Desecration of a Temple

Several months ago, I had the chance of accompanying one of my best pals to visit various Candi in Yogya. From him, I learned how people should respect Candi. He put off his shoes before entering the candi, went around the structure exactly 3 times, and really respect even the stone floor. Back then, he said to me that it is a sacred place for praying, and we should treat it as something really sacred. And at that time, my eyes were wide opened, that candi is really a sacred place, not just a pile of archaeological stones.

However, I faced a different situation when I had to escort my cousin to Borobudur several days ago. As people might know that Borobudur was one of the Seven Wonders in the world, it was supposed to be incredible. Moreover, it is also one of the biggest Budhist structures in the world, not to mention its unique configuration as a giant mandala to reach the Nirvana. I am not a Budhist myself, but with the background of Borobudur and its grandeur, it is expected to be respected.

When I got there, there was an announcement that people should not bring a food to the complex of the temple. Well, it was quite rational, since nobody would expect someone to eat in the mosque, church, or temple. And Borobudur is one of the famous temples.

But what did I found there? On the second level, I saw a family sitting in the corner and ate their meal there. They ate it as if they were eating in the park, not in a sacred place. Some of them are veiled women, while I shouldn’t judge them as super-pious, but it was a bit of a ironic scene, wasn;t it? Moreover, they threw away the garbage on the floor.

As a tourism object, surely many children visited the structure. But, most of them were not even interested in it. Well, not blaming them, of course, considering the nature of the children. But the parents themselves were not giving anything to their children. In their mind, they only consider Borobudur as a mere pile of stones from the time of long forgotten. Aaaargh! Does that mean they are allowed to desecrate it?

To make it worse, I accidentally overheard one of the tour guide explaining the relief. To my surprise, he told the tourists that the relief was about Shiva, one of the Hindu Trinity. Jiaah. Borobudur is a Budhist temple, and it’s not even related to any of the Hindu Cosmology. Where the hell did they found this brainless and uncultured guide?

The most ironic one is that, the foreign visitors even respected the temple more than Indonesian visitors. Gee, and what about the campaign of preserving our own culture? The younger generation showed no respect and interest to it, and how would they preserve it??

And with all the disappointment, I officially ran out of good words to write here. Let me stop, or else I might write bad things. Period.