Farmers up in arms over temple visitors' ungodly acts

By K. Basrie

KARAWANG, West Java (JP): Thousands of curious people visiting a group of ancient temples in the Segaran and Telaga Jaya villages have angered local farmers by destroying kilometers of embankments in nearby rice fields.

Burdened by the weight of at least 2,000 visitors per day, the embankments -- formerly more than 50 centimeters above the fields' surface -- have sunk by up to a meter.

"It's a serious problem for the local farmers and we want the government to immediately fix the footpaths so we can work again," Namid, a farmer, told The Jakarta Post Monday.

As with most paddy fields around the country, the embankments in Karawang are made of dried mud and serve as walls for the fields, footpaths for the locals and running tracks for their children.

Normally, only five to ten people pass along the embankments each day. But on Sundays as many as 10,000 people use the paths as shortcuts to the temples.

"Many embankments have disappeared because of passersby and it's us -- the local people -- who must accept the risks," said another farmer who, like other locals, now has to trudge through wet mud to reach his fields.

"It's harvest time now but we've been finding it difficult to work because the paths across our fields have been destroyed," he said.

The group of temples was discovered by Indonesian archeologists in 1982. However the findings only appeared in the national media a few days before the Idul Fitri holiday last month.

"Seven of the excavation sites are in the Telaga Jaya village and the other eleven are in the neighboring Segaran village," said Hari Untoro Dradjat, the head of the Directorate of Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage.

Of the eleven sites, only two -- Candi (temple) Jiwa and Candi Asem -- are still open to the public. The others have been buried again by archeologists waiting for a better time to start restoration work.

All of the temples are located in the middle of a huge area of rice fields. The water for the fields is supplied from the Citarum river.

The visitors comes from both the surrounding areas such as Rengasdengklok and big cities further afield, including Bandung and Jakarta.

"I came here out of curiosity because many of my neighbors have been here. Anyway, it's not your business," said a young woman from Bandung.

Iwan, a junior high school student, said: "I just want to know for myself what I saw on television."

As public transportation to the site is limited, most visitors use motorcycles or hire cars to reach the site, which is a two- hour drive from Jakarta.

The parking fee for any vehicle is Rp 1,000 (US 42 cents), almost the same as in Jakarta. The entrance fee is Rp 200.

Parking fees

According to the Telaga Jaya village head, M. Ichsan S., the funds collected from the entrance and parking fees are used to build the roads to the temples.

"If we depended on the small amount of financial aid from the local authorities, we wouldn't be able to repair the roads, which have been badly damaged by the increasing number of motorcyclists coming to visit the temples," Ichsan said.

Since the announcement of the temples' discovery and tales of mystery circulated by people, many of the nonasphalted roads leading to the sites have turned into holes of mud in the rainy season.

Nevertheless some locals welcomed the development. Dozens of farmers and their relatives have opened small shops selling drink, food, fruit and fish.

They allow people to use their toilets for Rp 200. Photos and copies of newspaper articles about the temples are also sold.