Borobudur Conservation Centre (BKB) has closed the top two tiers of the temple and limited tourist visits to Borobudur Temple to no higher than the eigth floor. The new rule came into effect from Thursday 13th February 2020 and will run until an unspecified time in the future.
The Head of the BKB Conservation Section, Yudi Suhartono, said the BKB was responsible as the site manager of Borobudur Temple. One of the steps taken by BKB has been to restrict visits to the 9th and 10th floors of Borobudur Temple for public visits as places to view sunrise and sunset.
“The behaviour of visitors who are not supportive of preservation is more often found on the terraces of levels eight, nine, and ten at Borobudur Temple. One of the consequences that can be seen in the stupa, which is often climbed or sat on, is the damage on the stupa base, the terrace as well as stupa levels nine and ten,” Yudi explained.
“Therefore, the ninth and tenth floors are closed for public visits. However, visitors can still see and enjoy the peak of the stupa on 8th floor,” he said.
Yudi added that the restrictions have been put in place to allow for of monitoring the structure of the terrace stupas and the main stupas of the Borobudur Temple.
The monitoring activities will include checking the stone’s maintainability, the stability of the structure, the impact of visits, and the damage to the main stone stupa structure.
“Let’s take care the Borobudur Temple as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It needs to be preserved for a thousand years or more so that it can be passed down to generations of this country,” he said.
Source: Detik
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