Bitter experience at Prambanan

Bitter experience at Prambanan

From Bali Post

Earlier this month, we, from The Hindu Center Mahendradatta in Denpasar, Bali, accompanied a group of overseas students for doctoral and Ph. D. programs to study and observe Hindu heritage on the island of Java. One of the program schedules was to visit the largest Hindu site, i.e. Prambanan Temple in Central Java.

Having completed the observation, as adherents of Hinduism, we performed our prayers in the temples of Brahma and Wisnu, applying only incense and flowers available at the Prambanan complex. The prayers we performed in the two temples went well and undisturbed.

But when we were about to proceed to the third temple of Siwa for our last prayers, we were checked by the security guards, because, as they claimed, we had not reported our visit to the management of the Prambanan complex. Upon inquiry about what was wrong with our intention to worship at the Siwa temple, they unthoughtfully replied that Prambanan Temple was a tourist object, and not a place of worship for the Hindus, adding that our activities had disturbed the visiting tourists.

We also inquired about the legal basis for their action, to which the answer was that "there is no legal basis, it is only a policy of the management". Unfortunately we had no written record of what they said.

After giving some arguments, we then performed our worship without caring too much of the weird rules they explained to us, and only justified our activities on the basis of freedom of religion as stipulated in the 1945 Constitution.

Later a couple of Javanese Hindus told us that such discrimination was also experienced by many Javanese Hindus, particularly those who live in the Prambanan area. The Hindu individuals there had to pay Rp 6,000 for the ticket to enter the complex in order to worship God, and another Rp 5,000 for parking. They were treated just like ordinary visitors.

Sadly it may sound, it is still a long way to go for Hinduism to be placed on an equal footing with other recognized religions in this country, in spite of the fact that Prambanan Temple is renowned worldwide and thousands of other Hindu temples do exist in Indonesia.

AA NGRH. ARYA WEDAKARNA
The Hindu Center Mahendradatta
Denpasar, Bali