Human sacrifice at Prambanan

R. JordaanR. WessingHuman sacrifice at Prambanan In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 152 (1996), no: 1, Leiden, 45-73

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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 Hindutemple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from thefirst half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Suchexplanations 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 archaeologicalliterature. Only after another human skeleton was found in a neighbouringBuddhist temple complex could the possibility of the practice of humansacrifice in ancient Central Java no longer be ignored. The phenomenonremained a difficult topic among archaeologists, however. The problem thathampered scholarly progress was the choice of the appropriate ideologicalframework in which to place such sacrificial practices: Hindu-Buddhistreligious ideas or Javanese folklore. It is this problem that we want todiscuss and try to find a solution for in this article.

The evidence

The skeleton in question was found by J.W. Uzerman, a Dutch civilengineer who, as chairman of an amateur archaeological society in Yog-yakarta, undertook the excavation of the Prambanan temple complex in1885. This entailed the clearing of the temple site of its luxuriant tropicalvegetation and of the tons of volcanic deposits that had covered up thebuildings in the course of the centuries, as well as the removal of rubblefrom the chambers of collapsed temples and the careful investigation of thedeep shafts - so-called 'temple pits' - hidden beneath the pedestals ofoverturned 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 andculture, in particular the position of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, and is the authorof 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 ofIllinois in Urbana. He has worked for many years on problems surrounding therelations between people and tigers as well as people and spirits in Indonesia and haspreviously published The Soul of Ambiguity; The Tiger in Southeast Asia, and 'TheGunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise?'

BKI 152-1 (1996)

46 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

discovered in the pits of the main temples varied in composition, as willbecome clear from the summary below.

In the Siva temple the excavators discovered, underneath the pedestalof the statue of Siva Mahadeva, a stone box surrounded by soil mixed withcharcoal and the burnt bones of a goat and a hen at a depth of about 6metres. In among all this was found a small gold plate bearing the names ofVaruna, god of the sea, and Parvata, god of mountains. The box itselfcontained the remains of some small copper plates, as well as some soilmixed with charcoal and ashes - which latter were established after labora-tory analysis to have originated from burnt animals. Other things found inthis temple pit were some twenty coins, several small gems, some glassbeads, small gold-leaf and silver cuttings, a sea shell, and twelve small goldplates. Of these twelve plates, five were in the shape of a tortoise, a naga, alotus flower, an altar, and an egg respectively. The other plates were squareand had each been inscribed with syllables that are assumed to beconnected with some magical system. About these syllables Stutterheimwrites (1940:226): 'In six cases these inscriptions comprise the syllables ah,ah, a, a, ang and ë; a seventh consists of an utterly unpronounceable andunrepeatable combination of letters. Apparently, therefore, these aremystical-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 withcharcoal, some animal teeth and bones, some pieces of copper, and varioussmall 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 templecomplex were even more spectacular. Although Ijzerman at first stated thatthese pits, on their excavation, 'proved not as yet to have been used fortheir intended purpose' (1887:272), he later disclosed that the pits had notin fact been found empty and that their contents were really extraordinary,in spite of his earlier remarks to the contrary. For instance, in the Nanditemple, opposite the temple dedicated to Siva, were unearthed the remainsof an especially large, unburnt ant-eater (or pangolin, Manis Javanica),part of the lower jaw of a squirrel, two porcupines' teeth, and a cow'stooth. The southern temple (now known as Candi A), opposite the Brahmatemple, 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 amantra 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 andwords seem to be given. In Uzerman's figure 92 we can make out the names ofVaruna and Parvata, while the syllables in his figures 93 to 98, which Stutterheim readas 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 (seeIjzerman 1891 II:figs. 92-9, appendix). We would like to thank Dr. Willem van derMolen for his assistance in deciphering these syllables.

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.

Illustration 4. Prambanan. Skeleton to the south-east of the Nandi temple. Source: Oudheidkundig Verslag1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden).

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Illustration 2. Gold and copper plates inscribed with syllables, found in the stone casket undemeath the large statue of Siva (reduced insize). Source: Ijzerman 1891.

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' (Ijzerman1891:68).

Unfortunately, Ijzerman gave no further information on the position inwhich the skeleton was found, whether or not it had been dressed, orwhether the person in question had been old or young, male or female, andso on. He did, however, put forward the suggestion that the traces ofanimal sacnfices in the ritual deposits might indicate that a Tantric sect wasresponsible for the construction of the temple complex. He referred tostudies by Colebrooke and Coleman, who both mentioned animal sacrificesin 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 bethere by chance, as the result of an accident or a crime? Or was it perhapsthere as a consequence of a human sacrifice, which admittedly has notbeen practised in India for a long time, but is theoretically very important inthe worship of Kan, as the murders by the Thugs testify. This leaves ampleroom for speculation, though we shall refrain from this' (Ijzerman 1891:68).

IJzerman's remarks about Tantric sects and their practice of bloodysacrifice were hardly taken seriously at the time, mainly for two reasons. Inthe first place, scholars before the Second World War were convinced thatin the Central Javanese period (7th-10th century A.D.) this kind ofTantrism was negligible, being confined to isolated cases of minor sectsliving in mountainous areas (see, for instance, Stutterheim 1929). Theyassumed that a full-blown form of Tantrism, which evolved simultaneouslywith the development of a syncretic Siva-Buddha cult, only becameimportant in Java in the East Javanese period, i.e., between the early tenthand the fifteenth century (Krom 1931:189, 220; Moens 1924; Schnitger1934). Other signs of Tantrism from the Central Javanese period werenever fully recognized as such, usually being taken for 'Tantric trumpery'(Brandes) or referred to as 'mildly' Tantric, i.e., 'notions that were relatedor conducive to Tantrism' (Krom 1931:222; see also Bosch 1961:488). Thesecond reason was the generally negative view of Tantrism, which wascommonly considered to be synonymous with demonology and the sinisterpractices of sorcerers or black magie. Any association of Tantrism with'classical' monuments such as Borobudur and Prambanan was hencesimply inconceivable (Krom 1927 11:327; Pott 1956:58; Bosch 1959:239).

Being incompatible with the prevalent scholarly opinion, Prambanan'sanimal and human skeletons were relegated to the background. The humanskeleton, in particular, was only casually mentioned in the archaeologicalliterature, if indeed it was mentioned at all. An early example of thesuppression, no doubt unintended, of information of this kind is providedby Bosch's pioneering study on the origins of Hindu-Javanese templearchitecture. Dismissing the prescriptions for some Vedic offerings, among

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Illustration 3. Cross-sections of the temple pit in Candi B and the Siva temple(not drawn to scale). Source: Ijzerman 1891.


them purusamedha (human sacrifice), in the silpasastra (technical treatiseson architecture and sculpture) as academie, Bosch stated: 'One can assumethat such sacrifices never took place, but may be considered as purefantasies of "learned" Brahman priests' (Bosch 1920; 1924:32, n. 87).2

Krom mentioned both the human skeleton and the animal remainswithout further comment and simply repeated Ijzerman's observation that'clearly none of the pits, without any exception, were dug [as such], butrather the necessary space was reserved, during the construction [of thetemples], in the base [of the foundations]' (Krom 1923a:486; see Ijzerman1891:69). Apparently no one paid any attention to IJzerman's additionalfinding that 'the filling in of the shafts in all the temples was begun fromthe base of the foundations upwards', which, as we see it, implies that adeceased could not have ended up in a shaft by accident or as the result ofa crime. The only possible conclusion must be that we have here a case ofdeliberate burial, very likely that of a sacrificial victim.

