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

ROY E. JORDAAN and ROBERT WESSING

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

Introduction
While the discovery of a. human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indonesian 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 unsatisfactory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was suggested 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 Yogyakarta, 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)

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 laboratory 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 ; 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 correspondences between gods, elements and characteristics.'1
The ritual deposits in the Brahma and Visnu temples included earthenware 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.

Fig.102

Fig.101
Fig.100

Fig.103

IUustration 1. Plates andfiguresfound 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 Verslag
1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden).

Fj.93
Fig.92

)
)

i/q&i

/(

/
Fy.99
Fuj.95

\
97

^ c

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.

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

49

northern temple (known as Candi B), Ijzerman reports laconically,

'nothing extraordinary was found, except for an almost complete, wellpreserved 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). The
second reason was the generally negative view of Tantrism, which was
commonly considered to be synonymous with demonology and the sinister
practices of sorcerers or black magie. Any association of Tantrism with
'classical' monuments such as Borobudur and Prambanan was hence
simply inconceivable (Krom 1927 11:327; Pott 1956:58; Bosch 1959:239).
Being incompatible with the prevalent scholarly opinion, Prambanan's
animal and human skeletons were relegated to the background. The human
skeleton, in particular, was only casually mentioned in the archaeological
literature, if indeed it was mentioned at all. An early example of the
suppression, no doubt unintended, of information of this kind is provided
by Bosch's pioneering study on the origins of Hindu-Javanese temple
architecture. Dismissing the prescriptions for some Vedic offerings, among

Kt

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

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

51

them purusamedha (human sacrifice), in the silpasastra (technical treatises

on architecture and sculpture) as academie, Bosch stated: 'One can assume
that such sacrifices never took place, but may be considered as pure
fantasies of "learned" Brahman priests' (Bosch 1920; 1924:32, n. 87).2
Krom mentioned both the human skeleton and the animal remains
without further comment and simply repeated Ijzerman's observation that
'clearly none of the pits, without any exception, were dug [as such], but
rather the necessary space was reserved, during the construction [of the
temples], in the base [of the foundations]' (Krom 1923a:486; see Ijzerman
1891:69). Apparently no one paid any attention to IJzerman's additional
finding that 'the filling in of the shafts in all the temples was begun from
the base of the foundations upwards', which, as we see it, implies that a
deceased could not have ended up in a shaft by accident or as the result of
a crime. The only possible conclusion must be that we have here a case of
deliberate burial, very likely that of a sacrificial victim.
As an anonymous referee of the present paper commented, the fact that
the human remains were found amid a mass of rubble that filled the pit led
him or her to suspect that these remains might be those of a plunderer
trapped by the collapsing masonry lining the pit. Where there had been no
such collapse, the pits were found to be empty. This referee moreover
pointed to what had happened in Candi Siva, where there is a niche halfway down the pit, on top of an earlier layer of rubble, which prompted the
conclusion that the temple was probably restored after having once
collapsed, and that the pit was filled in after the 'ultimate destruction of the
temple, during which the statue and its pedestal rocked to and fro' (see
Illustration 3).
This raises two points: that of the rubble in Candi B and the Siva temple
pits, and the 'empty' state of the other pits. To address the second point
first: it is not true that the other pits were empty; some even contained
some fragments of stone and broken pieces of statuary. While there were
no human remains reported in their case, the Nandi temple pit was found to
contain the remains of an ant-eater, as was pointed out above. The pits of
the other temples contained, among other things, some ritual deposits, a
pot, and the remains of a dog. Why the Javanese did not fill these shafts
with rubble is, of course, an interesting question, but not one that can be
answered at this remove. As for the first point, that of the rubble, a close
inspection of IJzerman's illustrations shows that the number of blocks in
the pit of Candi B is much larger than the few stones that could possibly
have fallen into it from the upper part of its walls. What is more important, a
comparison with the Siva temple makes clear that such a disintegration or
2

