Bid to protect caves by gazette
BY NG SI HOOILENGGONG: The Museums and Antiquities Department wants to gazette some of the caves here for preservation and archaeological research.
Antiquities Division director Paiman Keromo said the department would submit the application to the state government after identifying those caves.
“We are still in the middle of conducting research on the caves and we want to preserve those which have historical value.
“The caves must be preserved so that our future generations will be able to enjoy what we have today,” he said, adding that the area had over 100 caves.
Paiman said the department had identified about 20 caves such as Gua Gunung Runtoh, Gua Dayak and Gua Badak which had to be conserved.
He said the famous Perak Man, the only complete skeleton dating back between 10,000 and 11,000 years, was discovered in 1991 in Gua Gunung Runtoh.
“Many historians also like to visit Gua Badak as it is famous for its charcoal drawings, the only one of its kind done by the Negritos,” he said, adding that about 2,000 students and tourists visited the caves here every week during the school holidays.
Currently, Paiman said the department's personnel were patrolling the areas to prevent the caves from being vandalised.
“There is a small number of vandalism reports on the caves,” he said.
Paiman said this after attending the launch of the Youth Archaeological Club by Deputy Entrepreneur Development and Co-operatives Minister Datuk Khamsiyah Yeop at the Lenggong Archaeological Museum here yesterday.
Earlier, Khamsiyah, who is also Lenggong MP, said the department and the state Tourism Department would submit a proposal on the preservation of the caves to the Tourism Ministry, the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry and the Rural and Regional Development Ministry.
Khamsiyah said infrastructure such as better roads should be built so that tourists and archaeologists could access the caves more easily.
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