Cleaning up the biggest Buddhist temple in the world

The ash of Mount Merapi eruption in 2010 covered small cities and villages surroundings, including Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist temple in the world and UNESCO heritage. 

The volcano ash could danger the old stones and relics of this temple. That's why The Conservation Institution of Borobudur tried to clean it as soon as possible. Due the size of the temple, it took time and need many people to clean up. The Institution asked people to help them. Here, we can see some people joined this project in the front gate of the temple.

In the first floor of Borobudur, before we climbed to clean the corridors 

Some stupas and areas that already cleaned up were covered by plastics in order to avoid upcoming ash. The grounds and the corridors were covered as well. 

I am interested in historical museum, so I was the voluntter to clean up. I came from Jakarta to Jogja, from Jogja I went by bus to Magelang and then to Borobudur. Before coming to the place, I bought some tools like broom, dustpan, spatula, brush etc. 

When I came, there were already some people like me. The volunteers had briefing how to clean the temple. All the stones should be brushed slowly and carefully with brush or broom. The ash and sand that came out from the stones were collected on the dustpan and put in the sack. 

We had to brush and sweep carefully, the sand might not go into the crack or gap between the stones. Because the sand and the ash of the eruption volcano were acid and could danger and damage the stones in the future.

This work need your patience and perseverance. One stone was cleaned for 10-30 minutes. This was only for finishing, because when I arrived here, the corridors were already clean from the 2 cm ash. However the pores of stones were still covered. So, you can imagine, how many people and work they still need to clean up Borobudur. 

After a couple month, Borobudur is opened again for the public. Glad to see many people can enjoy the relics of Borobudur and the Buddhists can pray especially on Waisak Day.  

Borobudur Temple was covered by the ash

Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, is located in Central Java. The eruption in 2010 killed hundred people, many people fled away to avoid the sand, the lava and the heat clouds.

According to the volcanologist, that was the biggest eruption so far. The heat clouds went down the slope of mount Merapi as far as 13 km or 8 miles and the explosion was heard as far as 20 kilometers away. 

A 'tent" on a part of Borobudur temple after cleaning from the ash of Mt. Merapi eruption 2010. It was a sign that it was already cleaned up and protected against upcoming ash.

Borobudur is a big Buddhist temple that located close to the Mount Merapi and suffered much from the eruption. It was covered in ash as much as 3 centimeters thick. It was the thickest ash founded there, after it was renovated in 1983. The stupas, keben and ornaments were covered.  

Due to heavy rains the stupas, the streets and the corridors of Borobudur was slippery and it danger when people walked around it. The government and the Conservation Institution decided to close the temple until it was cleaned. 

Due to the size of the temple (14,161 sqm) and the thickness of the ash, the Borobudur Conservation Institution asked people to help voluntarily them to clean Borobudur. And I was one of the volunteer to clean up the Borobudur temple. 

I brushed and cleaned the stones slowly and carefully with a small sweep to collect the ash on Borobudur temple  

I could work only several hours, because it was rainy. All the workers and the volunteers should stop the work and went down. The way to the stairs were slippery, and after the rain stopped, we climbed again and brushed and cleaned it again. 

Some parts of Borobudur, that was already cleaned up was covered by a "tent" to protect them from the chemical ash of the Mount Merapi eruption.

The collected ash close to the temple. In the ground close to the office there were many more sacks.

The ash was collected into a sack and took into the ground. You can see here, how much ash that the workers and the volunteers already collected so far!! And that was only some parts of this huge temple.