THE HINDU TEMPLES.
The temple remains generally--The connection between
Buddha and Brahma--The Boro-Boedoer--Loro-Jonggrang.
Of the temple ruins of Java, considered generally, Mr. Wallace says, "It
will take most persons by surprise to learn that they far surpass those
of Central America, perhaps even those of India."[12] Yet it is only
recently that these great works have been recovered to the world. A
Dutch engineer who was sent to construct a fort at Klaten, in 1797,
found that a number of architectural remains existed in the
neighbourhood of Brambanan, of which no account had been given. The
natives, it appeared, regarded them as the work of some local deity,
and, indeed, were in the habit of worshipping one conspicuous statue.
He also found much difficulty in sufficiently clearing the ruins of the
overgrowth of vegetation, so as to get an adequate view. Eventually he
succeeded in making some rough sketches of them. In the year following
the English occupation (1812), Colonel Colin MacKenzie visited
Brambanan, and made an accurate survey of the ruins in that
neighbourhood, which he sketched and described. At the instance of the
Governor, Sir Stamford Raffles, Captain Butler was then sent to make
drawings of the buildings, and to report upon them. This was the first
methodical exploration of the Hindu ruins in Java; but it was only
partial, and related almost exclusively to the Brambanan neighbourhood.
A quarter of a century later, when the discovery of photography had made
an exact reproduction of the sculptures possible, the Dutch Government
instituted an exhaustive survey of the Boro-Boedoer temple. In July,
1845, M. Shaefer was commissioned to execute photographs of the
bas-reliefs, but he was only partially successful. Two years later, an
engineer, M. F. C. Wilsen, was sent out from Holland, and, after giving
satisfactory proofs of his skill, definitely appointed in 1849, by a
decree of the Council of Netherlands India, to make drawings of the
bas-reliefs and statues of this temple. He was assisted by M. Schönburg
Mulder. They commenced in April, 1849, and completed the whole of the
task they had undertaken in the year 1853. M. Mulder's drawings proved,
however, to be useless, and a new assistant, M. Mieling, was appointed.
After various troubles, the drawings were finally completed in 1871, and
the letterpress and plates published in 1874. This great literary work,
consisting of several hundreds of large lithographed plans and drawings
of sculptures and statues, with a complete account written by Dr. C.
Leemans, director of the Public Museum at Leiden, was produced under the
direction of the Dutch Minister of the Colonies. But even this splendid
account of the Boro-Boedoer temple is not complete; since the date of
its publication a new series of bas-reliefs have been discovered, and
are being gradually photographed. In connection with the temples of
Brambanan and Kalasan, also, new and interesting discoveries are being
made from year to year. Indeed, images and sculptured stones are
continually found all over the island. At Gunong Praü, forty miles
south-west of Samarang, and further east, at Kediri and in Malang, there
are large tracts of ruins; but the most imposing and interesting for the
traveller are to be found in the centre of the island, in the
neighbourhood of Magalang and Djokja, in positions indicated by the
accompanying map. I shall endeavour first to give the reader a general
idea of the extent and nature of these remains, and then, after a few
remarks on the connection between Buddha and Brahma, to describe more at
length the Boro-Boedoer temple, and that of Loro-Jonggrang, near
Brambanan, the former of which is Buddhistic, and the latter Brahmanic,
or Saivite.
[Footnote 12: "Malay Archipelago."]
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF JAVA. _Page_ 89.]
At Boro-Boedoer, ten miles from Magalang, there are the remains of the
vast temple of that name; and about a mile distant, on the nearer bank
of the Prago river, is the small and externally insignificant temple of
Mendoet. Inside this latter is a vaulted chamber, the roof of which
springs from walls twenty feet in height, and rises to sixty feet in the
centre, covering a fine statue of Buddha.
At Brambanan, a village near Djokja, there is a large mass of ruins, of
which the most important are the temple of Loro-Jonggrang and a group of
small temples called Tjandi Sewoe, or Thousand Temples. In the
neighbourhood of the former ruins there are six large and fourteen small
temples, twenty separate buildings in all. The ruins of the latter group
cover a space of six hundred, square feet, and contain many splendid
colossal figures. They are arranged in five regular parallelograms,
consisting of an outer row of eighty-four temples, a second of
seventy-six, a third of sixty-four, a fourth of forty-four, and a fifth
(forming an inner-parallelogram) of twenty-eight. The centre is occupied
by a large cruciform temple, ornamented with sculpture, and surrounded
by flights of steps. All of these remains are greatly marred by the
luxurious growths of tropical vegetation which cover them.
