The replica of the ancient stone slab grave on the grounds of the Perak Museum in Taiping was one of three discovered on Sungai Kruit Estate, Changkat Mentri in Sungkai, Perak in 1927. The other graves of this kind was found at Changkat Menteri, in Lembah Bernam. Other stone slab graves have since been discovered in Slim River and Tanjung Malim.
Funerary objects found at the Changkat Menteri stone slab grave comprise pieces of bronze vessel, beads, cross-hatched bark cloth, stone beater, iron sickle, and fragments of pottery. The discovery of iron tools and broken potteries at Sungkai indicated a belief in the afterlife, that the dead must be given worth provisions.
Stone Slab Grave of Sungkai, at the Perak Museum, Taiping.
The appearance of pottery fragments is indicative of a belief that the pots have to be "killed" by breaking for use by the souls of the dead. No skeletal remains were found in the grave, due in large part to biochemical reaction to the soil over the hundreds of years.
The structure of the grave, with its single slab stone roof, is related to the "Dolmen" type of grave. The Dolmen and stone cist graves are found in various parts of the Malay archipelago, and are also related to dolmen discovered in Vietnam.
For more on the archaeological sites of Perak, continue to the AsiaExplorers webpage on the Lenggong Archaeological Museum.
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