As an anonymous referee of the present paper commented, the fact thatthe human remains were found amid a mass of rubble that filled the pit ledhim or her to suspect that these remains might be those of a plunderertrapped by the collapsing masonry lining the pit. Where there had been nosuch collapse, the pits were found to be empty. This referee moreoverpointed to what had happened in Candi Siva, where there is a niche half-way down the pit, on top of an earlier layer of rubble, which prompted theconclusion that the temple was probably restored after having oncecollapsed, and that the pit was filled in after the 'ultimate destruction of thetemple, during which the statue and its pedestal rocked to and fro' (seeIllustration 3).This raises two points: that of the rubble in Candi B and the Siva templepits, and the 'empty' state of the other pits. To address the second pointfirst: it is not true that the other pits were empty; some even containedsome fragments of stone and broken pieces of statuary. While there wereno human remains reported in their case, the Nandi temple pit was found tocontain the remains of an ant-eater, as was pointed out above. The pits ofthe other temples contained, among other things, some ritual deposits, apot, and the remains of a dog. Why the Javanese did not fill these shaftswith rubble is, of course, an interesting question, but not one that can beanswered at this remove. As for the first point, that of the rubble, a closeinspection of IJzerman's illustrations shows that the number of blocks inthe pit of Candi B is much larger than the few stones that could possiblyhave fallen into it from the upper part of its walls. What is more important, acomparison with the Siva temple makes clear that such a disintegration or

2 Lately, Bruce Lincoln put forward a near-identical explanation for human sacrificein ancient India: 'In practice humans were probably never offered in India, thepurusamedha (sacrifice of a man) remaining only a priest's fantasy of the sacrifice toend all sacrifice' (quoted by Smith and Doniger 1989:220, n. 31).

5 2 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

collapse does not need to be presumed. Here, too, an apparently disorderlymass of stone blocks has ended up in the pit, but, unlike at Candi B, there isnothing to indicate that these stones came from the walls of the pit, sincethe lining of the walls is undamaged. The stones cannot have landed in thepit accidentally, either, unless one assumes that there were twoearthquakes. This line of reasoning seems to us unduly complicated, and ismoreover difficult to reconcile with the fact that the rubble from thesecond hypothetical earthquake, which allegedly resulted in the temple'sultimate destruction, was covered anew with three layers of neatly sortedstones (see also Ijzerman 1891:60).

Whatever the reason for the scant attention that was paid to IJzerman'sadditional finding with regard to the filling in of the shafts, the humanskeleton at Prambanan hardly received consideration after Krom's mentionof it. The only time it was mentioned again, to our knowledge, was inStutterheim's review of Van Blom's monograph on Candi Sojiwan, atemple located a few kilometres south of Prambanan, which probably alsodates from the first half of the ninth century. This mention was promptedby Van Blom's (1935:13) reference to the discovery of a human skeleton inthe grounds of this Buddhist sanctuary. Stutterheim, in keeping with theideas of his time, said nothing about a possible Tantric Buddhist back-ground of this phenomenon, either. Instead, he pointed to the Javanesefolk-tradition of human sacrifice in the course of the execution ofimportant construction projects. What strikes one here, aside from therather casual mention of the fact in a footnote, is Stutterheim's unusuallycautious formulation, leaving ample room also for 'chance': 'The author[Van Blom] reports the discovery of the remains of a skeleton. I recollectthat a skeleton was found as well to the southeast of the so-called Nanditemple at Prambanan (Photo OD [Archaeological Service] 11192).Obviously we can draw no conclusions from this similarity of circumstanceand must leave considerable margin for coincidence. Nevertheless, it isadvisable to be cautious here, inter alia in view of the Javanese culik belief,which involves a belief in human sacrifice in connection with largeconstruction projects.' (Stutterheim 1935:84, n. 1.)

It will not have escaped the reader's attention that the human remainsmentioned by Stutterheim cannot have been the same as the skeletonfound by Ijzerman in 1885, as the latter was found not to the southeast ofthe Nandi temple, but in the temple pit in Candi B, to the north of theNandi temple. Moreover, the later discovery of the second skeleton wasmade not in a shaft underneath the base of a statue, but in the centraltemple area, at least, as far as we can infer from the extremely summaryaccount accompanying the above-mentioned photograph in thearchaeological reports. The reports of the former Netherlands IndiesArchaeological Service {Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938), unfortunately,again lack data on the sex, age, and probable cause of death of thedeceased.

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Illustration 4. Prambanan. Skeleton to the south-east of the Nandi temple. Source: Oudheidkundig Verslag1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden).


In spite of the disappearance of this skeleton in an archaeological closet,Stutterheim's reference to Javanese folk-beliefs concerning kidnappingand human sacrifice in connection with large construction projects wasbound to be taken even less seriously than the idea of Hindu or BuddhistTantric influence, largely because the notion of the influence of indigenousideas and practices was hard to reconcile with the scholars' fïrm convictionof the conservative character of Hindu-Buddhist religious worship. In thisconnection Krom had written that 'Even if one may note some typicallyJavanese features in the official sanctuaries, in general the religion tends toconservatism, and traces of non-Hindu religious ideas and practices cansooner be expected in other places' (Krom 1931:175; see also Krom1923a:58 and 1923b:37). A similar view was taken by Bosch, as isapparent from, among others, one of his later writings, dealing in particularwith the interface between the Indian sphere of influence and ancientindigenous folk-beliefs (Bosch 1954). Putting it forward as 'an establishedfact', Bosch asserted that 'from the ancient Central Javanese periodonwards down to present-day Bali, a hard core, a nucleus of pure Indianorigin, which is indissoluble in the magma of its Indonesian environmentand impervious to the influences of place and time, has been sustained.This nucleus being the priestly ritual ...' (Bosch 1954:13). This priestlyritual comprised both the sacra privata and the more public sacredproceedings, such as consecration ceremonies and temple rituals. Giventhis assumption, there seemed to be no need to consider the relevance ofJavanese folk-customs for the explanation of ritual deposits in Hindu-Buddhist temples.

