Pasemah Megaliths

Carved Stone Figures Of Armed Men Riding Buffalo And Wrestling Elephants, Scattered Through Coffee Gardens Below Mount Dempo, With Painted Burial Chambers Found Nowhere Else In Indonesia · Pagar Alam, South Sumatra

The Pasemah highlands hold carved stone figures UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE IN INDONESIA. Not the blunt standing forms of Lore Lindu but ROUNDED, MUSCULAR, MOVING FIGURES - armed men riding buffalo, wrestling snakes, carrying drums, wearing helmets, some with what look like bronze ornaments carved into them. THEY ARE GENERALLY PUT AT AROUND TWO THOUSAND YEARS OLD, though estimates vary widely and the dating is not settled. THERE ARE ALSO STONE BURIAL CHAMBERS WITH PAINTED INTERIORS - red, black and yellow figures on the slabs - WHICH ARE FOUND NOWHERE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY. AS AT LORE LINDU, NOBODY KNOWS WHO MADE THEM. They stand scattered through coffee gardens and rice fields below MOUNT DEMPO, on land people farm, several of them down tracks nobody signposts, and you need a local guide to find more than two or three of them at all, which is why almost nobody who comes here sees even half of what is here.

Pasemah highlands, Lahat and Pagar Alam, South Sumatra, Pagar Alam, South Sumatra, Indonesia

THERE IS NO GATE AND NO SINGLE SITE - the figures are SCATTERED ACROSS FARMLAND around PAGAR ALAM and LAHAT, several of them in working coffee gardens, and a small local contribution is customary at each. THE PAINTED BURIAL CHAMBERS ARE KEPT LOCKED and are opened by a caretaker who must be found first - this is arranged through a guide and is not something you can do by turning up. IT IS ROUGHLY SEVEN TO NINE HOURS BY ROAD FROM PALEMBANG, or a shorter drive from LAHAT, which has a rail connection. GUIDES ARE ARRANGED IN PAGAR ALAM through guesthouses. THE HIGHLANDS ARE COOL and Mount Dempo is an active volcano with its own alert level. Roads between the sites are rough and become difficult in the wet.

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