New Insights into Indigenous Connections with Pictogram Sites in Pos Pasik, Gua Musang, Kelantan

Saw Chaw Yeh* and Kamal Solhaimi bin Fadzil

This paper reports on two newly identified pictogram sites in Pos Pasik, Gua Musang, Kelantan, namely Gua Lohai and Gua Sudaq, and provides a redocumentation of Gua Tagut, last surveyed in 1993. The study highlights the importance of community collaboration and ethnographic insights from local Indigenous communities in rock art research. Pictogram sites in Malaysia have traditionally been attributed to the Negrito Indigenous communities, mainly based on ethnographic evidence from the Lenggong Valley, Perak. This attribution has been applied broadly across Peninsular Malaysia without much critical examination. This paper argues that rock art culture is also associated with the Senoi Indigenous communities, supported by ethnographic evidence. This challenges the common narrative of exclusive Negrito authorship and suggests a more complex cultural landscape of rock art production. The study shows that the long-term relationships between the Senoi people and the landscape are more dynamic and layered than previously understood. These insights enrich our broader understanding of pictogram traditions in Peninsular Malaysia.