Intermezzo: The rise and demise of the funerary theory

Having landed in an impasse with regard to the question about the rightreligious tradition from which to explain the animal and human skeletons,most scholars focused their attention on the contents of the ritual depositboxes, particularly the ashes. With Ijzerman (1887:272), they assumedthese boxes to be 'urns' containing human ashes, in spite of the fact thatthe ashes had been identified as those of animals. These ideas, which hadactually been current since Raffles and the British Interregnum, became thebasis for the interpretation of the Javanese temple as a sepulchralmonument or mausoleum. In view of the widely recorded presence ofcharcoal and ashes in the ritual deposit boxes of various Hindu-Buddhistsanctuaries, even Krom did not doubt the influence of an ancientIndonesian form of ancestor worship, in spite of his above-quoted remarkabout the conservative character of Hindu religious worship (Krom1923a:l 19, 143; 1923b:39). The fact that the Javanese usually referred tothese pre-Islamic ruins as candi led him to surmise that 'originally the worddenoted a stone monument erected over the ashes of a dead person,irrespective of whether this was a simple pile of stones or a small building.


Possibly the name is derived from Candika, one of the names of Durga, agoddess who appears to have been closely associated with the dead, andwhose temple is absent from no Balinese burial place down to this veryday. The shift in meaning, from "tombstone, burial monument, mausoleum",to "sanctuary in general", seems obvious.' (Krom 1923a:143.)

Stutterheim developed the idea of the funerary function of the Javanesetemple into a full-fledged theory (Stutterheim 1931; 1940; 1956). There isno need to discuss this well-known theory in full here. Suffïce it to recallStutterheim's statement that the worship of rulers in the form of gods was apractice that was unknown in India and was attributable solely to thepersistence of ancient Indonesian ancestor worship practices. He believedthe attempt to maintain regular contact with a lofty ancestor, now dressedin Hindu and Tantric-Buddhist ritual garb, to be a traditional means ofsecuring the well-being of the descendants, and of the people at large.3 ToStutterheim, therefore, a Javanese candi was not a temple in the true senseof the word, but a monument: 'the temple was not a place of worship, butrather an ancestor house [..,]. Temples in the true sense of the word do notexist in Java. What is called by that name in ninety out of a hundred casesis a funerary monument, where the king, now identified with a god,communicated with his descendants.' (Stutterheim 1931:1; see alsoStutterheim 1956:87-8.)

It was not until well after the Second World War that doubt was castupon the funerary thesis. Stutterheim's theory was superseded especiallyas a result of research by Bosch (1954), O'Connor (1966), and Soekmono(1974).4 The main thrust of Bosch's criticism was that Stutterheim hadadopted an extreme point of view, 'which could not be defended againstthe testimony of the facts'. One of these facts was the nature of the royalty

3 The Tantric influence that was recognized here related solely to the presence of thesmall metal plates in the ritual deposit boxes (pripih), which were inscribed withvarious so-called 'mystical' syllables supposedly representing the gods who dwelt inthe temple (Van Eerde 1911:16-8). Viewed as mere 'Tantric trumpery' by Brandes(see Brandes and Groeneveldt 1887:221) and as 'mildly' Tantric features by Bosch(1961:488), the true significance of these inscribed objects was never fullyappreciated. Further research is needed, however, to find out whether the Javanesetemple deposits served the same Tantric purpose as that discovered by Treloar in hischemico-symbolic analysis of the gold foil found in some Malaysian sanctuaries(Treloar 1967; 1972).4 In spite of all this, some temples, among them Prambanan, are still occasionallymentioned as having a funerary function, however, for instance by Ensink(1978:184), who referred to Prambanan as a mausoleum for King Balitung, and byHelfritz (1979:112-9), who interpreted this edifice not only as a sepulchral monumentfor a deified ruler, but also as a burial shrine for Mahayanic Buddhist monks.Contrary to Wagner's suggestion (1961:103), there has been no subsequent researchdone to find out whether the designation 'sepulchral monument' is a more accurateone for catydi than 'temple'. Even if it were true that some Javanese temples also had acommemorative function, this would not, in our opinion, justify their being designatedas 'sepulchral monuments'.


cult. Even though the extent to which the Javanese deified royalty mayhave been exceptional, Bosch argued, closely related practices werenonetheless known to have existed both in India and among certainpeoples of mainland Southeast Asia, such as the Cham and the Khmer. Toillustrate his point, he referred to the Indian practice of designating Sivastatues, or linga, by the name or surname (biruda) of their royal founders,in combination with the word ïsvara, which attests to some kind ofidentification of these kings with the god Siva. He also pointed to thedevardja cult evolved by the Angkor kings (Bosch 1954:6-8). The otherfact, which Bosch had discovered after a careful analysis of the informationon freehold foundations (dharmma lëpas) given in the well-knownJavanese panegyric text, Ndgarakrëtdgama, was that of a total of 1365Javanese foundations or dharmma, only 12% had been dedicated as royalfunerary temples. The other 88%, which included many temples andshrines, had been established inter alia to contribute to the maintenance ofparticular religious or sectarian communities (Bosch 1954:9-10).

The objections raised by Bosch to the funerary theory werecorroborated by O'Connor's (1966) study on the function and origin ofritual deposit boxes in Southeast Asian sanctuaries. O'Connor concludedthat 'the existence of ritual deposit boxes in the foundations of ancientsanctuaries of Southeast Asia can be easily integrated in the religioustraditions of India. It is also evident that the mere existence of such boxesin a sanctuary does not in itself indicate the practice of enshrining theashes of dead kings as in Java, nor is the existence of stone nine-chambered boxes in itself any evidence of Javanese cultural influence.'(O'Connor 1966:60.) One of the religious traditions of India which theSoutheast Asian practices may have been related to or derived from is thatobserved in the construction of stüpas in the days of Asoka (r. 272-231B.C.). As is pointed out by O'Connor, the idea behind this, too, was that'these [buried] objects usually combined with relies or a text gave thestüpa its internal vivifying and spiritual force and were part of the essentialritual of consecration or pranapratistha. Later Buddhism, the Mahdydnaand especially the Vajraydna [...] codified the ritual of consecration whichdoes without the presence of a relic. Instead it substituted the liturgicalimposition of a divine spirit.' (O'Connor 1966:60.)

Where O'Connor, on Stutterheim's authority, left room for a deviantpattern in Java and Bali which he described as 'a local inflection' of anoriginal Indian tradition, Soekmono believed such an exceptional positionto be impossible to prove and even to be inconceivable. Basing himself onBosch' study (1920) on the origin of Hindu Javanese temple architecture,he observed that precisely in rituals people tend to display a strictadherence to the rules, so that the Javanese could not have adopted avariant position with regard to ritual deposit boxes (Soekmono 1974:103).Indeed, after a thorough analysis of a wide range of archaeologicalinscriptions and Old Javanese literary works, Soekmono concluded that


there is no real textual evidence that the funeral remains of kings were evercollected for safekeeping in a temple. Rather, it seems to have been thecustom to throw the funerary ashes and other remains into the sea or inrivers flowing to the sea. Moreover, the idea of funerary enshrinement ishardly conceivable to the people of present-day Bali because this wouldamount to a violation of the ritual purity of their temples (Soekmono1974:42, 340).

