JakartaPost-June 8, 2022
The government is planning to increase the ticket price for access to Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple, located in Magelang, Central Java, and to limit the number of visitors who will be admitted. Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Panjaitan said on Sunday that the government planned to charge local tourists Rp 750,000 (US$51.92) if they wanted to climb to the top of the temple and foreign tourists $100. Tickets for students would remain Rp 5,000. Those who wished to enter the complex without climbing the temple would be charged the previous price of Rp 50,000. Luhut added that the number of visitors would be limited to 1,200 per day to preserve the structure. “We are doing this to preserve the history and cultural heritage of the archipelago,” Luhut said in a statement. In 2019, the tourist attraction recorded some 5 million visitors – more than 13,000 visitors per day on average. Preservation measures experts welcomed the government’s move to restrict the number of visitors who would be stepping on the stone structure of the UNESCO World Heritage Site to prevent further damage to the structure. Indonesian Archeologist Association chairman Marsis Sutopo also welcomed the plan, saying that the interests of tourism had to be balanced against the need to conserve the piece of world heritage. UNESCO considers Borobudur one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. Built in the 8th and 9th centuries, the main temple is a stupa built in three tiers around a hill. The structure consists of a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the base a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. On its circular platforms, the temple hosts 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. Read more at:
