Heboh, Conservation Center Finds Ancient Building Structures Around Candi Pawon, Allegedly A Monk Settlement

The ancient brick structure around the Pawon Temple was excavated by the Borobudur Conservation Center. (Photo: ANTARA / Heru Suyitno)

JAKARTA - The discovery of an ancient building structure that is suspected of being a settlement in the ancient Mataram era around Pawon Temple will strengthen the integrity of Borobudur Temple as a world heritage.

"The findings of this ancient settlement are still early, with the existing data we are still interpreting it and we will continue to dig into a conclusion," said Head of the Borobudur Conservation Center (BKB) Wiwit Kasiyati as quoted by Antara, Thursday, February 4.

Wiwit added, seen from cultural access, Mendut, Pawon and Borobudur temples have historical religious connections. This means that there are settlements made around the temple area.

"The Buddhists at that time were doing their religion through this route and it happened that there were findings and in theory Buddhist philosophy there were monks' settlements, there were monks, and temples," he said.

He said that if it was indeed the monk's residence, what had not been found was the wihar.

"That's why we are trying to find where the monastery is, but looking for it is not as long as it continues to excavate, there must still be data showing that there is indeed a need to do excavation to find out about the monastery," he said.

BKB Associate Cultural Expert Yudi Suhartono conveyed the findings of the alleged ancient settlement were the result of further excavations that previously found ancient bricks.

The location is from Pawon Temple about 160 meters to the southeast or about 30 meters from the Progo River.

He said that the former was suspected as a settlement for monks by finding beads. In addition, broken pottery and ceramics were found during the Tang dynasty around the 8th and 10th centuries AD.

Yudi said the ancient brick structure was quite wide, measuring 11 x 6 meters, but there were also some bold stones at the bottom, maybe a road or something.