R. Jordaan R. Wessing Human sacrifice at Prambanan In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 152 (1996), no: 1, Leiden, 45-73 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access ROY E. JORDAAN and ROBERT WESSING Human Sacrifice at Prambanan Introduction While the discovery of a. human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indo- nesian archaeology, that of one in the central area of the famous Hindu temple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from the first half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Such explanations as have been put forward up to now have all been unsatis- factory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was sug- gested at the time, the idea received scant recognition in the archaeological literature. Only after another human skeleton was found in a neighbouring Buddhist temple complex could the possibility of the practice of human sacrifice in ancient Central Java no longer be ignored. The phenomenon remained a difficult topic among archaeologists, however. The problem that hampered scholarly progress was the choice of the appropriate ideological framework in which to place such sacrificial practices: Hindu-Buddhist religious ideas or Javanese folklore. It is this problem that we want to discuss and try to find a solution for in this article. The evidence The skeleton in question was found by J.W. Uzerman, a Dutch civil engineer who, as chairman of an amateur archaeological society in Yog- yakarta, undertook the excavation of the Prambanan temple complex in 1885. This entailed the clearing of the temple site of its luxuriant tropical vegetation and of the tons of volcanic deposits that had covered up the buildings in the course of the centuries, as well as the removal of rubble from the chambers of collapsed temples and the careful investigation of the deep shafts - so-called 'temple pits' - hidden beneath the pedestals of overturned statues. The ritual deposits which Uzerman and his team ROY E. JORDAAN obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Leiden. He is currently a private scholar mainly interested in ancient Javanese society and culture, in particular the position of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, and is the author of In Praise of Prambanan; Dutch Essays on the Loro Jonggrang Temple Complex, Leiden: KITLV Press, forthcoming. ROBERT WESSING is an anthropologist who obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in Urbana. He has worked for many years on problems surrounding the relations between people and tigers as well as people and spirits in Indonesia and has previously published The Soul of Ambiguity; The Tiger in Southeast Asia, and 'The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise?' BKI 152-1 (1996) Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access 46 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing discovered in the pits of the main temples varied in composition, as will become clear from the summary below. In the Siva temple the excavators discovered, underneath the pedestal of the statue of Siva Mahadeva, a stone box surrounded by soil mixed with charcoal and the burnt bones of a goat and a hen at a depth of about 6 metres. In among all this was found a small gold plate bearing the names of Varuna, god of the sea, and Parvata, god of mountains. The box itself contained the remains of some small copper plates, as well as some soil mixed with charcoal and ashes - which latter were established after labora- tory analysis to have originated from burnt animals. Other things found in this temple pit were some twenty coins, several small gems, some glass beads, small gold-leaf and silver cuttings, a sea shell, and twelve small gold plates. Of these twelve plates, five were in the shape of a tortoise, a naga, a lotus flower, an altar, and an egg respectively. The other plates were square and had each been inscribed with syllables that are assumed to be connected with some magical system. About these syllables Stutterheim writes (1940:226): 'In six cases these inscriptions comprise the syllables ah, ah, a, a, ang and ë; a seventh consists of an utterly unpronounceable and unrepeatable combination of letters. Apparently, therefore, these are mystical-magical syllables belonging to some Tantric system of corres- pondences between gods, elements and characteristics.'1 The ritual deposits in the Brahma and Visnu temples included earthen- ware potsherds, various pieces of sculpted stone, some soil mixed with charcoal, some animal teeth and bones, some pieces of copper, and various small silver objects in the shape of a flower, tortoise, disc, cross, and so on. The finds in the smaller temples in the inner courtyard of the temple complex were even more spectacular. Although Ijzerman at first stated that these pits, on their excavation, 'proved not as yet to have been used for their intended purpose' (1887:272), he later disclosed that the pits had not in fact been found empty and that their contents were really extraordinary, in spite of his earlier remarks to the contrary. For instance, in the Nandi temple, opposite the temple dedicated to Siva, were unearthed the remains of an especially large, unburnt ant-eater (or pangolin, Manis Javanica), part of the lower jaw of a squirrel, two porcupines' teeth, and a cow's tooth. The southern temple (now known as Candi A), opposite the Brahma temple, contained the body of a dog, 'not scorched by fire'. In the 1 The syllables may be inlerpretable as kinds of bijaksara, i.e., the syllables of a mantra or spell with which to invoke particular deities (Monier-Williams 1986:732). In this case, however, rather than only an initial letter or syllable, whole names and words seem to be given. In Uzerman's figure 92 we can make out the names of Varuna and Parvata, while the syllables in his figures 93 to 98, which Stutterheim read as the various above-mentioned forms of the syllable ah, might be read as 'Om Sri', although the Sri part remains dubious. The syllables in figure 99 are illegible (see Ijzerman 1891 II:figs. 92-9, appendix). We would like to thank Dr. Willem van der Molen for his assistance in deciphering these syllables. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Fig.102 Fig.101 Fig.100 Fig.103 IUustration 1. Plates and figures found in the stone casket undemeath the large statue of Siva (reduced in size). Source: Ijzerman 1891. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Illustration 4. Prambanan. Skeleton to the south-east of the Nandi temple. Source: Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden). Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Fj.93 Fig.92 ) /( / ) Fy.99 i/q&i Fuj.95 \ „97 ó^ c y Illustration 2. Gold and copper plates inscribed with syllables, found in the stone casket undemeath the large statue of Siva (reduced in size). Source: Ijzerman 1891. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 49 northern temple (known as Candi B), Ijzerman reports laconically, 'nothing extraordinary was found, except for an almost complete, well- preserved human skeleton at a depth of 5.30 to 6 metres' (Ijzerman 1891:68). Unfortunately, Ijzerman gave no further information on the position in which the skeleton was found, whether or not it had been dressed, or whether the person in question had been old or young, male or female, and so on. He did, however, put forward the suggestion that the traces of animal sacnfices in the ritual deposits might indicate that a Tantric sect was responsible for the construction of the temple complex. He referred to studies by Colebrooke and Coleman, who both mentioned animal sacrifices in honour of the goddess Kali among the Hindus (Ijzerman 1891:72). With respect to the presence of the human skeleton, Ijzerman asked: 'Should this be ascribed to a deliberate burial in the pit, or did it come to be there by chance, as the result of an accident or a crime? Or was it perhaps there as a consequence of a human sacrifice, which admittedly has not been practised in India for a long time, but is theoretically very important in the worship of Kan, as the murders by the Thugs testify. This leaves ample room for speculation, though we shall refrain from this' (Ijzerman 1891:68). IJzerman's remarks about Tantric sects and their practice of bloody sacrifice were hardly taken seriously at the time, mainly for two reasons. In the first place, scholars before the Second World War were convinced that in the Central Javanese period (7th-10th century A.D.) this kind of Tantrism was negligible, being confined to isolated cases of minor sects living in mountainous areas (see, for instance, Stutterheim 1929). They assumed that a full-blown form of Tantrism, which evolved simultaneously with the development of a syncretic Siva-Buddha cult, only became important in Java in the East Javanese period, i.e., between the early tenth and the fifteenth century (Krom 1931:189, 220; Moens 1924; Schnitger 1934). Other signs of Tantrism from the Central Javanese period were never fully recognized as such, usually being taken for 'Tantric trumpery' (Brandes) or referred to as 'mildly' Tantric, i.e., 'notions that were related or conducive to Tantrism' (Krom 1931:222; see also Bosch 1961:488).