Borobudur to offer new night attractions

Borobudur to offer new night attractions

Sri Wahyuni and Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Magelang, Central Java

The Borobudur temple in Magelang will stage a ballet performance
at night, reminiscent of the popular Ramayana dance-drama
performed in the compound of the Prambanan Hindu temple some 80
kilometers apart.

The first performance will be staged on Wednesday night, with
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono among the audience.

A collaborative work of experts of various backgrounds,
including a choreographer, musician, historian, and archeologist,
the one-hour ballet is a colossal performance involving some 150
local and professional dancers from the Surakarta-based
Indonesian Arts College (STSI).

The dance performance Mahakarya Borobudur tells about the
creation of Borobudur, which has been named a world heritage site
by UNESCO.

"We plan to regularly perform the ballet at the temple in the
near future, but we have not yet arranged the schedule," PT Taman
Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan, and Ratu Boko temple
management manager Guntur Purnomoadi told The Jakarta Post.

"It will be like the Ramayana performance regularly held at
Prambanan temple."

Mahakarya Borobudur will also mark the launch of the new
lighting design of Borobudur by world-class American designer
Robert Daniels. with financial support from U.S. electronic giant
General Electric (GE), which also provides the lighting design
for the stage.

The temple management president director, Wagiman Subiaro,
said the new lighting design would highlight the temple's beauty
and is expected to attract more tourists.

"The lighting will also provide a magnificent background for
the performance," he added.

Wagiman said the performance was expected to boost the tourist
industry in the region and have a multiplier effect on the local
community.

"We do hope all parties who are committed to national culture
conservation support Mahakarya Borobudur," he said.

An average of two million people visit the temple annually.

Speaking separately to the Post, Daniels said that main
difference between the previous and present lighting design for
Borobudur laid in the use of what he called the cross-fire
lighting technique and the light-beam control in the present
design.

"The previous design basically was just putting light straight
onto the temple. It washed out all the details," Daniels said.

In fact, he said, because of the magnificent carvings and the
statues that the temple has, it actually needed light that works
in different ways to create a three-dimensional effect on the
temple at night and even make it look more beautiful under the
light.

"By day, this magnificence is apparent. By night, it's a bit
harder to appreciate. My mission is to create a design that truly
punctuates the depth, detail and sheer brilliance of the temple,"
he said.

During his visit to the temple for the preparation for
Wednesday's event, President and CEO of the GE Consumer and
Industrial of Asia-Pacific Darryl Wilson said the lighting design
was the second that the company had provided for Borobudur temple
in 2003.

So far GE has spent a total of US$70,000 for the construction
and installation of lighting. The project itself, according to
Wilson, was part of the firm's community service.

"We have the facility here in Yogyakarta. We have the
technology and the idea. So, we do it. We see it is important for
the community and the world to understand what is here; the
beauty of the structure, even during the night," Wilson said.