Batujaya Archaeological Site
Encyclopedia
Batujaya is an archeological site located in the village of Batujaya, Karawang
Karawang
Karawang is the capital of the Karawang Regency of West Java, Indonesia. It is located 32 miles east of Jakarta. Karawang has a population of 2,150,610 ....

 in West Java
West Java
West Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. The site is five square kilometers in area and comprises at least 30 structural in what Sundanese
Sundanese people
The Sundanese are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Indonesian island of Java. They number approximately 31 million, and are the second most populous of all the nation's ethncities. The Sundanese are predominantly Muslim...

 call hunyur or unur (high mounds of earth consisting of artifacts). Unur is similar to the manapo found at the Muara Jambi archaeological site.

The site was first found and examined by archaeologists from the University of Indonesia
University of Indonesia
The Universitas Indonesia, is a state, comprehensive world class university located in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. Universitas Indonesia is the oldest tertiary-level educational institution in Indonesia...

 in 1984. Excavations have since uncovered 17 unur, of which three are in the form of pools. The structures found are made of bricks composed of a mixtures of clay and rice husks (vajra-lepa), not volcanic rock which is difficult to find in Batujaya. Two structures recovered are in the form of temples, one of which, known as Jiwa Temple, has been restored. According to Dr Tony Djubiantono, the head of Bandung Archeology Agency, Jiwa was built in the 2nd century.

As local Indonesian governments do not maintain the site, Ford provides funds for research and excavation of the Batujaya complex as part of its Conservation and Environmental Grants.

The discovery of this archaeological site was important as although it was the location of Tarumanagara
Tarumanagara
Tarumanagara or Taruma Kingdom or just Taruma is an early Sundanese Indianized kingdom, whose fifth-century ruler, Purnavarman, produced the earliest known inscriptions on Java island...

, the oldest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Indonesia, West Java lacks ancient temple remains. Before the discovery, only four temple sites have been found in West Java, namely they are Cangkuang Temple (in Garut), Ronggeng Temple, Pamarican Temple, and Pananjung Temple (in Ciamis).

Preliminary research at Jiwa found that the temple was built between the fifth and sixth centuries. This is based on the inscriptions found on numerous votive tablets discovered in the area, small clay tablets with inscriptions and pictures of Buddha used in prayer. Prof. Dr. Budihartono (a senior anthropologist from University of Indonesia) proposed carrying out pollen analysis for examining both the paleoenvironment and also cultural records, including evidence of diet and food processing.

In and around the site is also discovered the fragments of Buni culture
Buni culture
Buni culture is a prehistoric clay pottery culture that flourished in coastal northern West Java and Banten around 400 BCE to 100 CE and probably suvived until 500 CE...

 clay pottery, which suggests Buni prehistoric clay culture spread across West Java northern coast was the predecessor of Batujaya site.

External links

  • The Spice Islands History
  • Bambang Budi Utomo. 2004. Arsitektur Bangunan Suci Masa Hindu-Budha di Jawa Barat. Kementrian Kebudayaan dan pariwisata, Jakarta. ISBN 979-8041-35-6
  • Percandian Batujaya, from Indonesian Wikipedia on 19 September 2005.
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