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.