Pengkalan Kempas
Photo Pakbelang · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Pengkalan Kempas is a small town in the Linggi mukim of Port Dickson District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, on the Linggi River. It is the site of the Pengkalan Kempas Historical Complex, which holds an Islamic tomb and a variety of megaliths, and which is registered as a national historic archaeological site of Malaysia.
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Article
Pengkalan Kempas
The site includes an Islamic tomb and a variety of megaliths, of which the three most prominent are known as the 'rudder', the 'spoon' and the 'sword'.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
The Pengkalan Kempas Historical Complex was developed on a site called Keramat Ujung Pasir (prawn river shrine). The site includes an Islamic tomb and a variety of megaliths, of which the three most prominent are known as the 'rudder', the 'spoon' and the 'sword'. The tomb is thought to be from the 15th century, while the megaliths may be many centuries older.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Pengkalan Kempas is located 35 kilometres from the city of Port Dickson, around 40 kilometres from the state capital of Seremban and 60 kilometres from Malacca City. It lies on the Linggi River.
NameSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
The name Pengkalan Kempas (Negeri Sembilan Malay: Pongkalan Kompeh) translates to 'Kempas landing place', and may reflect a period in the past when the Linggi River met the sea further inland than its present position.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Along with Lukut, Pengkalan Kempas is one of the oldest settlements in the area. During the 14th century the town was an important trade port and an important location for the area's Chinese community.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
The complex is registered under the National Heritage Act 2005 and is managed by the Lembaga Muzium Negeri Sembilan. It is now home to other donated megaliths, a gallery and a surau, and there are proposals to expand it into a larger megalith museum.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalithic tombs
A megalith is a large stone used to build a prehistoric structure or monument, alone or with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, from Sweden in the north to the Mediterranean in the south, and the word was first used in 1849 by the British antiquarian Algernon Herbert for Stonehenge. Most were erected between the Neolithic, with some earlier Mesolithic examples, and the Bronze Age. The most widely known megaliths are not tombs, but tombs are the largest class, and they fall into a few families.
The dolmen is a single-chamber tomb of upright stones and a capstone, mostly of the Late Neolithic. The passage grave has one or more chambers covered in earth or stone, reached by a narrow passage of large stones. The gallery grave is entered directly into the gallery without an antechamber. The chambered cairn is a stone cairn over a chamber that is larger than a cist and holds many burials, whether excarnated bones, inhumations or cremations, usually near a settlement and serving as the community's graveyard.
Most of these tombs were collective: many people were buried over generations. Some are decorated with megalithic art, which is carved on the kerbstones, orthostats or capstones, mostly on Neolithic passage graves. The art is highly abstract, with spirals, zig-zags and cup and ring marks, and its meaning is debated.
The Atlas uses this article for tombs that fit none of the regional articles. Dating depends on typology; absolute dates come only from excavated tombs.
When visiting, look for the chamber and the passage, any carving on the stones, and the remains of a mound or cairn that covered the tomb.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Passage grave, Wikipedia: Gallery grave, Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Chambered cairn · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1901
In a 1901 census, the town was recorded as having a total population of 306 people, consisting of 126 Chinese agricultural workers, 87 Malays, 2 Indians, and 91 others.
Source - 1919
As of 1919, much of the natural forest in the area had been replaced by rubber plantations, mostly run by ethnic Chinese and Malays.
Source - 2005
Registered under the National Heritage Act 2005, the site is managed by the Lembaga Muzium Negeri Sembilan, and is now home to other donated megaliths, a gallery, and a surau, with proposals to further expand it to become a larger megalith museum.
Source - 2024
Construction of a new jetty was slated to begin in December 2024. This will cost around RM 50,000. The jetty revitalisation is part of a wider effort to enhance the town as a tourist destination.
Source
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Where it stands
Malaysia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 2°26′55″ N, 102°01′02″ EFor a GPS or map app: 2.44861, 102.01722
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Pasir panjang inscription- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir Bukit Domo II
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir Bukit Domo III
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah II Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah III Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah I Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Bawah Parit Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Balai-balai Batu Menhir
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q7162729wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia: Pengkalan Kempasen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Pengkalan Kempas megaliths.jpgPakbelangCC0
- Tomb of Syeikh Ahmad Majnun at Pengkalan Kempas.jpgChipmunkdavisCC BY-SA 4.0
- Isolated menhir at Pengkalan Kempas.jpgChipmunkdavisCC BY-SA 4.0
- Pengkalan Kempas tomb in 1919 by C. Boden Kloss.jpgC. Boden KlossPublic domain
- Pengkalan Kempas megaliths in 1919 by C. Boden Kloss.jpgC. Boden KlossPublic domain
- Pengkalan Kempas restoration of megaliths in 1919 by I. H. N. Evans.pngI. H. N. EvansPublic domain
- Pengkalan Kempas restoration of tomb by I. H. N. Evans.pngI. H. N. EvansPublic domain
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pengkalan Kempas" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Pengkalan KempasCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q7162729CC0