Borobudur celebrates restoration anniversary<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Magelang, Central Java<\/p>\n
To gaze at the elegant Borobudur Temple from the Central Java
\ntown of Magelang makes one wonder of the glorious past.<\/p>\n
Located some 40 kilometers north of Yogyakarta, it took years
\nto make the temple look the way it does today.<\/p>\n
Head of Borobudur Conservation and Study Agency Dukut Santoso
\nsaid the temple was a ruin when it was first discovered during
\nDutch colonial times. A Dutch scientist, Van Erp, started to
\ncarry out piecemeal restoration work in 1907 to 1911.<\/p>\n
But the work did not stop the temple's destruction, caused by
\nnatural factors. When it was raining, water poured heavily
\nthrough the cracks of the temple's walls. And as the temple did
\nnot stand vertically upright, large logs were placed around its
\nwalls to prevent it from collapsing. The floors, especially in
\nthe northern part, were also in poor shape.<\/p>\n
"At the same time, the stone corrosion, both biologically (due
\nto microorganisms) and physically (due to the heat of the sun,
\nthe rain and cold) continued unabated. That was why, in 1969
\nBorobudur was declared as being in a dangerous condition and in
\nneed of restoration," Dukut said.<\/p>\n
With the help of international funding and technical
\nassistance through the United Nations Educational, Science and
\nCultural Organization (UNESCO), the Indonesian government started
\nto conduct research on all aspects of the temple's damage,
\nincluding biological and physical observations and mapping of the
\ntemple.<\/p>\n
A number of foreign experts and scientists from France,
\nGermany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands, as well as
\nIndonesians, took part in the research, which was completed in
\n1975. Then, the most extensive and complex restoration work --
\ndismantling the mantle stones and rebuilding them in their
\noriginal layout, was started.<\/p>\n
"You can imagine how complicated the work was, especially as
\nthey dealt with some five million pieces," Dukut said. He added
\nthat IBM and Gadjah Mada University's computer center were
\ninvited to register the dismantled pieces and reconstruct the
\ntemple with computer assistance.<\/p>\n
Piece by piece, block by block, area by area, the stones on
\nthe outer part of the temple's walls and floors were dismantled,
\nnumbered, registered, placed in pallets and then taken to the
\nbuffer storage area before being sent to the workshop for further
\nanalysis.<\/p>\n
In the workshop, every piece was treated according to the
\ndamage it had sustained. Cracked stones were reassembled, while
\ndamaged stones attacked by microorganism were cleaned and
\npreserved using carefully selected techniques and materials. The
\nmain purpose of the treatment was to restore the stones, ready to
\nbe returned to where they belonged at the temple.<\/p>\n
"Each had its own medical record, just like a patient in a
\nclinic," recalled Dukut, who claims to have been involved in
\nBorobudur restoration activities since 1971.<\/p>\n
Restored stones were then kept at the final storage site
\nbefore being returned to the temple.<\/p>\n
Not every part of the temple was dismantled: only parts of the
\nsecond floor, known as the Rupadhatu floor. This, according to
\nDukut, comprised four subfloors and five balustrades containing a
\ntotal of about five million individual stone pieces.<\/p>\n
Besides the conservation work on the stones, other supporting
\nwork waited until all the stones had been dismantled. In order to
\nleave the temple's structure stronger and better drained, a
\nseries of works was also carried out to its interior.<\/p>\n
The supporting works included the provision of a concrete ring
\nto every balustrade in the restored area, providing drainage
\nchannels from the concrete ring to the slope of the hill where
\nthe temple was located and providing filter layers at the ends of
\nthe drainage channels.<\/p>\n
Waterproof layers were installed on the inside of the
\nstructure to protect the temple's reliefs from rainwater. For the
\nsame reason, a tin plate was also placed at the bottom of every
\nbalustrade.<\/p>\n
"Now you can no longer see water pouring from the junctions of
\nstones on the temple's walls when it rains," Dukut said. He added
\nall the additional construction was invisible as it was done
\ninside the mantle stones.<\/p>\n
At present, he said, the temple was also armed with a
\nmonitoring system connected to a computer network to monitor land
\nmovement and water circulation on the hill. Another concrete ring
\nwas also built around the temple yard to prevent the temple and
\nthe hill from collapsing.<\/p>\n
Dukut said the restoration work at Borobudur was completed in
\n1982. Subsequently, then president Soeharto officially
\ninaugurated the completion of the restoration the following year,
\nwhich means this year is being celebrated as the 20th anniversary
\nof the completion of the temple's restoration.<\/p>\n
This year is considered crucial for the temple as it was once
\npredicted that after 20 years the temple would have subsided by
\nas much as four centimeters (cm), not to mention the continuous
\ncorrosion of the stones due to natural factors.<\/p>\n
"We have carried out some advanced research on the matter in
\nthe last three years and have discovered that the temple has
\nsubsided by only 1.7 cm so far. It also shows such a process
\nseems to have stopped," Dukut claimed.<\/p>\n
The research, aimed to coincide with the temple restoration's
\n20th anniversary, has been carried out in cooperation with Gadjah
\nMada University's school of technical engineering and the
\nUniversity of Canberra, Australia.<\/p>\n
"Gadjah Mada assisted with the geotechnical and mathematical
\nresearch while the University of Canberra provided us with global
\npositioning system (GPS) assistance to study the vertical and
\nhorizontal movement of the temple," Dukut said.<\/p>\n
He added his office would present the research results, along
\nwith an assessment of previous restoration activities, to the
\nupcoming Borobudur Experts Meeting scheduled for July 4 through
\nJuly 8, which will be attended by a number of foreign delegates
\nand UNESCO's director general.<\/p>",
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