Regrettably, Soekmono does not report what the Balinese would havethought of the burial of animal and human remains in temple grounds.Apparently he himself could not explain this, as is clear from his discussionof the reports of the excavation of Candi Sojiwan, where he suggests therewas uncertainty about the identification of the human skeleton. If therewas any uncertainty, however, it was only in relation to the charred bonesfound in the pit of a lost subsidiary shrine, about which the amateurarchaeological society of Yogyakarta failed to report whether these boneswere those of an animal, of a human being, or of both (see Van Blom1935:109). The skeleton that was found in the north-western corner of thetemple site was definitely human. Van Blom explicitly refers to 'someonewho had died there [...] whose skull has been fairly well preserved' (VanBlom 1935:13).5 As for the animal remains found at Prambanan, Soekmono,in contradiction with his earlier remarks about the strict adherence to therules of temple rituals by the Javanese, suggested a possible connectionwith the still current village ritual of pëndëman, involving the sacrificialburial of a buffalo head on a new building site. This led Jordaan (1993:44)to remark that: 'Just as a buffalo head cannot simply be equated with thesacrifice of a dog and an ant-eater, so the sacrifice of a human being at thecentral courtyard of one of the most important Saivite temple complexes inSoutheast Asia cannot simply be explained as a Javanese folk-belief. Onthe contrary [...] both the practice and the persistent belief in the efficacyof human sacrifices can only be accounted for as borrowings based onIndian examples.'

Regardless of the question of the origin of the practice of humansacrifice - a subject to which we shall return presently - it is clear that theJavanese temple can no longer be regarded as a royal sepulchralmonument. This conclusion subsequently leads us to suggest that candi inJavanese, rather than having been derived from a word which Kromglossed as 'burial monument' or 'mausoleum', perhaps initially referred to

5 Van Blom's information does not indicate whether this skull had been removedfrom the skeleton through decapitation. This is regrettable, because such informationwould indicate more definitely whether or not the ceremony performed here was aTantric one, if there was indeed question of a human sacrifice. As far as the mode ofimmolation is concerned, Desmukh (1886:115) has noted that 'In all Vedic sacrificesanimals are killed by suffocating them, while in Tantric sacrifices they are decapitated.The Vedic mode of killing preserves the blood of the animal in the body, while theTantric mode allowed it to run out.'

5 8 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

a sanctuary where animals and human beings had once been immolated inhonour of Candika. If this is correct, the word is better rendered as'sacrificial monument', in addition to Zoetmulder's definition (1982:298)as 'temple or sanctuary (in which the deity descends, is worshipped, andcontact with it is achieved)'.

New perspectives on Tantrism and human sacrifice

Well before the decline of the funerary theory, changes took place in theviews on 'Tantric religion'. These changes concern both the (earlier) dateat which Tantrism became manifest as a distinct phenomenon in India aswell as in Southeast and East Asia, and the better understanding of thecomplexity of this phenomenon, including its symbolic, its psychological,and, to a much lesser extent, its sacrificial aspects. Pioneered by scholarslike P.Ch. Bagchi, B. Bhattacharyya, Sir John Woodroffe (pseudonymArthur Avalon) and S.B. Dasgupta, the study of Tantrism has by nowdeveloped into a respectable branch of Indian studies, producing a rapidlygrowing body of literature (see, e.g., Bharati 1975; Goudriaan 1979;Padoux 1987; Lorenzen forthcoming). Intermittent attempts have alsobeen made to analyse Borobudur and other Central Javanese Buddhisttemple structures by reference to various Tantric texts (e.g., Stutterheim1929; Pott 1956; Lokesh Chandra 1979a, 1979b). As regards HinduTantrism and Saktism in ancient Central Java, however, our knowledge ismuch more fragmentary.6

In view of this state of affairs, Jordaan (1993:44-46) drew attentionanew to Ijzerman's neglected observations on Prambanan's animal andhuman sacrificial remains and to the parallels drawn by the latter with thepractices of certain Tantric sects in India. These Indian parallels seemedworthy of note again particularly in view of the flaws in Stutterheim's andSoekmono's interpretations of these sacrifices in terms of Javanesefolklore. As an Indian example Jordaan mentioned the Kapalikas, a sectthat is known to have practised human sacrifice, pointing out at the sametime, however, that not much was known about this long-extinct Saivasect except for the data collected by Lorenzen (1972; 1989). Furthermore,the information we do have is confined largely to the Indian sub-continentand cannot yet be extrapolated to Southeast Asia. As a systematic study ofreligious beliefs and sectarian movements in ancient Java still remains to be

6 For instance, Stutterheim's (1939:151, n. 2) remarks on Saktism in Central Javahave been refuted by Lokesh Chandra's demonstration that the alleged MotherGoddess depicted on one copper plate was none other than Harïti, the Buddhistgoddess of fertility and guardian of children (Lokesh Chandra 1977:466-71). Hence,in the absence of irrefutable evidence of Saktism, it seems safer to speak of Tantrism,since Saktism, though distinct from Tantrism, is closeiy related to and presupposes it(von Glasenapp 1936), and 'Saiva or Sakta sects are unquestionably Tantric' (Padoux1987:276).


undertaken, we cannot determine when the Kapalikas existed here.7

What we can do is review the archaeological data on animal and humansacrifice in ancient Java and assess the implications of this for the acceptedviews on Tantrism in Java and on the mutual accommodation betweenHinduism and Buddhism, which was to culminate in the syncretic Siva-Buddha cult. The first problem we must face here is that of the rathercareless way in which the ashes and bones in ritual deposits were dealtwith in the past. In the firm conviction that these were the remnants ofroyal cremations, earlier scholars generally referred only to 'ashes andcharcoal' and 'bones', some of which were reported to be charred.Prambanan, as we have seen, was an exceptional case, though this did notprevent Ijzerman and others from referring to the ritual deposit boxes as'urns' and even as 'coffins'.8 Unfortunately, with the demise of thefunerary theory, the Indonesian Archaeological Service seems to have lostinterest in the traces of organic material altogether. In recent reports on theexcavation of Candi Sambisari, a Hindu temple located about tenkilometres west of Prambanan, the investigators refer to 'bones' withoutfurther ado, which makes it impossible for us to decide whether these are ofone or more animals or of a human being. To be on the safe side, we shallassume that the bones mentioned in the archaeological reports are those ofanimals if they are referred to as such or are said to be 'partly burnt', as inthe case in Jolotundo and Trawulan in East Java (see Soekmono 1974:78-94). Uncertain are the cases of Jabung (Mojokerto, East Java) andSambisari (Central Java), which yielded the 'remnants of bones' and'bones' respectively (Soekmono 1974:86; Suaka Peninggalan n.d.: 6).9

The only other human skeleton that has come to our notice is that found atthe Gunongan, a mountain-shaped stone structure in Aceh, which maypredate the old Sultanate in North Sumatra (see Wessing 1991:7, n. 56).Including this, the total reported number of skeletons found on Indonesian