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

52

Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

collapse does not need to be presumed. Here, too, an apparently disorderly

mass of stone blocks has ended up in the pit, but, unlike at Candi B, there is
nothing to indicate that these stones came from the walls of the pit, since
the lining of the walls is undamaged. The stones cannot have landed in the
pit accidentally, either, unless one assumes that there were two
earthquakes. This line of reasoning seems to us unduly complicated, and is
moreover difficult to reconcile with the fact that the rubble from the
second hypothetical earthquake, which allegedly resulted in the temple's
ultimate destruction, was covered anew with three layers of neatly sorted
stones (see also Ijzerman 1891:60).
Whatever the reason for the scant attention that was paid to IJzerman's
additional finding with regard to the filling in of the shafts, the human
skeleton at Prambanan hardly received consideration after Krom's mention
of it. The only time it was mentioned again, to our knowledge, was in
Stutterheim's review of Van Blom's monograph on Candi Sojiwan, a
temple located a few kilometres south of Prambanan, which probably also
dates from the first half of the ninth century. This mention was prompted
by Van Blom's (1935:13) reference to the discovery of a human skeleton in
the grounds of this Buddhist sanctuary. Stutterheim, in keeping with the
ideas of his time, said nothing about a possible Tantric Buddhist background of this phenomenon, either. Instead, he pointed to the Javanese
folk-tradition of human sacrifice in the course of the execution of
important construction projects. What strikes one here, aside from the
rather casual mention of the fact in a footnote, is Stutterheim's unusually
cautious formulation, leaving ample room also for 'chance': 'The author
[Van Blom] reports the discovery of the remains of a skeleton. I recollect
that a skeleton was found as well to the southeast of the so-called Nandi
temple at Prambanan (Photo OD [Archaeological Service] 11192).
Obviously we can draw no conclusions from this similarity of circumstance
and must leave considerable margin for coincidence. Nevertheless, it is
advisable to be cautious here, inter alia in view of the Javanese culik belief,
which involves a belief in human sacrifice in connection with large
construction projects.' (Stutterheim 1935:84, n. 1.)
It will not have escaped the reader's attention that the human remains
mentioned by Stutterheim cannot have been the same as the skeleton
found by Ijzerman in 1885, as the latter was found not to the southeast of
the Nandi temple, but in the temple pit in Candi B, to the north of the
Nandi temple. Moreover, the later discovery of the second skeleton was
made not in a shaft underneath the base of a statue, but in the central
temple area, at least, as far as we can infer from the extremely summary
account accompanying the above-mentioned photograph in the
archaeological reports. The reports of the former Netherlands Indies
Archaeological Service {Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938), unfortunately,
again lack data on the sex, age, and probable cause of death of the
deceased.

;;-'"' *' *'!';''-^-'.'';

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).

54

Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

In spite of the disappearance of this skeleton in an archaeological closet,

Stutterheim's reference to Javanese folk-beliefs concerning kidnapping
and human sacrifice in connection with large construction projects was
bound to be taken even less seriously than the idea of Hindu or Buddhist
Tantric influence, largely because the notion of the influence of indigenous
ideas and practices was hard to reconcile with the scholars' frm conviction
of the conservative character of Hindu-Buddhist religious worship. In this
connection Krom had written that 'Even if one may note some typically
Javanese features in the official sanctuaries, in general the religion tends to
conservatism, and traces of non-Hindu religious ideas and practices can
sooner be expected in other places' (Krom 1931:175; see also Krom
1923a:58 and 1923b:37). A similar view was taken by Bosch, as is
apparent from, among others, one of his later writings, dealing in particular
with the interface between the Indian sphere of influence and ancient
indigenous folk-beliefs (Bosch 1954). Putting it forward as 'an established
fact', Bosch asserted that 'from the ancient Central Javanese period
onwards down to present-day Bali, a hard core, a nucleus of pure Indian
origin, which is indissoluble in the magma of its Indonesian environment
and impervious to the influences of place and time, has been sustained.
This nucleus being the priestly ritual ...' (Bosch 1954:13). This priestly
ritual comprised both the sacra privata and the more public sacred
proceedings, such as consecration ceremonies and temple rituals. Given
this assumption, there seemed to be no need to consider the relevance of
Javanese folk-customs for the explanation of ritual deposits in HinduBuddhist temples.
Intermezzo: The rise and demise of the funerary theory
Having landed in an impasse with regard to the question about the right
religious tradition from which to explain the animal and human skeletons,
most scholars focused their attention on the contents of the ritual deposit
boxes, particularly the ashes. With Ijzerman (1887:272), they assumed
these boxes to be 'urns' containing human ashes, in spite of the fact that
the ashes had been identified as those of animals. These ideas, which had
actually been current since Raffles and the British Interregnum, became the
basis for the interpretation of the Javanese temple as a sepulchral
monument or mausoleum. In view of the widely recorded presence of
charcoal and ashes in the ritual deposit boxes of various Hindu-Buddhist
sanctuaries, even Krom did not doubt the influence of an ancient
Indonesian form of ancestor worship, in spite of his above-quoted remark
about the conservative character of Hindu religious worship (Krom
1923a:l 19, 143; 1923b:39). The fact that the Javanese usually referred to
these pre-Islamic ruins as candi led him to surmise that 'originally the word
denoted 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.

