My excellent BMKG friends came by at 8 am to accompany me to one of the most important archaeologic sites in the Yogyakarta area: The 9th century Borobudur Buddhist Temple. Way back there the Indonesian archipelago was religiously aligned with Hinduism and Buddhism, although Islam shipmasters were already actively trading with the region (Islam makes its dominant entrance in the region on the 13th century).
The temple is a giant expression of the enlightenment path followed by Buddha, a path that its followers strive to follow. Imagine it as a five layer cake of enormous dimensions, where the bottom-most layer is the basic, broader basis of enlightenment, and progressively smaller, higher layers build on each other to eventually reach complete enlightenment at the very top. The bottom layer represents the struggle to control of desires, by the middle layer desires have been controlled, but actions are still bound by forms and customs and karma guides the spirit (good actions lead to good karma, and bad actions leads to bad karma and the need for additional lessons). At the top the spirit is free of desires and achieves nirvana and sunyata.
The easy conversation during the trip had brought to the surface tons of good karma, and my two Indonesian friends and I stepped into the entrance hall surrounded by an aureole of bonhomie. I am a foreign devil, so I had to pay five times what my friends did, but I really didn't mind. And then bad karma made its appearance, and an officious ranger directed me to one line, and my Indonesian friends to another. I wanted for us to remain together, but the bad man was inflexible. So I get herded into one shuttle, and I tell to my friends that I will wait for them at the other end. I get there and ... nothing! They have disappeared. I waited stubbornly and when the wardens tried to have me move I refused. Eventually I was directed to the Kommandant of the concentration camp, where I made my displeasure at being separated from my friends very clear. The wardens started getting worried when I stated my intention of bringing on a complaint, and I was assigned a young woman to come with me until I could find my friends. Eventually I did, and learned that the visit to the temple was reserved to holders of a Premium Pass, and my lowly friends didn't have one. Grr! How can Indonesians be kept from visiting their own heritage?
I did visit the rest of the temple, but I did it with a jaundiced eye. I was definitely not in harmony with the lofty ideals of enlightenment, muttering to myself as I climbed up to Nirvana. I suspect I will have to reincarnate a couple of times before I come to visit Borobudur again on the way to enlightenment.
I did notice, however, that this magnificent temple is built out of small blocks of exquisitely-carved basalt, interlocked together like a giant Lego set without any mortar. A true masterpiece of the art of its masons. The delicacy of the stone carvings is truly amazing, with the life of Prince Siddharta tracked through his birth, his marriage, his studies under the great philosophers of his time, and finally the time he spent meditating under the Bodhi tree to become enlightened as Guatama Buddha. But the relief that caught my attention was that of a sailing ship, racing with the wind. It was one of the ships that ran the profitable but treacherous Cinnammon Trade from the far east of Indonesia across the Indian Ocean past the Seychelles, Madagascar, around South Africa, and up to Ghana! Borobudur must have been one of the hubs of the spice trade.
Feeling particularly grumpy I came down from the temple to join my friends, who with big smiles told me they had a group of high school students who wanted to chat with me. The ten girls quickly surrounded me, and started firing questions in very good English. They were part of a group that is doing a two-week study trip to important tourist sites, with the specific goal of speaking to tourists to improve their English. We were a match made in Heaven, and happily spent half an hour talking about my house in California, my family and pets, and my work as a geologist. It was like a balm on my troubled spirit, and I was able to leave the site floating in good karma.
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