[COLUMNIST] A voice for Lembah Bujang

It is a story of human evolution, migration, civilisation and interaction with the environment, as the region is filled with hidden gems and cultural assets including pre-historic burial sites, ancient cave paintings, traditional Malay villages and religious structures, just to name a few. Many more lay waiting to be discovered.

Recognising this potential for economic development, Think City in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance launched the Cultural Economy Catalytic Grants programme with an early focus on projects in the northern region to:

• build a network of cultural sites in the northern region for visitors • create positive and enriching experiences for visitors • generate economic activity through capacity building and development of small cultural enterprises; and • broaden our understanding of the region’s cultural significance through local cultural products and public advocacy.

Under this initiative, a team of lecturers from Taylor’s University’s, School of Architecture, Building and Design (SABD) linked to the university’s “Liveable Urban Communities” Impact Lab, together with an alumnus now working for Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) have recently created a series of interactive, digital audio guides in multiple languages to facilitate tourism at the Lembah Bujang archeological sites, host to the oldest architectural remains in Southeast Asia. The project utilizes QR-code scanning technology to link the physical sites to web-based, tourist-friendly audio narratives that explain the civilizational history, original significance, and present-day importance of the sites to local and foreign cultural tourists.

The project communicates the importance of Lembah Bujang to a wider audience, both by creating user-friendly audio-guides in four languages (Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, and Tamil) as well as distilling otherwise ‘heavy’ academic discoveries into interesting, tourist-focused narratives that will improve the visibility of Lembah Bujang to a wider audience.

By enlarging the ‘interest group’ for the sites, the project will contribute towards conservation of Malaysia’s oldest monuments that are currently at risk of over-development and/or neglect. By producing interactive audio guides meant for use on site, the project can enhance physical tourism at Lembah Bujang, and not replace it with a digital alternative.

These interactive audio-guides were written to enhance ‘on the ground’ tourism at the sites, where tourists will listen to the guides as they are physically walking around the monuments. The project will also contribute to enhancing the socio-economic sustainability of Lembah Bujang from a tourism standpoint. It also involved the production of pocket-sized physical guidebooks complete with trail maps and QR-code links to the digital narratives regarding the various sites.

The main goal of this initiative is to give focus to the ancient structures of the valley which have currently not met their full potential as tourism ‘products’ either locally or internationally, despite being the oldest documented archeological remains in Southeast Asia. The project was executed with the following aims in mind:

• To produce tourist-friendly narratives for the main, accessible archeological sites at Lembah Bujang which can then be accessed by visitors by scanning a booklet with their mobile phones.

• To improve the tourism visibility, sustainability, and attractiveness of Lembah Bujang by curating a more interesting, engaging, and accessible narrative about the history and significance of the major sites.

• To link the various monuments together with a cohesive narrative so that small, individual sites are appreciated together as part of a larger, more significant civilizational narrative. The fieldwork for the project took place in 2022-2023 after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, specifically targeting:

• The site surrounding the existing archeological museum at Bukit Batu Pahat

• The Sungai Batu Iron smelting site

• The former trading site at Pengkalan Bujang site.

1,000 copies of physical guidebooks were produced thanks to the Think City grant, the majority of which were given free of charge to the Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum for distribution to visitors. These booklets, produced by an inter-disciplinary team of students from various countries studying in the architectural and tourism programmes of Taylor’s University, represents a great effort by a university at creating an impact beyond academia, involving students in the curation of one of Southeast Asia’s most mysterious historical places.

For a sneak listen, log in to the website Izi.travel, select the option for “audio guides” then search for “Lembah Bujang” and you will be able to find the narratives! Happy listening, in the language of your choice – all for free! For the best possible experience, listen to the guides whilst on-site at Lembah Bujang, where the narrators will guide you through the mysterious history of Malaysia’s ancient “Valley of the Serpents”!

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* Dr Lina Latif is an Associate Professor and formerly from the School of Media and Communication, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus.