Old Temple site found in Bandung

Yuly Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Crowds continued to gather on Thursday near the West Java capital of Bandung at a recently discovered temple site, which archeologists believe to be older than the Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta.

Curious visitors began to gather at the site on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of the archeological site, which has been cordoned off by the police.

The Bandung Archeology Agency confirmed on Wednesday the historical discovery, following a tip from local residents.

Agency head Tony Djubiantono said the site was discovered last Sunday by 12 residents of Bojongmenje hamlet, Cangkuang Rancaekek village, about 25 kilometers southeast of Bandung.

The site is believed to date back to the seventh century, and is expected to help experts fill in the holes of the history of the Sunda territory (Tatar Sunda), he said.

"It is a spectacular discovery and is very significant for recovering the missing history of the Tatar Sunda. It's extremely rare to find such a temple in West Java," he said.

Tony said historians had so far failed to find a connection between the Jiwa Temple in Batujajar, Karawang regency, which dates back to between the second and forth centuries, and a temple in the Dieng Mountains from the seventh to eighth centuries.

Both temples are linked to the Tatar Sunda, he added.

Tony added that Achmad Muhamad, a 48-year-old villager, discovered the temple site, along with 11 other residents.

The villagers stumbled onto the site purely out of chance. Initially, they were just trying to find out what happened to a pile of soil located inside a 50-square-meter family cemetery that is enclosed by the walls of a factory.

A week earlier, one of the villagers uncovered a sharp stone in the same location while looking for termites beneath a tree.

"So we began to dig up the soil last Sunday and discovered a pile of big stones that looked like the structure of a building," Achmad said.

He said he reported the find to the head of Cangkuang Rancaekek village and the local police, but they said the stones were probably just the remnants of Japanese or Dutch graves.

Rancaekek Police chief First Insp. Ismail said that the area had been used as a Japanese military headquarters during World War II.

But the villagers persisted, and told their story to the Bandung Archeology Agency, which sent a team of archeologists to examine the site on Tuesday.

"Our initial inquiry concluded that the discovered building structure was part of the base of a temple. We believe there is not just one temple, but many," Tony said.

He quoted villagers as saying they often found unusual-looking stones while opening up new farmland or working on industrial projects in the area.

The discovered temple is believed to have been abandoned during the seventh century, after the collapse of the Tarumanegara kingdom, Tony said.

"We have yet to find a relief like those on the walls of the Borobudur and Prambanan temples. So it is likely that this temple is older than those two," he said.

Archeologists from the West Java Office of Culture and Tourism plan to begin excavation of the site early next month.

"We will give the villagers who discovered the ancient temple site some sort of reward," Tony said.

At the request of the Bandung Archaeology Agency, the local police on Wednesday cordoned off the site, located about 150 meters from Rancaekek's main road.

The site is now being guarded by civilian security personnel.