Tourists wearing batik as they walk around Borobudur. This will become the norm as management wants to outlaw skimpy clothing. (Antara Photo)
fComplaints by local worshippers have prompted a crackdown on tourists revealing too much skin at Central Java’s famed Borobudur Temple.
Purnomo Siswo Prasetyo, chief executive of PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko, the company that manages the site, said on Tuesday the new rule would be enforced to create a more positive image of the temple.
He added that the “sacredness of the place and collective comfort should be considered.”
“We keep getting complaints from locals upset about tourists who wear skimpy clothing at Borobudur,” Purnomo said. He said he hoped that tourists would respect the social and religious norms observed at the temple.
Pudjo Suwarno, head of the Borobudur Temple Park management unit, said the pilot project, launched on Monday, would be assessed and later expanded to the Prambanan — parts of which have reopened after a 2006 earthquake — and Ratu Boko temples in Klaten, Central Java.
“In spirit, this is a good rule that won’t trouble the tourists,” Pudjo said. “Many of them even love to take picture of themselves wearing a Borobudur Temple sarong. But we’re still going to evaluate the rule before implementing it at the other temples.”
Besides wearing sarongs, initially provided by the temple management, visitors to Borobudur are also required to wear rubber sandals to avoid damage to the temple’s andesite stonework.
“The most appropriate material for footwear is actually woven dry pandanus leaves,” Pudjo told the Jakarta Globe.
The management therefore has encouraged the local community to produce hand-woven sandals for sale or rent.
“In addition to conservation, we hope the new rule will have a positive impact on the [local] economy,” Pudjo said. “We also have to design the appropriate batik motif for the tourist sarongs. Obviously there has to be an image of Borobudur Temple for promotional purposes.”
It is believed Borobudur was built around 800 AD, with construction taking about 75 years. It is unclear when or why the temple was forgotten, but it was not until 1814 that its existence was mentioned to the then governor-general, Thomas Stamford Raffles, who ordered an expedition of 200 men to document it.
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Borobudur at dawn – quiet and peaceful (JP/Sunita Sue Leng)
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