7 The only piece of evidence for the presence of Saiva Tantrics in ancient CentralJava is the poorly recorded discovery near Mount Merapi of a unique bronze skullcup, a Tantric ritual object which probably dates from between the eighth and tenthcenturies A.D. (Stutterheim 1929:14-5). Though reminiscent of the 'skull-bearing'Kapalikas, we do not know for certain if this object was once theirs. The Indonesianarchaeologist Hariani Santiko (1987:370; 1990) suggests that the Kapalikas wereperhaps designated as Bhairavas, but this is contradicted by Zoetmulder's (1982 1:797)mention of the term kapalikabrata as occurring in the Udyogaparwa. The earliestwritten evidence on the Bhairavas dates from the East Javanese period.s This usage was first criticized by Bosch (1961:487, n. 3), who recommended theuse of a more neutral term like 'casket' rather than 'reliquary', as was done by Lamb inhis report on the excavation of Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat in Kedah.9 Bondan, Latupapua and Djajadiningrat (1982:87) report that Candi Kalasan wasonce 'surrounded by a series of stupas covering the buried ashes of monks, togetherwith some of their belongings', which were found at the site during excavations 'someyears ago', without any reference to excavation reports or any explanation why theashes of these monks would have been buried there, if indeed they were the ashes ofmonks.


temple sites now is four, which is too large to be attributed to 'chance'again but at the same time too small for any definite conclusions to bedrawn about this. Nevertheless, some preliminary observations may bemade.

The first remarkable thing about the Javanese skeletons is that theywere all found in Central Java. This is difficult to reconcile with theaccepted ideas about the rise of Tantrism, especially the 'left-hand' ordemoniacal forms of Tantrism which existed from the beginning of the EastJavanese period onwards (that is, after the tenth century A.D.). The animaland human skeletons found at Prambanan and Sojiwan hint at theobservance of 'left-hand' forms of Tantrism during the Central Javaneseperiod. It seems inevitable that this finding will have important implicationsfor art-historical research. Not only does it rebut categorical statementsabout the absence of Tantric influences in Central Javanese art, but it alsocalls for a rectification of euphemistic terms like 'bacchanal' for the Tantricscènes of intoxicated dancers and musicians depicted on reliëfs atPrambanan, Sewu, and Borobudur (see, e.g., Bernet Kempers 1950:25;Bosch 1959:239; De Casparis 1956:266, n. 99).10 Even the strict symmetryevidenced by the layout of the Prambanan temple complex may now beinterpreted in Tantric terms, considering that 'the notion of the bipolarstructure of the ultimate is one of the keystones of Tantric speculation'(Goudriaan 1979:54)."

Another remarkable fact is that one of the human skeletons was foundon the site of a Buddhist temple, which would seem to contradict the oft-repeated assertion that 'Buddhism rejected sacrifice in principle' (Henniger1987:555; see also Rhys Davids 1920:7; Kirfel 1951:46; Smith and Doniger1989:214-5). The only other example known to us of human sacrifice inBuddhism as practised in Indonesia12 is connected with the worship ofHeruka among the Batak of Sumatra. Heine-Geldern (1972:325) writesabout this: '[Heruka], one of the most terrible gods of Vajrayana Buddhism,

10 Clearly, alcohol drinking and indulgence in sensual pleasures can be qualified aspahcamakara, or 'the rite of the Five M's' followed by Tantric adepts (Moens1924:530). Hence, to say that the scènes of Padang Lawas were of a more demoniacalvariety of sadamada ('always drunk') than those of Borobudur is incompatible withBosch's (1959) conclusion that the latter monument was free from Tantric influence.1' One could also argue that there is a need for a re-assessment of Treloar's dating ofthe ritual deposits in Malayan temples in the light of the information yielded byPrambanan. Besides, references to alchemy in various Buddhist scriptures suggest amuch earlier date for alchemical practices in the Indonesian archipelago than thetwelfth and thirteenth centuries, as assumed by Treloar on the basis of the evidencesupplied by Chandi Batu Pahat (see, e.g., Waley 1932:1102-3).12 Examples from other areas are mentioned by Heine-Geldern (1917:30), accordingto whom King Mindon, 'who was otherwise known as a strict Buddhist and opponentof spirit veneration', had a pregnant woman sacrificed on the occasion of the foundingof the city of Mandalay in 1857. See also Zürcher (1959) for several examples ofsuch 'heterodox' sacrifices performed by Buddhist monks in early medieval China.


who was offered bloody sacrifices, probably even human ones. [...] Thisworship of Heruka formed a point of contact between the Indian and theindigenous rites [...] and gave impulse to the transformed interpretation ofBatak cannibalism into a magie rite of degenerate Buddhism.'13 We shalllook at this explanation more closely in a later section.

Given this evidence, we are unable to corroborate Henniger'sobservation on 'tendencies to the spiritualization and ethicization ofsacrifice' in Indian religions, at least as far as those practised outside theIndian sub-continent are concerned. Nor can we attest O'Connor's above-cited remarks about the process of substitution, which is also described bySmith and Doniger in their valuable essay focused on sacrifice andsubstitution: 'Under the influence of Buddhism or, more generally, of thedoctrine of ahimsd that became part of Hinduism and Buddhism, arevisionary attitude toward the use of vegetable offerings came to the fore[...] The carnivorous Vedic gods were replaced by strictly vegetarian Hindudeities who are said to accept no blood offerings, but only rice, fruits, andso forth [...] Hindus, Buddhists and Jains all rejected Vedic sacrifice,especially the animal sacrifice; but they also dressed up their new doctrinesand religious activities in the guise of Vedic sacrifice' (Smith and Doniger1989:214-5). Rather than substitution, the remains found in Prambananand Sojiwan testify to the side-by-side existence of human and variousanimal sacrifices.

This does not negate the f act that at both temple sites the humanremains were found not in the main temple, but rather at or near asubsidiary one. It seems quite likely to us that the officiating priests, in theirchoice of location, wished to give covert expression to the subordinatenature of the role played by human sacrifice in the ritual of consecration ofthe temple. In support of this argument, we would cite von Glasenapp, oneof the few scholars to appreciate the less attractive side of VajrayanaBuddhism, including its sanctioning of animal sacrifices and even murder(von Glasenapp [1940]: 145-6). Von Glasenapp noted that in laterBengalese and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism an increasingly important rolewas assigned to all kinds of terrifying gods and demons, to whomevidently even meat and alcohol were offered. Because this took placemostly at night and, furthermore, not in the inner sanctum but in anadjoining area, von Glasenapp inferred that the cult could be characterizedas being 'outside the saving doctrine' (von Glasenapp [1940]: 128).Similarly, Bolle (1983:41) observes that 'in a village that is thoroughly

13 The expression 'degenerate Buddhism' is in line with the accepted view on the riseof an indigenized form of Tantric Buddhism during the East Javanese period.However, in the case of Padang Lawas, where Heruka was worshipped, the 13th-century dating of the temple seems to be the result of a circular argument, as this datewas said to have been arrived at 'on account of these obvious traces of late tantricBuddhism' (Bosch, as cited by Heine-Geldern 1972:325).


brahmanized, the attendant gods can become the official recipients of the[bloody] sacrifice rather than the central deities themselves'.

