DPA clarifies

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