Borobudur Temple Expected to be Fully Opened Soon

Yogyakarta (Antara) - Borobudur temple, the world's largest Buddhist temple located in central Java, is expected to be fully opened next week as the cleaning up work of the temple from Mount Kelud's ash has reached 80 percent. "The cleaning up has reached 80 percent, so volunteers are expected to stop working on Tuesday (Feb 25) probably," Pangga Ardiansya, the coordinator of the Borobudur Conservation Office's Public Services, said here on Sunday. Around 200-300 volunteers consisting of Buddhists, hotel employees, tourist guides, street vendors, students and tourists, have helped clean the temple from the volcanic ash every day. In the next two or three days, the temple will be fully cleaned, he said. The final cleaning up of the temple's drainage will be done by the personnel of the conservation office. "We would like to express our gratitude to all volunteers who are not only from Central Java, but also from Surabaya (East Java) and even South Korea who happened to be participating in the International Cultural Camp," he said. Despite the closing of the temple due to the ash problem, around 5,000-10,000 tourists visited the area in the weekend, and 2,000-3,000 in working days. They included foreign tourists among others from Italy, Russia, and China. Meanwhile, 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 recently. 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. 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 also sent their students to help clean the temple from the volcanic ash. (*)