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