Half a mile further are the Tjandi Kali Bening, or Temples of Kalasan.
Here there is a very fine and well-preserved temple, seventy-two square
feet in extent, of which Mr. Wallace says that it is "covered with
sculptures of Hindu mythology that surpass any that exist in India."
There are also other ruins of palaces, halls, and temples in the
neighbourhood.[13]
[Footnote 13: For this general account of the ruins in the
neighbourhood of Djokja I am indebted to the accounts of Raffles
and Wallace.]
The stones used for the construction of the Boro-Boedoer and other
temples in Java, and for the images found throughout the island, are of
volcanic origin. They are supplied by the numerous volcanoes in the
island, and carried down the sides of the mountains to the plains below
in lava streams. To-day such stones are used largely for making roads.
There is, however, a little limestone found in the southern districts of
the island.
In the Boro-Boedoer, at Mendoet, and in the Tjandi Sewoe, Buddha was
worshipped; but in the Temple of Loro-Jonggrang at Brambanan, and in the
Temples of Kalasan, Siva (the third person of the Hindu Trinity--Brahma,
Vishnu, Siva) was the central object of adoration. As the connection
between the religion of Buddha and Brahma has been often misunderstood,
a few words on this point may be of service to the reader.
Brahmanism, which was the established worship of the Hindus when Buddha
taught, was a religion which admitted of many sects; and Buddha,
although his ethical system was independent of Brahmanic theology,
recognized the existence of the popular deities. The distinction, then,
between Brahmanism and Buddhism is purely arbitrary; the latter is
merely a new growth of the former, and they both exist in British India
at the present day. In China also there is a similar fusion of religious
beliefs, where there are three established cults--those of Brahma,
Confucius, and of the Taöists, or nature-worshippers. The Confucian
religion is rather a system of ethics than a cult; but the rites of the
Buddhist and Taöist temples are attended indiscriminately by the
majority of the Chinese, the priests of the separate temples alone
confining themselves to the worship of a particular deity. In India,
however, the special followers of the two systems do not exhibit an
equal liberalism of sentiment; while the worship of Brahma is considered
orthodox, the cult of Buddha is regarded as heretical. The Buddhistic
temples of Java, coming midway between the oldest Buddhistic temples of
India and the modern shrines in Burmah, Ceylon, and Nepaul, the present
seats of the cult, supply an interesting _lacuna_ in the antiquities of
Buddhism. The Javan form of this religion is especially allied to that
of Nepaul. It bears a general resemblance to the Buddhism of Northern
India, but is distinct from that of Ceylon and the south. It is not
surprising, therefore, that ruins of temples dedicated to the services
of both religions should exist side by side, nor that the grosser and
more popular Brahmanic forms should have developed more largely than the
more spiritual worship of Buddha, both in India to-day and in Java
previously to the Mohammedan conquest.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN.
SECTION OF THE BORO-BOEDOER TEMPLE.
_Page_ 94.]
The temple of Boro-Boedoer is built upon a slight rounded eminence, the
last of a chain of hills on the eastern bank of the river Prago. The
entire edifice rests upon an equilateral base of six hundred and twenty
feet, situated due N.S.E. and W., and rises gradually in terraces
adapted in design to the form of the hill. These consist of two lower
terraces which are square in form; four galleries (or passages, with
sculptures on either side), which are still rectangular in form, but
have twenty angles to admit of their following the rounded contour of
the hill; and four terraces, of which the first has twelve angles, while
the remaining three are circular, adorned with cupolas, each containing
a statue of Buddha; and finally the whole is surmounted by a huge
cupola, fifty feet in diameter, in which rests the central figure of
Buddha. Access from one terrace to another is gained by four flights of
steps, running up the centre of each front, at the several entrances of
which are placed two huge lion-monsters. Dr. Leemans, in his account of
the building, enumerates _five_ galleries; but in reality there are only
four, since the outside of what he calls the first gallery is merely a
second basis for the whole structure, as is shown by the nature of its
decoration, viz. simple architectural designs and groups of deities. The
lower terrace, of which Dr. Leemans only guessed the existence, is now
being excavated and photographed section by section. Only one section is
kept open at any given time, because the earth is necessary to support
the vast mass of stonework which forms the entire building, and it was
for this reason, namely, to prevent the structure from breaking up, that
this terrace was formerly banked up. It is found that this lower terrace
is decorated with sculptures representing ordinary mundane scenes, the
world being the basis on which all the higher religious phenomena rest.
