A recent meeting of the 2025-26 season of the Fredonia Shakespeare Club was hosted at the home of Judi Lutz Woods. President Karin Cockram welcomed Club members to the meeting.

After a brief business meeting concluded, a paper by Barbara Albert on Indonesia was presented.

This is the report:

In 1964, In Flushing Meadows, the World’s Fair featured pavilions that represented nations around the world, as well as innovative companies. My fourth-grade teacher assigned our class to choose a country represented at the World’s Fair and write about what we learned there.   I chose Indonesia…. More because I loved the sound of the name than any knowledge of the nation.   The Republic of Indonesia is an archipelago, a grouping of islands in Southeast Asia, considered to be a part of “Oceania,” the name given to a theoretical continent made of a variety of Islands in the region, between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.  It consists of 17,000 islands, with a shared government, but the prominent islands are Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Borneo and New Guinea.  It is the fourteenth largest country by area and ranks fourth in world population of nations.  Its history is long and varied and would require a paper dedicated to its stories of occupation, its fossil history and its political shifts.  Instead, I wrote a paper about some of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.  By the seventh century Indonesia was a crossroads for international trade, involving China, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.  This led to both Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourishing there with Sunni traders and Sufi scholars introducing Islam. The Muslim faith is the predominant religion now, populating the area through trade, as had the Hindu and Buddhists before them… but the archaeological artifacts of the Hindu and Buddhist presences are prominently Temples, two of which are important UNESCO World Heritage sites. 

Both temples share similarities and have important differences. Both were built in the 9th century of the CE.  I will address three World Heritage sites in Indonesia in a survey format.  Each temple is elaborate and is VERY detailed, and I encourage further exploration, but am presenting an overview of each, to introduce both the variety and the uniqueness of these features of Indonesia. 

Borobudur was built in the Sailendra dynasty and is the world’s largest Buddhist Temple.  It was built in the shape of a giant mandala on the island of Java.  Mandala means ”circle” in Sanskrit, and is a geometric symbol of the universe, wholeness, and the interconnectedness of all things. Mandalas as labyrinths, drawings or visualizations serve as spiritual tools for meditation, focus, and self-reflection in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other traditions to guide practitioners toward enlightenment, balance, and a sacred inner space. They represent the cosmos, life’s cyclical nature, and often feature symmetrical geometric patterns with a central focal point.  (At Lilydale, Buddhists visit to create mandalas presented as temporary sand art, laboriously made, and whisked into the water after completion… the added symbolism of the temporary nature of everything.) The massive temple of Borobudur follows the path of a mandala, and Borobudur’s walls feature over 2,600 relief panels narrating Buddhist, intended to relate the story of the Buddha and his teachings.  It also features 504 Buddha statues each displaying subtle variations of the Buddha, guiding pilgrims on a symbolic journey from the earthly world to the Buddhist goal of enlightenment. In the United States, we have witnessed a symbolic pilgrimage of Buddhist monks, for world peace. The craftsmanship of the temple is spectacular, and although the names of the artists were lost in history, it is their detail and precision in Native Javan stone, as well as the size that makes the Temple impressive.  These relief decorations and statues are intended to lead the observer along a spiritual path. 

Borobudur Temple was abandoned sometime between the tenth and fifteenth centuries, for reasons unknown.  It may have been the consequence of volcanic eruption, or of human conflict.  Borobudur temple had been buried in volcanic ash, and required archaeological restoration, which was begun in the early 1900s, and was further funded by UNESCO as part of their World Heritage mission.  Not only the size of the temple, but the extensive collection of Buddhist reliefs is of interest… as well as the Javanese architecture, in which a blend of Javanese ancestor worship and Buddhist ideas of Nirvana blend in this beautiful Temple. 

“Constructed of gray andesite -like stone (fine volcanic rock, named after examples found in the Andes),[1] the temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square levels and three circular ones, topped by a central dome, and has an extensive system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades.  

The other Man-made Indonesian UNESCO World Heritage site that I will feature in comparison to Borobudur is Prambanan.  Prambanan is also a temple on the Island of Java but is a Hindu temple. Buddhism and the Hindu faith share several concepts but engage with them differently. P rambanan was also built in the 9th century CE and was damaged by both Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  Unlike Borobudur, which is a large central structure, Prambanan is a compound, dedicated primarily to the Hindu God Shiva, considered the supreme God who puts order in the universe. Also worshipped here are Vishnu and Brahma, who with Shiva are the three central powerful deities of the Hindu faith, and all worshipped here, along with the worship of the animals that serve them in their religious legends.  Prambanan is a grouping of towering Hindu temples which are decorated with reliefs illustrating the Indonesian version of the Ramayana epic which are masterpieces of stone carvings. The Ramayana epic narrates the life of Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who was a prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. An Avatar is the persona of an incarnation of the Deity. These are surrounded by hundreds of shrines that have been arranged in three parts showing high levels of Java’s stone building technology and architecture from the 8th century AD in Java. With over 500 temples, some large, others smaller, the Prambanan Temple Compounds represent not only an architectural and cultural treasure, but also a standing proof of past religious peaceful cohabitation.    

The third World Heritage Site I will speak of is a natural site.  There are currently ten World Heritage sites in the Indonesian Islands, several manmade, and several natural.  There are others currently being considered for approval, and other places which have not yet begun the application process, but I found one of those worthies of mention.    

Komodo National Park is on a group of volcanic islands that are inhabited by lizards known as Komodo Dragons, a type of monitor lizard that exists naturally only in this area.  There are only four or five thousand lizards in the region, and they are both aggressive and important for scientific study pertaining to evolution theories.  They are both endangered… and dangerous.  The bite of a Komodo dragon can interfere with the clotting of human blood, causing wounds tocccbe deadly if not treated promptly.  Although the islands are known to be famous for their forests and coral reefs, mangrove shrublands and seagrass beds.  Despite being open to visitors for both diving and exploration, I cannot over-emphasize they are dangerous.  

Indonesia is a fascinating cross-section of study for those seeking understanding of archaeological progress of religion, trade, and history! 

Following the paper presented by Barbara, all members were treated to a nice selection of treats provided by hostess, Judi Lutz Woods. Leanna McMahon poured tea and coffee.