.my/my/info-jwn/dasar-perundangan.html?download=50:perintah-warisan-kebangsaan-perisytiharan-warisan-kebangsaan-tapak-warisan-2021-lot-764-candi-bukit-batu-pahat-tapak-8-3-lagi (Jabatan Warisan Negara)
- Lembah Bujang — https://pustakailmu.arkib.gov.my/index.php/ms/pustaka-ilmu/mercu-tanda/lembah-bujang (Arkib Negara Malaysia)
- Muzium Arkeologi Lembah Bujang (Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum) — http://www.jmm.gov.my/en/museum/lembah-bujang-archaeological-museum (Jabatan Muzium Malaysia)
- Five Reasons Why You Must Visit The Sungai Batu Archaeological Site At Least Once In Your Lifetime — https://news.usm.my/index.php/english-news/6375-five-reasons-why-you-must-visit-the-sungai-batu-archaeological-site-at-least-once-in-your-lifetime (Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM News Portal))
- Revisiting the Bujang Valley: A Southeast Asian entrepôt complex on the maritime trade route — https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D931B87F7F7EA4D96885CA2BBCDD806D/S1356186317000505a.pdf/revisiting-the-bujang-valley-a-southeast-asian-entrepot-complex-on-the-maritime-trade-route.pdf (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Cambridge University Press))

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