Discovery makes Wahani's life special

Discovery makes Wahani's life special

For Wahani, the discovery of an archaeological site on the land
he inherited from his parents has become a special event in his
life.

As he does not hold a permanent job, he has always sought ways
to feed his family, even during this year's drought.

Wahani decided to make bricks along with his two friends,
Wakidi and Samsul Ma'arif. They began to dig up the backyard and
use the earth to make bricks. The quality of their bricks was
quite good and they sold thousands.

But their work was disrupted following a surprising discovery.
On June 7 of this year at about 11 a.m., their shovels hit a pile
of bricks, which were about 1.5 meters down.

Out of curiosity, Wahani and his two friends continued to dig
around it until they unearthed the wall of a building. The
discovery caused Wahani to stop his brick-making venture and look
for another job. But when he could not find suitable work, he
decided to go back to making bricks.

About a week later, a team from the Yogyakarta Archaeological
Center came to the site on Sept. 11, and said they wanted to
study the pile of bricks that Wahani and his friends had
discovered. Since then, he has continued digging -- but not to
make bricks.

"I have been asked to help the dig to find the real building.
After excavating three corners, it became clear that the pile of
bricks was actually the base of a temple," Wahani said.

The father of four said that before discovering the pile of
bricks he had had a dream. In the dream, he heard someone saying
"Koe dikon ngopeni banyu mili gede" (You have been asked to take
care of the fast-flowing water). He also saw a fairly big red
fish.

"I don't know what the meaning of this dream is. After the
dream, I found a pile of bricks, which turned out to be a part of
a temple. I don't know whether my dream had anything to do with
this discovery or not," he said.

The yard, which is partly owned by Wahani's neighbors, used to
be a mound of earth. As the earth has been used for making
bricks, the surface is now flat. Two yoni (statues symbolizing
females) had been found earlier this year. However, since the
community did not know anything about the statues, they were
taken to the local mosque. A round stone had also been found in
the area earlier and Wahani used it as a place to dry the bricks.
-- Berchman Heroe