Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Gampingan Temple













 The temple was discovered in 1995 supposed to be part of the Site Gampingan. The legs are decorated temple reliefs different animal, one bird is believed to bring messages from nirvana.

Not all temples have beautiful reliefs typical because generally only decorated by statues and reliefs that are common in almost all temples. One of the beautiful relief of the temple was typical that is, a temple which was accidentally discovered by a brick craftsman in Gampingan Village, Piyungan, Bantul in 1995. Despite its small size and incomplete, the temple was still rich in dazzling relief.

One of the reliefs that can be found in this temple are reliefs of animals on the foot of the temple. Animal relief in looks so natural that can be known types of animals are depicted. The temple is quite rare to have such relief, at least only Prambanan and Mendut have similar relief. All the reliefs that decorated with sulur-suluran background, namely padmamula (lotus roots) are believed to be the source of life.

Looks kind of animal is a bird that dominates. There are reliefs crow that seemed to have half of a large, sturdy body, the wing inflates upward and fan-shaped tail. There are also reliefs depicted woodpecker has a crest on its head, beak, which is rather long and pointy and wings that do not expand. In addition, there is also a rooster who has breasts and wings expand downward.

Making bird reliefs in the temple in large quantities is related to community belief in transcendental power of the bird. It is believed, the bird is a manifestation of the gods as well as natural messengers of the gods or nirvana. Birds are also associated with human absolute freedom achieved after successfully left the world, the symbol of human soul separated from his body.

Relief of other animals that is often described is a frog. The community believed that frogs have supernatural powers that can bring rain, so the frog is also believed to increase productivity, because water rain will be able to increase crop yields. Frogs are often emerge from the water also symbolizes the renewal of life and resurrection to a better direction.

Until now, the relief was still leaves the question of whether a fable (story didongengkan animals in children) as in Mendut or description of the animals that deliberately to show specific intent. The question arises because the description of the animals in the temple was not found in books containing fables, such as the Jataka, Sukasaptati, Pancatantra and its derivative versions.

The temple was expected to be built between the years 730-850 AD believed to be a place for worshiping Jambhala (God of fortune, the son of Lord Shiva). It was based on the discovery Arca Jambhala when excavation. Jambhala described being in a state of meditation, his eyes closed while sitting cross-legged. The body was decorated by iconographic elements (asanas) in the form of a lotus with 8 pieces of leaves as a symbol of chakra in the human body.

Figure Jambhala in this temple is different from those in other temples. Generally, Jambhala other temples depicted with wide eyes that looked at the devotees along with a variety of decorations that symbolize prosperity and luxury. It is believed, is different depiction is based on the motivation of worship, not to invoke prosperity but guidance in order to achieve true happiness.

Visiting the temple was going to take us to remembering the path we have taken to achieve happiness and prosperity. Relief that is dominated by animals that live in the surrounding environment could be the realization of the local community's wisdom by that time in representing a message from nirvana: to live in prosperity and avoid disaster, people should maintain harmony with nature.

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