Reminisce: One Christmas

One Christmas, Chin Heng suggested that we took a ride out of Taiping. He had bought his first car and I suppose, was game for a spin. I said I would love to visit Tambun to see for myself some prehistoric rock paintings. So, together with Mau Wei and Hoi Thien, we travelled along the North-South Highway and just before reaching the city centre of Ipoh, we took a turning towards the little town more famous for its sweet pomeloes. There is a Caltex Station along the way and we stopped and parked our car somewhere there and proceeded our journey on foot along little paths behind some residential houses. There was not a soul in sight and a miserable signboard in Bahasa Malaysia with the words Lukisan Pra Sejarah Tambun suggested that we were on the right trail. Then, I remember meeting a local Malay lady who pointed to us the actual location of the paintings. In no time at all, we were there, staring at the iron oxide paintings of animals which are located several meters high on limestone walls. These Tambun prehistoric paintings have been discovered by the British army in 1959. Rock art could be found elsewhere in the world. In France and Spain, paintings have been found in as many as 350 caves. The Grotte Chauvet or Chauvet Caves in the Ardeche region reputedly house the oldest of the lots and there is the Bradshaw-style sash painting in Kimberley, Australia. I have heard before someone saying that the Tambun prehistoric paintings bear resemblance to prehistoric paintings in Australia. Perhaps, the paintings here are not as extensive or as spectacular but still, if you pay a visit to this place, your heart will reach out to see the level of neglect accorded to paintings of such stature...


Can you spot the rock paintings in Tambun and identify the animals too?

The animals in the Tambun prehistoric paintings include a dugong, a flying fox, a tapir, a turtle, a catfish and a herd of deer.

Java Jamboree will be back!