Rock Carvings
March 6, 2006 by jernehhong
Batu Bergambar
There isn’t a signboard or any eye-catching landmark, yet the MNS group managed to find their way to the "Batu Bergambar (rock with figure)" location somewhere inside the Forest Heaph.
"Mosquito’s alert!" someone warned. Everyone quickly applied insect repellents — roll-on, cream, spray (name it what you want and we’ve it all) — on any spots of the body that appear delicious to the starving mosquito. However, a walk to the forest proved that any brand/type of insect repellents only work for homey mosquito but not those living in the wild forest! We got "mosquito love marks" printed all over our nose, face, arms, hands, legs, and anywhere that’s exposed to the air!!!
Nevertheless, all the itches were soon forgotten by the time we caught the sight of various rock carvings in all shapes and sizes. Some of the big rocks were sheltered by aluminum roof and were protected by fences while the smaller ones were left in the alfresco.
Among them, a rock with a "sprawling human/bird figure carved on it in bas-re-lief" as described by Heidi Munan’s "Santubong’s colourful past" (an article published in News Straits Times on March 4, 2002) was the biggest rock among all. But, we felt sorry for this rock as there were plenty incense sticks left on it and a part of the figure was spoiled.
Archaeologists believed that these rocks existed a thousand year ago, but so far no one knew who craved them and for what purpose.
More pics at http://chinese.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jernehhong/album?.dir=/7ab8&.src=ph
