DPA clarifies

In the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) article Missing pieces at Indonesia's famous temples, published on Sept. 15 in The Jakarta Post, I made an inaccurate statement related to the elephant statue, given by King Chulalongkorn of Thailand during the Dutch colonial period, that was placed in front of the Indonesian National Museum and to the transfer of the Buddha statues from Borobudur temple.

The Royal Thai Embassy has pointed out that King Chulalongkorn had paid royal visits to Java three times, in 1871, 1896, 1901, respectively. On the first visit, He visited only Batavia (Jakarta) and Semarang. Shortly after returning to Siam (Thailand), the King ordered two bronze elephant statues to be made and instructed a high-ranking Thai officer to present the statues on the King's behalf. One each was sent to Batavia and Singapore as tokens of His Majesty's appreciation of their warm hospitality.

In fact, King Chulalongkorn's visit to Borobudur took place during his second visit to Java in 1896. It was during this visit that the Buddha statues from the ruins were offered to him as a gift. However, the King chose some imperfect statues and wrote in his diary that the temple should "Keep the good ones for others to see."

Therefore, the different time, places and occasions show no linkage between the presentation of the elephant statue and the transfer of the Buddha statues.

I sincerely apologize to the Royal Thai Embassy, Royal Thai government and Thai people for my mistake by quoting the rumor and historical inaccuracy which I hope have now been set straight.

PETER JANSSEN, DPA, Jakarta