Missing pieces at Indonesia's famous temples

Missing pieces at Indonesia's famous temples

Peter Janssen, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Yogyakarta

Restoration work on Central Java's world-famous Buddhist/Hindu
temples -- Borobudur and Prambanan -- was theoretically completed
in 1990, just in time for the 1991 Visit Indonesia Year.

In fact, much remains to be done on the two spectacular
monuments which may take decades to finish given Indonesia's
continuing economic crisis, experts say.

The restoration of Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist
temple in the world's largest Muslim nation, was completed in
1982 after attracting US$30 million from the international
community to finance the project, which began in 1974.

Work on the nearby Hindu temple Prambanan, 33 kilometers east
of Borobudur, was completed in 1990 with a smaller dollop of
international largesse combined with Indonesian government
funding.

In 1991 both temples were declared World Heritage Sites by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).

Hinduism and Buddhism were the first world religions to hold
sway in Java, where they became the court religions of Javanese
dynasties between the third and 15th centuries, before Islam
started to gain in popularity on the island.

While Borobudur and Prambanan are dramatic reminders of Java's
Hindu-Buddhist heritage, they are certainly not the only ones,
nor are they even completed.

The unfinished work is particularly obvious at Prambanan,
Indonesia's largest intact Hindu temple, which was first
discovered by Dutchman C.A. Lons in 1733.

The Dutch colonial government began renovation work on
Prambanan in 1885, which was thereafter interrupted by World War
II and the independence struggle, and only really resumed in
earnest in 1977.

The reconstructed portion of Prambanan, an 18-temple compound
with three looming enclosed alters dedicated to the Hindu
triumvirate -- Brahma, Visnu and Shiva (creator, maintainer and
destroyer) -- was only the innermost courtyard of a sprawling a
complex of 152,100 square meters with some 246 unfinished smaller
temples.

Although the innermost sanctuary was the most awe-inspiring,
it only represents 5 percent of what needs to be done to restore
the temple to its former grandeur, claimed Indonesian
archaeologist Bambang Prasetya, chairman of the restoration group
of the Yogyakarta Historical and Archeological Heritage Reserve
(SPSP) office.

"We're still doing some work on Prambanan, but very slowly,"
said Prasetya. "At this rate it will take another 30 years."

Since 1997, when the Asian economic crisis struck, the
government budget for restoration work has dried up, as have
grants from UNESCO, and former donor nations such as Japan and
the Netherlands.

UNESCO's withdrawal had nothing to do with the crisis.

"We need to make choices," said Philippe Delanghe, UNESCO's
program specialist for culture in Jakarta. "The central part of
Prambanan was finished and we thought the government was doing a
good job with the remainder. And they were until 1997."

For Prasetya the incomplete work at Prambanan is just the tip
of the iceberg.

Three kilometers away from Prambanan lie the still largely
buried ruins of Boko palace.

Prambanan was built between the eighth and 10th century when
Java was ruled by the Buddhist Sailendras monarchy and the Hindu
Sanjayas.

The temple, also called Lara Jonggrang, was supposedly built
to mark a marriage between the two dynasties, which explains the
combination of Buddhist and Hindu architecture it is unique for.

Remarkably little is known about the period. For instance, it
is still unclear whether the nearby Boko ruins are those of a
palace or of another Hindu temple.

Other Hindu-Buddhist sites in the Central Java neighborhood
that have yet to be excavated include Kedulan, Sambibari, Payak,
Gampingan, Senden, Pajanggan and Kadi Soka, according to
Prasetya.

He warned that many of these sites are in danger of being
pilfered away forever if they are ignored much longer.

Even the spectacular ninth century Borobudur, a hilltop
Buddhist temple measuring 60,000 cubic meters, has not been
immune to missing pieces.

Several of the original temple's 400 plus Buddha statues were
allegedly sent as a gift to Thai King Chulalongkorn by either the
Dutch colonial government or the famed British administrator Sir
Thomas Stamford Raffles, who first found the Borobudur site in
1815, said Prasetya.

King Chulalongkorn reportedly reciprocated by sending an
elephant statue to the Dutch administration in Batavia, now
Jakarta, which now stands outside the capital's National Museum.

The stupa on the top of the Borobudur temple is also missing.
An Islamic extremist group blew the stupa up in 1987, and it was
never properly restored.

"It shows what people can do to heritage," said UNESCO's
Delanghe.