What is worth noting specifically is the conclusion suggested by thesacrifïcial remains at Prambanan and Sojiwan that there must have been avery close similarity between Hinduism and Buddhism in the CentralJavanese period. This conclusion corroborates Sarkar's (1967) theoryabout the evolution of the Siva-Buddha cult in Java, the ground for which,according to him, must have been prepared already in the eighth and ninthcenturies. Support for this theory is also provided by the architectural andstylistic similarities between Prambanan and some of the neighbouringBuddhist temples that have long since been observed by manyarchaeologists. Whether these similarities can indeed be taken as evidencefor the assumed 'process of approximation' between Buddhism andHinduism, however, depends on the question of when and exactly howthey came about. This problem having been dealt with elsewhere (Jordaan1993; in press), we will here only reiterate the supposition that Buddhistinfluences in the art of Prambanan are most readily explained in terms ofthe involvement of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, which seems onlyconceivable in an atmosphere of religious tolerance and mutualaccommodation.l4

Now we can adduce, in addition to the sacrifïcial remains, the evidenceof recent excavations at two different temple sites close to Prambanan.These unearthed among other things a small silver statue of Siva at CandiSewu, a Buddhist temple, and a small bronze figure of Vajrapani at CandiSambisari, the Hindu temple already referred to above.15 These finds are notunique. Brandes (1887:24), for instance, reported the discovery in CentralJava of a silver statuette of Durga with the Buddhist credo 'ye dharmmdhetuprabhawd ..." inscribed in Nagarï script on its back. More recently,Fontein (1990) mentioned the discovery in Surocolo, Central Java, of a jarcontaining 19 small bronze statues of Buddhist divinities as well as threeothers, one of which represented Siva. Judging by workmanship and size,Fontein did not believe it probable that these all formed part of the sameset. Concerning the Siva statuette in particular, he concluded that 'it couldnot have been part of the original Buddhist ensemble, which constitutes

14 By those archaeologists and art historians who subscribe to the conflict model firstput forward by Krom (1931:173) and subsequently elaborated by De Casparis(1956), the similarities are usually taken as evidence of an 'architectural confrontation'between Buddhism and Hinduism in ancient Central Java, and of 'appropriations ofthe Sailendras' mode of discourse' by the Hindu Javanese rulers after the expulsion ofthe Sailendras from Java (Miksic 1994:444; see also Dumarcay 1981; 1986:42-9;1993:74).15 Apart from Vajrapani, a small bronze statue was found here, which was rathervaguely described as an arca wanita (statue of a woman) but which may wellrepresent the Buddhist goddess Tara, as she displays the varadamudra with her righthand and holds a (utpalal) flower in her left hand, which are both of them attributesof Tara par excellence (Ghosh 1980:31).


the remnants of a three-dimensional mandala in which a large number ofBuddhist divinities were arranged ...' (Fontein 1990:223), obviouslyexcluding the possibility of a Hindu deity being used in a Buddhistmandala. Lokesh Chandra, however, pointed out that the Siva and theother two statues excluded by Fontein could have fitted quite well into aBuddhist mandala, as did the five bronze images representing Brahma,Kuvera, Indra, Yama and Varuna that were found underneath the pedestalof the monumental Avukana Buddha in Srilanka.16 Considering these facts,we are inclined to question the validity of some current designations as'Hinduism' and 'Buddhism' and to wonder whether these terms do fulljustice to the ideas of the Javanese of the times, for whom suchterminological distinctions may have been merely formal and relative. Bothearly Hinduism and Buddhism were flexible enough to accommodate andutilize each other's icons, as well as those of other religions (cf. Ghosh1980:22; Bayly 1986). This kind of situation would be consonant withStutterheim's view that 'the designation "Buddhism" is quite misleadingfor Java. It would be better tó speak of Tantrism on a Buddhist basis. ButTantrism is as much Saivite as Buddhist and the difference is more one ofaccent than of fact. In reality they are equal, and were so in India as well'(Stutterheim 1925:288). ;

Needless to say, this form of 'Buddhism' was not Hïnayana, butrepresented some later development of Mahayana, probably Mantrayanaor Vajrayana. In this connection we would call to mind the curious reportby a Chinese pilgrim, Hiüan-tsang, that the Hinayana monks from Orissadenounced their colleagues in Nalanda — the famous centre of MahayanaBuddhist learning that maintained close links with the Sailendras inIndonesia - as heretics, saying that they did not differ in any way from theSaivite Kapalikas (see Kern 1888:156). Of course, one might question theadequacy of this single piece of - possibly biased - information asevidence for the practice of human sacrifice in Nalanda. Indeed, asSnellgrove asserted, '[i]t would be quite erroneous to assume that theliteral contents of the tantras describe the type of life led by the monks ofthe great monasteries of Vajrasana, Vikramasila and Nalanda. The referencesare all to yogins who wander free from all ties, coming together with theirfellows only for the seasons and at the places of pilgrimage' (Snellgrove1957:87). Although we are unable to settle this particular issue at present,we do wish to bear in mind that in the case of Prambanan and Sojiwan, too,the practice of human sacrifice as part of official Hindu-Buddhist ritual wasuntil quite recently considered to be inconceivable. As far as religious

16 We hesitate, however, to accept Lokesh Chandra's (1995:134) suggestion that 'Theirworkmanship is inferior on purpose, to denigrate their status in the Buddhist context',in view of the fact that the Siva and Durga statuettes found in other Buddhist contextsare made of silver. We would also point to the size and beauty of Candi Prambanan,the Hindu shrine constructed with the support of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty.


