JAKARTA - The charm of Borobudur Temple in Magelang is second to none. The ancient temple is known as the spiritual center of Buddhists. It is also the embodiment of the high civilization of the ancestors of the Indonesian nation. That is, the beauty of the temple is able to anesthetize many eyes. Domestic and foreign.
Prince Charles is one of them. The crown prince of the United Kingdom has always been attracted to the architecture of Borobudur. Therefore, Prince Charles' visits often mention Borbudur as a place worth visiting in Indonesia.
Many people are instrumental in reintroducing Borobudur to the world. Lieutenant Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, Thomas Stamford Raffles was present as one of them. Raffles' passion for knowledge is not denied. It was this passion that then led him to cultivate the desire to find a masterpiece belonging to the ancestors of the bumiputras: the Borobudur Temple.
He heard news related to Borobudur during a visit to Semarang in 1814. Raffles also made a strategy. He appointed his Dutch assistant, Hermanus Christiaan Cornelius, as team leader. The team of 200 people began to explore. The results are amazing. Within six weeks, Borobudur Temple was rediscovered. The discovery made the name of Raffles even more soar.
The discovery of the Borobudur Temple was then written by Raffles in his masterpiece The History of Java (1817). The masterpiece became the way the Borobudur Temple was famous throughout the country. Borobudur is also a must-visit destination when visiting the Dutch East Indies. British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, for example. He admitted that he fell in love with Java. In particular, Borobudur Temple.
Wallace, who explored the archipelago from 1854 to 1862, said that Borobudur was the main place to enjoy the grandeur of the Mahakarta of the ancestors of the Bumiputras. In fact, Wallace said Borobudur was better, compared to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
"Presumably, the amount of human labor and expertise devoted to the construction of the largest pyramid in Egypt is insignificant when compared with the labor required to complete the temple - Borobudur - full of statues on this hill in the interior of Java Island," wrote Alfred Russel Wallace in his masterpiece Archipelago Archipelago. (2009).
Prince Charles to BorobudurAlfred Russel Wallace's trip to Borobudur inspired many other British people to visit Borobudur. In fact, after Indonesia's independence, British visits to Borobudur experienced a significant increase.
The charm of the architectural beauty of Borobudur also attracted the attention of Prince Charles to visit. The crown prince of the United Kingdom was a little disappointed not to be able to visit Borobudur on his first visit to Indonesia in February 1988. Even though many Indonesians were eagerly awaiting the arrival of Prince Charles.
His first visit was only filled with activities in Jakarta. He who came with his wife, Lady Diana, was much involved in social activities. Present at the inauguration of clean water channels in West Jakarta, one of them.
The following year, or November 1989, the man whose full name was Charles Philip Arthur George did not waste a visit to Indonesia. He also scheduled a visit to Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Prince Charles deliberately added Yogyakarta, then Magelang from his visit list because he was already passionate about seeing Borobudur Temple in person.
In Yogyakarta, Prince Charles is planned to be the guest of honor at the Palace. The visit also scheduled Prince Charles to speak on issues related to humanity. However, before that, he actually first visited Yogyakarta.
He purposely left a day early to be able to walk from Yogyakarta to Magelang in order to visit Borobudur. The rest of his agenda in Jakarta was left to Lady Diana. Therefore, Prince Charles, who is also a lover of world architecture, visited Borobudur for the first time. He is happy not playing. Even though his wife was not with him.
"Prince Charles's attention to Third World issues, especially those related to humanitarian issues, was very deep. The topic of population was then fun to be discussed with Sofian Effendi from UGM, with projections of future realities that still need a lot of handling. Prince Charles is very interested in the issue of family planning in a rich country like Indonesia, which turns out to be very different, even in contrast to a poor country like Malaysia.”
“As an author of books on traditional British architecture, it is clear that Prince Charles admires Indonesian architecture, especially the traditional ones. There Fuad Hassan (Minister of Education and Culture of the New Order era) expressed his discomfort with the Origin-Comot architectural style from Spain, Greece to Scandinavia which is endemic in Indonesia today. But Prince Charles doesn't need to be disappointed because he will be accompanied by Budiardjo to witness the incredible architecture of the Borobudur Temple that doesn't exist,” said Jaya Suprana in the book Kompas Manuscripts (2009).
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