In the background, near the town of Batu Pahat lies a set of hills (or mountains depending on how you define it)... One peak on the road leading to Air Hitam is known as Bukit or Gunung Soga, the other, on the road to Pontian, comprising a few more peaks with the highest one rising above 400 metres or about 1,400 feet tall is known as Gunung Banang...
The one seen above taken from an old mosque (which I will feature later in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) ) is Gunung Banang. Since I was small, then when I became a student at Sekolah Menengah Sains Johor (Johor Secondary Science School) in Kluang, a full-boarding school more than 20 years ago, I have many times made trips pass Batu Pahat and looked in wonder at the peak. But it is only about 2 weeks ago on December 24th 2007 that I actually took steps to make that climb.
It came unplanned. I was going to Batu Pahat to visit an elderly person, en-route to Kluang which figures in the current travelling plan. After all, the last time I was in Kluang was in 2001 and the last time I visited my old school there was sometime in 1987!
When I called a friend who works in Kuala Lumpur to check if he has any plans to go to Kota Tinggi (I was contemplating of going there later on and he is a native), he happened to be on holiday at his in-laws in Seri Medan which is about half-an-hour trip by car to Batu Pahat. That's when we decided to meet up and so on...
Above is a picture taken close to the peak of Gunung Banang...
Now, as I've said before, the reason I wanted to go up was I have long felt like I must go to the top one day... The yearning was made stronger when about 2 years ago, I read a certain story about Aceh's famous conqueror Sultan Iskandar Muda who ruled in the early 17th Century.It is said that one day he was heading for Melaka to fight the Portuguese colonials there. His wife then (he had one another equally famous wife said to have died early), a Pahang princess told him not to destroy Banang (the conqueror had a reputation of grazing down any opposition to the ground) because up there lies 3 tombs of Wali (saints) of Allah...
I tried to check if there's any other place known as Banang within all possible routes from Aceh to Melaka. It seems there's only the Gunung Banang in Batu Pahat. Besides, there are Malay folk songs mentioning about the peak. Why, one even relates the mythical princess of Gunung Ledang (very famous in Malay folklores) to the princess of Gunung Tahan (at almost 2,200 metres or 7000 feet plus the highest peak in Peninsular Malaysia) and then the princess of Gunung Banang. Then again that was the only song I've heard mentioning about a princess living on Gunung Tahan what more on Gunung Banang. Wait a minute... Or did the song mentioned about the same princess? That is only one princess who have been on top of those 3 peaks? I forgot...
We went all the way to the top. Too bad it is a restricted area guarded by no less than the army itself! Is there a secret to be guarded up there? Perhaps the tombs of the said 3 saints? Or a residence of a mythical princess...
One thing's for sure... There is a telecommunication tower up there... And when I checked again from the ground later, there are actually 2...
Now, I've been on top of many hills and mountains in and around Malaysia and there's many with telecommunication towers on top. In fact I've climbed up a few towers myself just to get a better view of the surroundings. Not all are guarded, what more with the military carrying sub-machineguns like at Gunung Banang. So what's the deal here?
That's my friend Zaidi taking a smoke... We've tried to talk to the guards asking to let us in or at least walk outside the perimetre of the fences surrounding the telecommunication tower on top... But even that is out of the question. In fact we have to go down the road by at least 100 metres pass a sign-post that says restricted area ahead.
It's not like we're going to spy on anything or breach the security. We just wanted to look around for any trace of old tombs. Or if we can't find anything, then at least let us go to were there's a clearing so we could see the town of Batu Pahat from the top (or any place near and high enough) of Gunung Banang...
Well, what can we say. The only clearing that would provide the view we seek is right on top within the restricted area. So after smelling the fresh air enough to our satisfaction, we made the trip down...
Here is a view as we approached the feet of Gunung Banang... In the background, I believe is the hills that made up the area known as Gunung (mount) Ma'okil in Muar. I guess that's all about Gunung Banang. At least we've stepped our foot up there....
5 comments:
thank for the picture, me too is a muar boy from birth.
Radzi, you should follow the jungle track if you want to find the tombs. I have been to the peak in year 1972. Three quarter way, I saw this huge stone shaped like a ship. There was an opening at the side of the stone more like a cave. However I did enter into the cave and wondered inside. It was quite a long walk into the cave when I finally stopped as I met this group of Buddhist monks meditating. Recalling back, I did not see any tombs though I heard about it years later after the trip.
Well written article.
Good to know! I was poking around on the internet to see if there were any decent mountains in Johor to get away for a week. Your blog came up, and after reading the article, I'm thinking Gunung Banang is not the solution. :) Thanks! Very helpful.
salam bro..sya dah smpai ke puncak gunung jerai..even kt sini pn ada army post...xyh lah marah askar2 tuh..dieorg pn xnk berjaga kt atas tuh..tmbh biler malam pulak...
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