doctrine is concerned, it is relevant to realize that both these temples arelocated in the same area as Kalasan, which was known in old Indian textsas Kalasa(pura) and was a religious centre nearly as famous as Nalanda.One might counter this with the argument that Kalasan, though famous,was a regional centre far removed from 'Sanskritic India', which wouldhave allowed the reciprocal influencing that would account for theregional variations noted in Tantrism (see Stutley and Stutley 1977:299).This was, in fact, the very argument used to denounce as 'heterodox'those Buddhist monks who had copied Taoist sacrificial practices,including human sacrifice, in early mediaeval China (Zürcher 1959:26, 37,55). Even so, it should be noted that the distinctions between centre andperiphery, Sanskritic India and its 'adaptations' abroad, and orthodoxyand heterodoxy are not as clear-cut and rigid as they may at first appear tobe. For instance, Nalanda did not exist in splendid isolation but waslocated in or close to those areas in north-east India (Bihar, Bengal, andAssam) that were of old associated with kidnapping and human sacrifice(Gait 1898; Joshi 1892). It lay close not only to the well-known Kali templeat Kalighat, where in the days of Hiüan-tsang Hindus may still havepractised human sacrifice, but also to the aboriginal tribes who had justbeen converted to Hinduism or Buddhism and who were still in a processof transition, trying, with the help of the priests and monks of thesereligions, to bring their old customs in line with the dogmas of the newcreeds (see, for instance, Van Kooij 1972:8, 32). It is quite possible,therefore, that the Orissan Hïnayanists' accusation was really levelled atthese monks. Perhaps the latter did not leave it at this, moreover, and, assome scholars have argued, the Hindus in turn adopted the practice ofbloody sacrifices as a result of these contacts. Gait, for instance, writes that:'The terrible goddess [Kali] whose cult is described in the Puranas andTantras is [...] a comparatively recent addition to the Hindu pantheon. It isbelieved that her worship and the bloody orgies with which it wasattended were adopted from the religion of non-Aryan tribes with whomthe Hindus came into contact on the north-east frontier of India' (Gait1913:851). Thus Tantrism served as a vehicle by which foreign and exoticelements made their way into Hinduism (Eliade 1960:207). Heine-Gelderndeveloped this argument a step further by pointing to a connectionbetween human sacrifice, head-hunting, and a so-called 'matriarchal'ideology in these tribal societies. The survival of some of these archaicelements in India itself may then have facilitated the advance of TantricSaktism here (Heine-Geldern 1917:28, 49-59). Eliade has rightly remarked,however, that these are the ethnological elements of the problem, which'also has a historico-religious aspect - the spiritual revalorization ofprehistorie customs entailing human sacrifices and the cult of skulls'(Eliade 1960:299). This revalorization contributed to the introduction ofnew types of bloody sacrifice, which had fallen into oblivion with thedecline of the Vedic religion (Basham 1967:336-7; Van Kooij 1972:21).


Several mutually contradictory processes may therefore have gone onsimultaneously in one and the same locality or society: the processes ofsubstitution and replacement, leading to vegetarianism and asceticismamong some groups, and the processes of either revalorization ordevalorization of bloody sacrifices among others. Thus, Heine-Geldern'sexplanation of the Padang Lawas human sacrifice as 'a transformation ofBatak cannibalistic customs into a magie rite by a degenerate form ofBuddhism' seems to lend itself particularly well to restatement in terms ofrevalorization and devalorization (see also Eliade 1960:299).

Valorization of bloody sacrifices in the ancient Javanese setting

Awaiting the results of future research into human sacrifice as it features inIndian Hindu-Buddhist Tantric texts and into the supposed role of theKapalikas in the transmission of the temple ritual to Central Java, we willtry to investigate the nature of the local traditions that favoured theadoption of this cult and provided the officiating priests with the meanswith which to bring it into harmony with the ideology of the recipiëntculture. All references to such former indigenous ideas, whether these wereancient Batak or Javanese, tended to be received with the utmost reserve,if not scepticism, by Krom and Bosch. Although Bosch himself, as regardsthe extraordinary development of the cult of royalty in ancient Java andelsewhere in Southeast Asia, had recognized the possibility that this mightbe explained by the fact 'that there were among the Javanese, Khmer andChams certain individuals who had fleshed out foreign-looking rituals withnotions derived from their own native world view and in this way arrivedat a syncretism of the cult of royalty and indigenous ancestral worship'(Bosch 1954:8), he never ceased to doubt the usefulness of statements ofthis kind. It was his opinion that, 'since we know nothing of what went onin the minds of the individuals concerned, it seems safer to relegate thiskind of assumptions to the realm of useless speculation' (Bosch 1954:9).n

Bosch can not have suspected that, for an explanation of the Javaneseroyalty cult, it would nevertheless have been useful to seriously considersuch a synthesis of Indic rituals and native ideas, and that the idea of thiscould even have been made plausible to a certain extent. A point ofdeparture now is provided by the human sacrifice at Prambanan and theJavanese culik belief that was already mentioned by Stutterheim. Recentresearch in other parts of Indonesia has shown that the rumours ofkidnappings in connection with construction sacrifices are not just aproduct of Javanese folk-belief but are a pan-Indonesian phenomenon ofquite long standing (see Barnes 1993 for a well-considered recapitulation

17 That Bosch himself was not always consistent in this is shown by his statementsabout a possible fusion between Hindu notions of Parvafï as an Indian mother figureand ancient Minangkabau ideas and institutions such as those of matrilineality and theposition of the primordial ancestral mother (Bosch 1961:480).


of the debate on this in the journal Oceania).™ Considerations of spacepermit us to discuss only two conclusions of recent research on the subject,relating to the political dimension of the phenomenon and concerning thetypes and the purposes of construction sacrifices. We will then look at thehuman sacrifice at Prambanan again in the light of the informationuncovered.

First let us look at the political dimension of the practice of humansacrifice, for insights into which we are indebted to Barnes. His analysishas lent the subject a greater depth than any of those of the otherparticipants in the debate, who only mentioned the alleged involvement ofthe Dutch colonial and the Indonesian national governments - a projectionof their informants' limited historical consciousness. According to Barnes,the phenomenon of human sacrifice should be related to political power assuch: 'If a state or leader is potent, then presumably it or he can afford tosacrifice human heads when important projects are undertaken, such asopening fields or building temples' (Barnes 1993:155). Barnes' importantclaim that 'rather than being a new phenomenon and the product of thecolonial era, these rumors may well have been characteristic of Indonesiafrom ancient times ...' (Barnes 1993:146), however, is not as fullydeveloped as it might have been had he known of the evidence that layburied in Central Javanese temples and Dutch archaeological reports. Inthe light of this evidence, some archaeologists and historians may find ituseful to link Barnes' hypothesis to other recent theories in theirdisciplines, such as those about the 'Big Man' or 'man of prowess' andabout 'localization', particularly in connection with the Javanese andother Southeast Asian cults of royalty.

Second, let us look at the problem with the above-mentioned and otherarticles on construction sacrifice to which we drew attention earlier,namely the failure of the authors, when talking about construction, todifferentiate between the construction of a bridge or a road and that of asingle family dwelling, a longhouse, or a [village] temple. It is ourcontention that there is an essential difference between the differentcategories of construction and that this difference is reflected in the kind ofoffering at each. In the case of the first category it is the appeasement ofany spirits whose habitat is in any way disturbed by the constructionactivities that is important, and in that of the second the animation of thestructure by means of a sacrificial victim's soul in order to establishfavourable relations with benevolent ancestors or other supernaturalbeings. Our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrifices canbe easily brought into relation with the difference in religio-politicalimportance of the construction: the more important the structure, the moreelaborate the sacrifice, and the slighter the opportunity for substituting

18 The authors wish to thank Rosemary Robson for drawing their attention to thearticles in Oceania.


animal or human offerings with vegetable ones. Formulated as a generalrule, this may be held to apply not only to East Indonesian village temples,but also to the Hindu-Buddhist temples of Central Java and India.

