On Saturday, we went back to Ipoh for All Soul’s Day prayer and also did something very fun. I got to know about the Gua Tambun Heritage Awareness Project that is organized by a group of enthusiastic researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia. This project aims to promote public heritage awareness and conservation of one of the oldest rock drawing/art sites in Malaysia. Gua Tambun is the prehistoric rock art site situated in Gunung Panjang limestone hill and was once known as a sanctuary for local spiritual ceremony. Huge clusters of prehistoric rock art have been discovered by the researchers. There are 600 drawings at Gua Tambun which is the oldest surviving of prehistoric red painting in modern times Peninsular Malaysia.
The group is to assemble at the Caltex petrol station on Jalan Tambun at 9am. So we left KL very early on Saturday to make sure that we arrived on time. Our friend and kids also joined us, together with her parents who came from Japan for a holiday.
My husband and I have actually visited this cave in the 80’s. A friend who used to live in Tambun brought us there to see the drawings but I don’t remember seeing so many of the drawings. At that time, no one explained them to us and there was no internet to find out more. Many Ipohites are still not aware of these drawings which were drawn between 2,500 to 4,000 years ago. It would be good that more is done by the local authorities to create awareness.
Gunung Panjang where Gua Tambun is.
The kids checking out the cave. They were hoping to find bones and bats *chuckle*
Listening to the researcher while he explains the things found in this cave
The white things in this photo are actually seashells. It is believed that this whole was submerged in water thousands of years ago.
Finally reached the site after hiking 145 narrow and steep steps
One of the activities that day is to try to match the papers printed with the rock drawings on the board.
Some of the drawings on the rock. Can you spot them? My fondest memory is this drawing of the Dugong. I became very fascinated with Dugongs after seeing this for the first time in my life.
The beautiful Gua Tambun
Everyone was given some hematite to draw on the plastic of paris. These are what Ashley did. 2 are rock drawings she saw, one with her name and one, her portrait. She never fail to make me laugh.
Love this photo of the kids so much. The kids were walking back to our car. It was taken by my friend.
We are so glad to have joined this workshop. It is very educational and enjoyable. The kids had loads of fun. We are grateful to the researcher team from USM for taking the time to bring us to see the rock art and explaining them to us.
If anyone of you are interested to join, do check out their Facebook page :- Gua Tambun Heritage Awareness Project. Their website is www.tambunrockart.com. Do note that there are only 2 more workshops left. (this Saturday 2 April 2016 and next Saturday 9 April 2016). This is definitely a not-to-be-missed trip. Just set your waze to Caltex Petrol Station Tambun (Jalan Tambun) if you are not sure where is the meeting point. #guatambunrockart #gthap #guatambun
This place looks awesome! I’ll definitely check out their Facebook page. Thanks for sharing!