Photographs of forgotten humanity on display

Photographs of forgotten humanity on display

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): In the early 1980s, I heard of an overpainted Rembrandt. An X-ray analysis revealed another layer of paint depicting an earlier version or composition of the rendering, or an entirely different image altogether. Naturally, questions about why the painting was painted over sprung up.

Like an overlaid painting, beneath the current base of the eighth century Borobudur in Central Java lies an earlier, original base. In 1885, J.W. Ijzerman, an archeologist from Yogyakarta, discovered the original base buried under the present visible foundation.

The original foundation contains a series of 160 bas-relief panels, depicting narratives based upon the Maha-karmavibhangga- sutra, which, according to Borobudur expert Ryusho Hikata in a Japanese publication, "portray varied cause-effect aspects of the six worlds: hell (naraka), the worlds of hungry spirits (preta), animals (tiryak), asuras, and men (manusya) and heaven (devata)".

While the original text does not depict the causes and their corresponding result, the bas-reliefs portray both the causative scenes and their results. Hikata further explains the system of narrative: "Those showing the causes, or karmans, on the right side, and those of the results, or phalas, on the left." The depictions are often gruesome: a man who has cooked any living creature must burn in one of the eight hot hells, he cites as an example.

Symbolically, this section of the monument represents kamadhatu, the lower sphere of desire. The levels above the base represents the two other spheres, supadhatu, the realm of name and form, and arupadhatu, which, according to Soekmono in Borobudur -- Prayer in Stone, is "the sphere where man is freed from all bonds with the phenomenal world."

The Karmavibhangga, Soekmono continues, "is a reminder of the misery caused by the unavoidable and inevitable operation of the Law of Karma."

Ryo Namikawa, another expert on Borobudur, mentions that the encasement of the original base with an addition of 11,600 cubic meters of andesite blocks was done due to "fear about the great weight of the upper levels, and possibly, actual damage resulting from sliding walls."

While this argument seems acceptable, and is supported by the fact that the reliefs remained partially unfinished, the real reason for the encasement is still a mystery. Some scholars speculate that the covering of the reliefs may have been a form of censorship.

While today the original base is only partially revealed, the reliefs have been properly documented. The first documentation effort was done by Indonesia photographer Kassian Cephas in 1890, before the original base was buried again.

Then during the first major restoration effort of the monument by Van Erp in 1907-1911, the reliefs were photographed once again by N.J. Krom and others.

Today, some of the photographed panels are on display in an exhibition entitled Photographs of Forgotten Humanity held at the Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Central Jakarta. The organizers of the exhibit are aspiring to present an analogy between the depictions on the relief of the hidden base of Borobudur and contemporary life.

This one-day exhibition is being held in connection with a series of other events, all presented under an umbrella title, Three Lenses of Introspection, which will commence at 1:30 p.m. with a presentation of the dance drama Kesah by choreographer I. Rusdy R. and Harry Sabar, continued by a discussion entitled Erotic Values in Indonesian Art and Culture, featuring speakers Jaya Suprana, Bachtiar Aly, H. Sujiwo Tejo, Slamet Rahardjo, Yanti Aranditio and I. Rusdy R.