Let us now return to the animal and human remains at Prambanan to seewhether our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrificecorresponds in any way with the ideas of the builders of this templecomplex. A unique opportunity for this is provided by a stone inscriptionrecording the inauguration of this temple complex in A.D. 856. We willproceed from De Casparis' epigraphic analysis of this inscription (DeCasparis 1956:280-343), with a few emendations prompted by Aichele's(1969) re-interpretation of parts of the Old Javanese text.

In stanza 25 of the metrical text we read that 'after the Civa sanctuaryhad been completed in its divine splendour [...] there was no danger fromthe wicked ones, for they had all received their due; then the grounds wereinaugurated as temple grounds [...] with the gods' (De Casparis 1956:328).We agree with De Casparis' suggestion in the accompanying note that:'There is no doubt that these words [i.e., "there was no danger"] refer tothe wicked spirits (bhütas etc), who might disturb the ceremonies if theywere not satisfied. These "gifts" include caru, for instance, rice strewn onthe ground, and perhaps even meat for the Rdksas etc.' (De Casparis1956:328, n. 96.) As we have argued, the 'satisfaction' of potentially evilspirits is the main objective of appeasement rituals, which constitute adistinct type of construction sacrifice. Regrettably, the inscription does notyield decisive information about the kinds of offerings that were used forthe appeasement of these malevolent spirits. Still, we feel that De Casparisis unnecessarily cautious when he says that, in addition to food, theofferings may have consisted of meat for the rdksas, while he was in aposition to know about Ijzerman's discovery of the remains of a dog, anant-eater, and various birds.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the inscription refers to 'the wickedones who had all received their due' without any further specification, isthat in this way the Hindu priests were able to put a slight upon theindigenous element in the consecration ceremony. By using the term'wicked ones', or demons, they may have tried to convey their opinionabout the lesser status of the local gods and spirits, something that has alsobeen suggested by Van Kooij (1972:21) in connection with the attitude ofVedic priests towards the gods of the non-Aryan folk religion. Similarly, byusing the phrase 'their due', the priests did not have to bother to mentionthe curious set of animals that were sacrificed, which seem very difficult tomatch with the kind of animals (horses, buffaloes, goats, sheep, fowl)commonly immolated in Indic sacrifïces.19

19 Unfortunately, because of the paucity of the data, it is impossible to say what, ifany, were the symbolic considerations in the selection of the sacrificial animals, exceptto define these in only very general terms such as the oppositions wild/tame, land


An interesting question is whether the offering of the 'flesh' of theseanimals can be equated with that of the two human beings. Confirmationof the relevance of the distinction between them might be provided by thefinal sentence of the same stanza, were it not for De Casparis' omission toreconstruct the sentence fully because of uncertainty about the meaning ofsome of the Old Javanese words used in it. The words concerned are humet- trima harang. De Casparis observes in a footnote that the word trima,which he understands as tarima, 'to receive', may point to a parallelbetween the earlier mentioned offerings for the lower spirits and certainother ones intended for the gods, noting: 'One might connect trimaharang huma sahiyang, "the rice-field with [sic] the Gods received ..."{harang in the meaning of harëng, "charcoal", does not make sense), Ihave no idea what humet could mean' (De Casparis 1956:328, n. 97). Inview of these diffïculties, an epigraphical re-analysis of this inscription isvery much needed.

Whatever the case may be, the sacrifices here apparently were aimed notonly at appeasing local spirits, but also at animating the temple structure.The appeasement of spirits in Javanese ruwatan (exorcism) ceremonies isgenerally supposed to take place before the ground is broken for theconstruction work. For this reason one might suppose that the offeringsthe remains of which were found in the temple grounds served thispurpose. Animation, on the other hand, involves the infusion of a live spiritinto the structure itself, which could have been accomplished by burial inthe temple pit. We are supported in this inference by the informationsupplied in an earlier stanza of the text, which mentions a tree, Ki Muhürby name, which has come to full maturity as a result of its proximity to thetemple. Literally translated, the 16th stanza reads: 'There also was aTanjung tree [...] Ki Muhür, the stem was only one year old; theneighbourhood of the Lord was the reason of its matchless growth at theEastern side; its beauty was extraordinary, equal to the (divine) Pdrijdtakatree; it was the place where the God would descend and (its branches)would be a parasol (for the God); was not it a God for the God' (DeCasparis 1956:323). That it is indeed animation, comparable to the 'internalvivifying and spiritual force' which O'Connor attributed to the ritualdeposits, that is concerned here is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on'the neighbourhood of the Lord' rather than on the proximity of thetemple as such.

It is worthwhile to dweil a little longer on the statement that the tree isassociated with the descent of a god (or gods). According to theinscription, this miraculous tree was planted to the east of the main temple,where the principal entrance to the complex is located. As was noted by

animals / birds. Additionally, there is the sea/land opposition, as testified by the gold-foil objects bearing the names of Varuna, god of the sea, and Parvata, lord of themountain.


De Casparis, Tanjung trees (Mimusops elengi) are frequently mentioned inOld Javanese literature as being planted near temple sites and in Javaneseroyal courtyards (De Casparis 1956:304, n. 94). Though only a Tanjungtree, its beauty was so exceptional as to prompt comparison to theParijata(ka), one of the five divine trees produced during the Churning ofthe Ocean (cf. Stutley 1977:220). What is more important, the tree isreferred to also as pariawataran, i.e., 'place for an avatdra', which DeCasparis has taken as 'the place where the God would descend whencoming to Earth, using it both as a ladder and as a payung [parasol]' (DeCasparis 1956:304,324).

Elsewhere, Jordaan (1991:169) has argued that the special character ofthe tree probably has something to do with the fact that the inaugurationof the Siva temple in 856 coincided with the anniversary of Rakai Pikatan,the Javanese king who was involved in its construction (Aichele 1969;Djoko Dwiyanto 1986). This may well have been the reason for the curiousstatement in the inscription that the tree, planted in front of the temple as ayoung tree, 'its stem being only one year old' had grown to divineproportions. The connection with the deceased king is also corroboratedby the name of the tree, Ki Muhür, which may be a pun on Ki Luhur,'Venerable Ancestor'. The doublé link of the tree with a god and a deifiedroyal ancestor is quite significant, justifying our surmise of a closerelationship, if not complete identity, between the god (or gods) and theancestor(s).20 Not only is the Tree of Life as a place for the gods andancestors known as well in other parts of Indonesia (see, e.g., Stutterheim1926:347, Aichele 1928:38, Scharer 1966), but this idea also seems to becompatible with ancient Euro-Asian, and even Vedic, notions (see, e.g.,Bosch 1948, Sauvé 1970:182-3). Whatever the Indian parallels, takentogether, these data are a strong confirmation of the hypothesis of asyncretic adaptation of the Indic cult of royalty to indigenous Javaneseancestral beliefs - the very hypothesis which Bosch once relegated to therealm of useless speculation.

20 See further Ras (1968:175-6) for a discussion of a similar Borneo folk-motiflinking the growth of another large kind of shade tree with the fate of the localdynasty.

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Human sacrifice at Prambanan

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