Asian Journeys

Compass Points – Robert Stedman

RECOUNTS THE TIME HE JOINED AN EXPEDITION THAT SEARCHED FOR A LOST CITY IN THE MALAY PENINSULA.

- ROBERT STEDMAN

Afew years ago, I was offered the opportunit­y to join an expedition with my uncle, Harold Stephens, that was searching for Langkasuka, a lost city that was thought to have once existed somewhere in the Malay Peninsula. The expedition followed in the footsteps of another search conducted by Cambridge University professor, Stewart Wavell, in 1951.

WHY HERE?

Wavell didn’t find the city, but the question begs, why a city in the Malay jungle at all?

For what reason, for what purpose, would the Chinese, or the Khmers or whoever they were, build a city or trading post in such an unlikely place? The main motive, it seems, was due to the difficulty of transporti­ng goods by sea around Singapore. Treacherou­s seas and pirates made the journey especially difficult and dangerous.

Having a convenient and safe location where goods could be shipped overland to the western coast, where Indian merchant ships would pick up the cargo, made real sense. Thus, trading posts, and eventually, cities appeared on the Malay Peninsula.

SECRET LOCATION

Wavell believed he had a good idea where the city might be located: Lake Chini. In the 12th Century one Chinese traveler visited Langkasuka and wrote about his experience in a detailed journal. He traveled for several days up a jungle river, which could only be the Pahang, and came to huge chain across the river, which had to be lowered to enable them to pass. It was apparent the Chinese were prepared to keep uninvited visitors away. They did everything to keep the location of their cities well hidden and secret.

With some difficulty, we located the canal on the left bank of the Pahang, and there left our longboats. We inflated two rubber dinghies and transferre­d all our gear, including diving equipment, into them. We then poled our way up the narrow, ten-kilometer-long watercours­e called Sungei Chini, or the Chini River.

SILENT AND STILL

In places it seemed to be a natural waterway, flooded over from the Pahang; but in others, where the banks were steep, the walls appeared to have been dug by hand. Finally, just before dusk, we reached the lake. It was impressive to see it the way we did. It was far vaster than anyone of us had expected. The lake covers over two square kilometers and plumbs eight meters at its deepest point. The lake, silent and still, creates an eerie look and feel.

Lake Chini is not fed by fast moving rivers. As a result, the waters are murky and from the dark depths branches of trees, long dead and covered with green and slime, protruded through the surface in the half-light. Mangrove trees with gnarled roots grew in the swamps and marshes around the edge of the lake. Bordering these swamps were thick forests of reeds, higher than an elephant and so dense in places that, when we went exploring in the days that followed, we had difficulty poling our rafts through them, making our progress painfully slow.

As dark was falling, we reached the southern edge of the lake; in a wooded area we set up camp. As we looked at the lake, we saw an eerie fog rise from the still waters, giving the place a ghostly appearance.

IMPENETRAB­LE CLOUD

We were fortunate the Sakai who live in a village along the bank of the lake had dugouts and agreed to let us use one. The Sakai knew little of the history of the lake. Our attempts at diving in the lake were futile. Any movement in the water disturbed the silt and made for an impenetrab­le cloud.

We spent three days at the lake, poking in the mud searching the banks and islands but found nothing conclusive that a civilizati­on might have existed here. But that doesn’t mean that one didn’t. The only sure way to determine that would be to drain the lake, not an impossibil­ity. One theory is that the Chinese who built their city on the site had the means to flood the city if threatened from the outside. Our expedition, like Wavell’s, didn’t find any lost civilizati­on. Hopefully, one day some intrepid explorer will finally discover the lost city of Langkasuka and solve one of Asia’s great mysteries.

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