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3.1. The Borobudur Lake
The discussion about the existence of an ancient
lake near and around Borobudur was started in 1931
by the famous painter W.O.J.Nieuwenkamp, who had
spent several years of intensive studies on Hindu-
Buddhist architecture, in particular on the Island
of Bali, and who also visited Borobudur several
times. As an artist he visualized Borobudur, sit
ting on top of its hill, as a "lotus flower
drifting on a lake, on which the new-born Buddha
was seated". Support for this idea is found in the
conventional lay-out of Buddhist sanctuaries, very
often surrounded by a moat symbolizing the cosmic
ocean from which the earth was created. Typical
examples of such moats exist around the various
temples of the Angkor Vat complex in Cambodia,
whereby it should be remembered that the Buddhist
Khmer civilization of Cambodia was much inspired by
the older Javanese Hindu-Buddhist traditions.
Modern examples are the ponds with their lotus
flowers, so often found in front of the Balinese
temples.
Several geologists took part in the debate which
was carried around 1933 in the monthly journal
"Nederlandsch-Indie Oud en Nieuw ", and the daily
paper "Algemeen Handelsblad", Amsterdam, in par
ticular the two friends Prof. Dr. L.M.R.Rutten and
Dr W.Nieuwenkamp, the latter son of the painter.
Furthermore, persuaded by W.O.J.Nieuwenkamp ,
Cr.Ch.E.A.Harloff and Dr. A.J.Pannekoek carried out
a serious geological and geomorphological study,
first reported in 1937 and finally published in
1940 (Harloff and Pannekoek, 1940 ). The subject
was studied again in 1966 by two Indonesian
hydrogeologists (Purbohadiwidjojo and Sukardi,
1966). These studies confirmed that a lake could
have existed here in pre-historic times, filled up
by at least 10 metres of sandy-clayey alluvium.
It is true, the hill on which Borobudur stands,
consists largely of man-made fill requiring a
borrow-area of fair dimensions. This could have
created a new, although artificial small lake at
the time of construction of Borobudur (Soekmono,
1969, 1976). However, the study of large-scale air
photos of the Borobudur site, undertaken in 1968,
failed to reveal traces of such a major borrow-
area, which once could have formed a large pond or
small lake corresponding to the moats found in
Angkor Vat or the ponds in front of the Balinese
temples (Voûte, 1969, 1981).
Moreover, soil samples taken from archaeological
trial trenches on Borobudur hill and on the plain
immediately south of it, were analyzed for their
content of pollen and spores, in order to obtain
information on the vegetation of the area surround
ing Borobudur at the time of its construction and
immediately thereafter. No indications were found
of a vegetation characteristic of an aquatic en
vironment (lake, pond or marsh); on the contrary,
Borobudur at the time of its construction appears
to have been surrounded by agricultural land and
palm trees as is still the case today
(Thanikaimoni, 1977, Dumarçay, 1977).
3.2 The eclipse of the Mataram Kingdom
The second theory refers to an entirely different
phenomenon. Formulated in its final form by Dr. Ir.
R.W. van Bemmelen in 1949 after a first publication
in 1941, it is based originally on a translation
and interpretation of ancient Hindu-Javanese
Sanskrit texts by the archaeologist van Hinloopen
Labberton (Van Bemmelen, 1941,1949). In a study
published in 1921 the apparent destruction of the
old Mataram State in the Sjaaka year 928
(equivalent to AD 1006) was assigned to a "Maha
Pralaya" (natural calamity of terrible
proportions), interpreted as a major volcanic
eruption accompanied by intense rainfall and very
extensive flooding, during which King Dharmawangça
and many people of high standing and noble birth
died. The King’s son-in-law, 16 years old, escaped,
and under the name of King Erlangga ("He, able to
escape the floods") , founded a new kingdom in east
Java, which under the name Daha (Kediri) continued
the Hindu-Javanese traditions in a modified form.
This found its apogee in the 14th century in the
empire of Modjopahit (also in East Java).
Meanwhile, during two centuries the ancient sources
kept an absolute silence on once flourishing and
densely populated Central Java (Van Hinloopen
Labberton, 1921).
Van Bemmelen, who had formulated new hypotheses
about geology, including the role of gravity-
induced large-scale sliding movements in relatively
recent times, interpreted this calamity as a
cataclysmic outburst in 1006 AD, of Merapi Volcano,
depopulating, desorganizing and destroying the
prosperous Hindu state of Central Java , and con
verting its fertile fields into grim deserts of
ashes and mudflows (lahars). This outburst would
have been accompanied by the collapse of much of
the western slopes of Merapi, which slided down
along slipfaults, pushing up the Gunung Gendol
hills south of Muntilan village, blocking the Kali
Progo valley, and through this damming up, flooding
the Borobudur area by a large lake (van Bemmelen,
1941, 1949).
The volcanic cataclysmic theory has remained very
popular with the Indonesian archaeologists as a
rational explanation for the shift of political
power and architectural/cultural activities from
Central to East Java (Boechari,1976, 1976/82,
1977/82; Moendardjito, 1978/82; Soekmono, 1976).
They were convinced to have found further confirma
tion when the various archaeological trial trenches
made in the surroundings of Borobudur from 1973
onward showed the presence in several places of an
ash layer from a few millimetres to a few cen
timetres, and locally also a 30 cm. thick layer of
sand, below which there occurred to a depth of 1
metre, occupational soil with many potsherds of
Indonesian and Chinese manufacture (Boechari,
loc.cit; Mandardjito, loc.cit ; Voûte, 1981).
However, this sand layer could very well be the
product of local downwash and sheetfloods from the
Menoreh Hills somewhat farther South. In any case
the accumulation of soil and debris of a magnitude
as found here, need not put an end to human occupa
tion, as is quite evident from the fact that the
layers with potsherds and other artefacts, sign of
regular religious festivals over a period of about
two centuries, are rather thick.
Some other evidence also pleads against the deposi
tion of large masses of materials (pyroclastics and
lahar deposits) during the ill-fated year of 1006
AD of the old chronicles and descriptions. In the
districts immediately surrounding Borobudur no less
than 207 archaeological sites have been inven
toried, including the remains of 43 temples
(Voute, 1975/82) , none of which are deeply buried.
At Mendut temple, east of Borobudur, several feet
of ashes and lahar deposits had to be cleared away
to reach the original surface of the temple square,
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