In the first gallery (Leemans' second), the bas-reliefs represent a
continuous selection of scenes from the historical life of Buddha; in
the second, there are sculptures of the lesser deities recognized in the
Brahmanic worship, such deities having been adopted into the Buddhistic
pantheon; in the third the higher deities are represented, where the
_shrine_, and not the deity, is worshipped; in the fourth there are
groups of Buddhas; and in the central dome there is the incomplete
statue of the Highest Buddha--_Adibuddha_. This is unfinished by design,
in order to indicate that the highest deity cannot be represented by
human hands, having no bodily but only a spiritual existence.
"OM, AMITAYA! measure not with words
Th' Immeasurable; nor sink the string of thought
Into the Fathomless. Who asks doth err,
Who answers, errs. Say nought."
Such is the design of this great religious monument, of which even the
bare ruins, in their melancholy magnificence, inspire the mind of the
spectator with mingled feelings of wonder and solemnity.
The temple of Loro-Jonggrang is one in which, as at Kalasan, the object
of worship was Siva, and not Buddha. This god, as already stated, was
the third of the three persons of the Hindu Trinity; the first being
Brahma, or the Creator, and the second Vishnu, the Preserver. Siva, the
Destroyer, is also the Reproducer, and appears in Java to have been
worshipped under three forms: (1) as Mahadeva, or the Great God; (2) as
Mahayogi, or the Great Teacher; and (3) as Mahakala, or the Destroyer.
Guru (or Goeroe) is an alternative name for Siva Mahayogi, and his
statues in this temple are so called. The edifice is greatly inferior in
size to that of Boro-Boedoer; it rests upon a rectangular basement
having twelve angles, and measuring some eighty feet across in either
direction. Like the former temple, its position is almost exactly square
with the points of the compass. The basement is ornamented with ordinary
religious ornaments, consisting of sacred trees and lions. Above this is
a gallery, of which the parapet on the inner side is decorated with
scenes taken from the Ramayana (the second of the two great Indian
epics), while the opposite wall of the temple is adorned with forms of
deities. In the centre or body of the temple are four chambers, one of
which--the principal--is itself larger, and contains a larger image than
the others. They are each alike approached by flights of steps in the
centre of the four sides of the edifice. The deities represented are--in
the northern chamber, Durga; in the western, Ganesa; and in both the
southern and eastern, Guru. Now, according to the Brahmanic pantheon,
Durga (_the_ Goddess) was the mother, and Guru the father, of Ganesa,
the elephant-headed God of Wisdom. The connection between Siva and the
Rama epic is this. The Ramayana is the history of the incarnation of
Vishnu as Rama, and contains an account of the war waged by Rama with
the giant Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. In the poem mention is made
of the Vedic god Indra and his Maruts. Subsequently Siva, the world
destroyer, was identified with Indra in the form of Rudra, the god of
tempests; hence the appropriateness of scenes from this story on a
Saivite temple. It only remains to add that the name of the temple,
_Loro-Jonggrang_, is simply the native name given to the particular
Durga (or Goddess of Efficient Virtue) represented in the shrine, and
means literally the "Maiden with beautiful hips."
NOTE.--In view of the late appearance of the Adibuddha (probably
the tenth century), I have thought it desirable to state that
the theory of the general design of the Boro-Boedoer contained
in the text is based upon a very interesting conversation which
I had with M. Groeneveldt, who is a member of the Council of
Netherlands India and Director of the Museum at Batavia.
Professor Rhys Davids has pointed out an interesting distinction
between the Boro-Boedoer and the Buddhist shrines in India, viz.
that, whereas the cupolas at Boro-Boedoer are hollow, the
_dagabas_ of British India are always solid. In the Annex will
be found a detailed account of the various routes and the cost,
etc., of travelling from Batavia to the temple districts in the
centre and east of Java.
ANNEX TO CHAPTER V.
THE ROUTES TO THE TEMPLES.
