XXXVII. REACHING THE CIRCULAR TERRACES OF THE BORO BUDOOR
(Cephas Sr.)
On the hillock of Topog, the deva agoong’s primitive home, two wash-basins in the form of yonis, one of them of colossal dimensions and resting on a crouched figure, testify to the worship of Siva’s sakti, the female principle of life personified in the Mahadeva’s Devi. Hindu motives in the ornament of the Boro Budoor avouch syncretism having influenced the highest expression of Buddhism itself: there is a four-armed image with padmasana and prabha, which, carrying a Buddha in its makuta, may hint at Vishnu’s ninth avatar; there is a four-armed figure seated on a throne supported by Siva’s vahana, the bull; there is a goddess crowned with five trishulas; etc. All this illustrates again native tolerance in matters of religion as in other respects, a result of the ancient habit of the Javanese in particular, to meet widely different races and civilisations half-way, which has preserved them from the narrow-mindedness consequent on isolation, as observed by a scholar who knows them well and whose study of special subjects has in nowise impaired his breadth of vision.[159] The modification of this easy-going temperament in contact with western greed, offers abundant food for thought when we return to the cool cave of refuge from passion where the recho belèq symbolises deep contemplation and meditation terminating in absorption of self by participation of the Spirit of the Universe, under the gaudy memorial tablet, Koning van Siam: 1896, which, in its glaring incongruity, symbolises the inverted process.[160] The feeling of annoyance it produces, soon passes when the mind begins to expand with admiration of the scene of calm splendour beheld from the dagob containing the pollen of the lotus of the law. The hues and harmonies of evening dispose to a quietude nowhere else experienced or enjoyed in that measure. The only sound heard is a faint humming of insects circling the pinnacles of the chaityas which divide the panorama of the plain below into views of separate interest and beauty, bounded by the graceful outline of the terraces and the distant hills. Ricefields and palmgroves stretch as far as the eye can reach, with villages between, sheltered by their orchards, earth’s tapestry, embroidered in all gradations of green from that of the sprouting bibit padi of the young plantations to that of the thick foliage of centenarian kanaris. The shadow of the temple, kissing the drowsy eyelids of the Kadu, lengthens towards the Merapi over whose crater, gilt by the setting sun, hangs a cloud of dark smoke which drifts slowly in the direction of the Merbabu, while the Soombing, to the northeast, looks tranquilly on. The darkness, ushered by the smoke of the ill-tempered old fire-mountain, mingling with the pink and purple of the western sky, spreads over the land, envelops forests and gardens in gray, hushing all that breathes to sleep. One parting smile of the sun’s gladness and night descends in her sable robes. Nothing stirs; the toils of day are forgotten in wholesome repose; it is the hour of Amitabha, ruler of the region of sunset and spiritual father of the present world’s ruler, the one whose hands rest in his lap after the completion of a laborious task. Morning will come and in time the creation of a new world, the world of loving-kindness, Vishvapani’s, the Metteya Buddha’s own—in time, long time! A gardu[161] strikes seven; another answers immediately with eight strokes on the beloq;[161] far away no more than six respond,—what is time to the native! Silence reigns again, silence emphasised by the high-pitched notes of a suling,[162] quavering indistinctly as the evening breeze speeds the lover’s complaint or refuses its aid. A noise of revelry in the pasangrahan distracts the attention from this tuneful courtship; the visionary beings that were taking life from the germ of thought hidden in its shrine, petrify into mute statues or vanish altogether: the spell of the Boro Budoor is broken.
CHAPTER X
THE SOUL OF THE BORO BUDOOR
Ciò ch’io vedeva, mi sembrava un riso
Dell’universo; ...[163]
Dante Alighieri’s Commedia (Paradiso, Canto 27).
It has already been remarked that the natives knew of the existence of the chandi Boro Budoor long before Cornelius’ discoveries or, rather, that they never lost sight of it, and the place it occupies in the Javanese chronicles appears from the Babad Tanah Jawa.[164] In the early years of the eighteenth century Ki Mas Dana, son-in-law of Ki Gedeh Pasukilan, incited the people of Mataram to a rebellion, which broke out in the dessa Enta Enta, a centre of sedition it seems, since only a short time before a certain Raden Suryakusumo, son of Pangeran Puger, had chosen the same village for his headquarters when rising against Mangku Rat II., who captured him and put him in an iron cage without, however, killing him, because the omens were unfavourable.[165] Ki Mas Dana had many followers and appointed bupatis and mantris. Ki Yagawinata, bupati of Mataram, marched against him but was defeated and fled to Kartasura, acquainting his Majesty with what had happened. Thereupon Pangeran Pringgalaya was sent to suppress Ki Mas Dana’s revolt, with instructions to capture him alive because his Majesty had made a vow that he would exhibit him publicly as an example to the inhabitants of Kartasura and let him be rampokked[166] with needles. Pangeran Pringgalaya departed and with him half of the bupatis of Kartasura. When he arrived at Enta Enta the battle began. Many rebels were killed. Ki Mas Dana fled to the mountain Boro Budoor. He was surrounded by the troops of Pangeran Pringgalaya and made a prisoner. Then they brought him to his Majesty at Kartasura, who ordered all the inhabitants of the town to assemble in the aloon aloon, each of them with a needle. It lasted three days before all the inhabitants of Kartasura had had their turn. When he was dead, his head was cut off and exhibited on a pole. After the execution of Ki Mas Dana, the news was received that his father-in-law Ki Gedeh Pasukilan had also revolted. His Majesty ordered the repression of that revolt too. Ki Gedeh Pasukilan was defeated and killed.