Students of Islamic Boarding School Help Clean Borobudur Temple

Borobudur, C Java (Antara)- Around 50 students from the Mistakhurrohman Islamic boarding school located in Majaksingi village, Borobudur, Magelang district, Central Java, helped in cleaning the Borobudur Temple of Mount Kelud's ash. "Around 50 students from our boarding school spent their Friday holiday to clean Borobodur Temple of the Kelud's ash together with other volunteers," Muhammad Dimyadi, a teacher from the Mistakhurrohman Islamic boarding school, stated here on Friday. The boarding school is located around 1.5 km from the country's largest and oldest Buddhist temple built in the 8th century during the Syailendra dynasty. The students cleaned the temple from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time. "At noon, we took a break to hold the Friday prayer in a mosque located in front of the Borobudur temple tourism park's gate," he stated. Most of the students are orphans and some are from poor families whose parents are street vendors operating around the temple. When Mount Merapi erupted in 2010, the Islamic boarding school sent their students to help clean the temple from the volcanic ash. In addition to the Muslim students, around 700 Buddhists, including several monks coming from several cities in Central Java, also cleaned the temple on Friday. "We have been working here to clean the Borobudur temple from Kelud's ash since the past five days. We are from, among other things, Boyolali, Temanggung, Banjarnegara, Wonogiri, Wonosobo, and Ambarawa, Semarang district," Buddhist monk Uttamacitto from Sangha Agung Indonesia, Ampel temple located in Boyolali district, stated. He appreciated the help from the Muslim students in cleaning the temple. The eruption of Mount Kelud spewed ash up into Borobudur temple, which was a momentum for the Indonesian people to demonstrate the spirit of unity, togetherness and tolerance, he explained. (*)