Supposing that the traveller has been landed at Batavia, and wishes to
visit the ruins in the east of the island, he will have the choice of
three routes. First, he may sail by a Netherlands India boat to Samarang
(or Soerabaia, if, as often happens from December to February, it is
impossible to land at the former place owing to the surf); this occupies
about thirty-six hours. There is an excellent hotel at Samarang--the
Pavilion--where the night can be spent, and the following day the train
will carry him to Amberawa, a distance of 50 miles by rail (or 30 by
road). Here the railway stops, and a carriage must be taken to Magalang,
the next town (with splendid views of the two volcanoes, Merbaboe and
Merapi), which is some 20 miles further on, and where a halt must be
made for the night. Ten miles' driving will take him to the
Boro-Boedoer; the drive is one of extraordinary beauty. After visiting
the Boro-Boedoer and the neighbouring temple of Mendoet, it is usual to
return by way of Djokja (25 miles), which is the centre of numerous
ruins. If, however, it is intended to travel overland, there are two
routes available. The first is the regular posting route along the
northern coast; the second lies to the south, and is perhaps more
interesting. If the regular route is chosen, the traveller will proceed
by rail as far as Bandong, a distance of some 90 miles; and then drive
to Cheribon (80 miles), a place on the northern coast; and then,
following the coast-line, from Cheribon to Tegal (40 miles); from Tegal
to Pekalongan (35 miles); and from Pekalongan to Samarang (68 miles). In
all these places there are good hotels, but two horses, and in some
places four (as in the last stage, where the road passes over
mountains), would be necessary. Such a journey in a carriage would cost
(apart from hotel expenses) £20, or, if it were done in a cart (sadoe)
and two horses, half that sum.
If he pursues the second route, he will not leave the railway before
Garoet. From Garoet he will proceed to Kalipoetjan (100 miles) by
carriage; this occupies two days, and Manongyaya (with a hotel) is
passed, and Bandar, where there is sleeping-accommodation to be had.
From Kalipoetjan he will make his way to Tjilatjap by native canoe,
crossing the Kinderzee, a large lagoon, in eight or nine hours, and
passing some villages built on piles. There is also a curious cave and
some edible swallow-nests to be seen. In travelling by this route it is
necessary to take a servant to interpret with the natives. From
Tjilatjap the railway runs to Djokja. This town is about 25 miles from
the Boro-Boedoer temple; the road is bad, and at times covered with dust
to the depth of a foot or more, so that three horses are necessary. Even
then the journey occupies four or five hours, although it is quite
possible to return on the same day. There is an inn at the small village
near the temple, but it is not sufficiently inviting to merit more than
a transitory visit; at the same time, there is nothing to prevent the
gentlemen of the party from staying the night at Boro-Boedoer if they
felt so inclined. From Djokja, of course, the railway extends to
Samarang and to Soerabaia. Especially the town of Solo (or Soerakarta),
which is the junction where the line branches north or east, is worthy
of a visit, as being the best centre for seeing native ceremonies. In
conclusion I append a table of distances, means of conveyance, and cost
(this latter being approximate only as depending upon individuals).
NOTE.--The regular hotel charge all through Java is five or six florins
a day (= 10s.). Twelve florins = £1.
FIRST ROUTE.
Places. Means of Cost. Number Time.
Conveyance. of Miles.
Batavia to Steamboat 60 florins 240 36 hours.
Samarang
Samarang to Train 8 " 50
Amberawa
Amberawa to {Cart 10 " } 20
Magalang {Carriage 20 " }
Magalang to {Cart 5 " } 10
Boro-Boedoer {Carriage 10 " }
SECOND ROUTE.
Batavia to Train -- " 90
Bandong
Bandong to {Cart 30 " } 80 10 "
Cheribon {Carriage 60 " }
Cheribon to {Cart 15 " } 40 4 "
Tegal {Carriage 50 " }
Tegal to {Cart 15 " } 35 4 "
Pekalongan {Carriage 60 " }
Pekalongan to {Cart 30 " } 50 11 "
Samarang {Carriage 70 " }
THIRD ROUTE.
Batavia to Train -- " 100
Garoet
Garoet to Carriage 29 " 100 2 days.
Kalipoetjan
Kalipoetjan to Native 15 " -- 8 or 9 hours.
Tjilatjap Canoe
Tjilatjap to Train -- 90
Djokja