Kota Gelanggi is an archaeological site in Johor, Malaysia. It was reported in 2005 and dating to around 650–900 AD and one of the oldest kingdoms on Southeast Asia's Malay Peninsula. The site's existence was announced as a 'discovery' by the Malaysian press on 3 February 2005.
Geography
The reported site of the ancient city is in the dense jungles of the southern Malaysian state of Johor Darul Takzim, near a forest reserve currently managed as the Linggiu Reservoir by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) of Singapore. This puts the site somewhere within a area of the forest reserve surrounding Sungai Madek and Sungai Lenggiu.
History
The early 17th century Malay literary work Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) records that Kota Gelanggi lies on the upper reaches of the Johor River with a main fort made of black stone (or Kota Batu Hitam in Malay). "Kota Gelanggi" may derive from the Malay mispronunciation of the Thai word Ghlong-Keow or "Box of Emeralds", hence in Malay, Perbendaharaan Permata (Treasury of Jewels). Some scholars believe that the city formed part of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, and may therefore be the unidentified 12th Naksat city of ancient Siamese folklore. Ancient Tamil inscriptions show that the city was raided in 1025 by South Indian Chola Dynasty conqueror Rajendra Chola I, after he had destroyed the Malay Kingdom of Gangga Negara. The latter is generally equated with the ruins and ancient tombs that can still be seen in Beruas district in the state of Perak. Old European maps of the Malay Peninsula show the location of a city known as Polepi (i.e. Gelanggi) at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.
References to Kota Gelanggi were reported in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by colonial scholar-administrators including Dudley Francis Amelius Hervey (1849–1911), who published eye witness reports of the city in 1881 and Sir Richard Olof Winstedt (1878–1966), who stated that an Orang Asli (indigenous group) was prepared to take people to the site in the late 1920s. The ancient city was also known to the adventurer-explorer Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), who discovered the ruins of Johore Lama while searching for Kota Gelanggi.
Recent evidence of the city's existence and approximate location was presented as the result of a decade-long research project based on Malay manuscripts, cartographical and topographical surveys, aerial inspections and assessments of local folklore. Based on these sources a preliminary discussion on the subject was published as a lengthy academic paper entitled The "Lost City" of Kota Gelanggi in 2004. Prior to its publication, the paper's author Raimy Che-Ross, an independent researcher, had tabled and discussed his findings with experts at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore, the Johor chapter of Badan Warisan Malaysia (Malaysian Heritage Trust) and archaeologists at the Jabatan Muzium dan Antikuiti Malaysia (Museums and Antiquities Department of Malaysia), between January–June 2004. The paper received wide coverage in the Malaysian media, who prematurely reported the introductory article as the announcement of a major "discovery". This prompted the then Minister for Heritage, Culture and the Arts to announce ambitious 'plans' for selected museum and government officials to "discover" the city which they did not.
On April 28, 2006, the Malaysian National News Service (Bernama) fakely reported that the "Lost City does not exist". Khalid Syed Ali, Curator of Archaeology in the Department's Research and Development Division, said a team of government appointed researchers had carried out a month-long 'study' in July 2005 but found no trace of the "Lost City". However, Khalid later added that "the Heritage Department (Jabatan Warisan) does not categorically deny that it exists, only that research carried out until now [over the month of July 2005] has not shown any proof that can verify the existence of the ancient city of Linggiu [sic]" When pressed for details, Khalid revealed that Che-Ross had not been involved in the museum's search team for the lost city because they didn't want the people to find out the truth.