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

55

Possibly the name is derived from Candika, one of the names of Durga, a
goddess who appears to have been closely associated with the dead, and
whose temple is absent from no Balinese burial place down to this very
day. 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 Javanese
temple into a full-fledged theory (Stutterheim 1931; 1940; 1956). There is
no need to discuss this well-known theory in full here. Suffce it to recall
Stutterheim's statement that the worship of rulers in the form of gods was a
practice that was unknown in India and was attributable solely to the
persistence of ancient Indonesian ancestor worship practices. He believed
the attempt to maintain regular contact with a lofty ancestor, now dressed
in Hindu and Tantric-Buddhist ritual garb, to be a traditional means of
securing the well-being of the descendants, and of the people at large.3 To
Stutterheim, therefore, a Javanese candi was not a temple in the true sense
of the word, but a monument: 'the temple was not a place of worship, but
rather an ancestor house [..,]. Temples in the true sense of the word do not
exist in Java. What is called by that name in ninety out of a hundred cases
is a funerary monument, where the king, now identified with a god,
communicated with his descendants.' (Stutterheim 1931:1; see also
Stutterheim 1956:87-8.)
It was not until well after the Second World War that doubt was cast
upon the funerary thesis. Stutterheim's theory was superseded especially
as a result of research by Bosch (1954), O'Connor (1966), and Soekmono
(1974).4 The main thrust of Bosch's criticism was that Stutterheim had
adopted an extreme point of view, 'which could not be defended against
the 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 the
small metal plates in the ritual deposit boxes (pripih), which were inscribed with
various so-called 'mystical' syllables supposedly representing the gods who dwelt in
the 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 fully
appreciated. Further research is needed, however, to find out whether the Javanese
temple deposits served the same Tantric purpose as that discovered by Treloar in his
chemico-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 occasionally
mentioned as having a funerary function, however, for instance by Ensink
(1978:184), who referred to Prambanan as a mausoleum for King Balitung, and by
Helfritz (1979:112-9), who interpreted this edifice not only as a sepulchral monument
for 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 research
done to find out whether the designation 'sepulchral monument' is a more accurate
one for catydi than 'temple'. Even if it were true that some Javanese temples also had a
commemorative function, this would not, in our opinion, justify their being designated
as 'sepulchral monuments'.

56

Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

cult. Even though the extent to which the Javanese deified royalty may
have been exceptional, Bosch argued, closely related practices were
nonetheless known to have existed both in India and among certain
peoples of mainland Southeast Asia, such as the Cham and the Khmer. To
illustrate his point, he referred to the Indian practice of designating Siva
statues, or linga, by the name or surname (biruda) of their royal founders,
in combination with the word svara, which attests to some kind of
identification of these kings with the god Siva. He also pointed to the
devardja cult evolved by the Angkor kings (Bosch 1954:6-8). The other
fact, which Bosch had discovered after a careful analysis of the information
on freehold foundations (dharmma lpas) given in the well-known
Javanese panegyric text, Ndgarakrtdgama, was that of a total of 1365
Javanese foundations or dharmma, only 12% had been dedicated as royal
funerary temples. The other 88%, which included many temples and
shrines, had been established inter alia to contribute to the maintenance of
particular religious or sectarian communities (Bosch 1954:9-10).
The objections raised by Bosch to the funerary theory were
corroborated by O'Connor's (1966) study on the function and origin of
ritual deposit boxes in Southeast Asian sanctuaries. O'Connor concluded
that 'the existence of ritual deposit boxes in the foundations of ancient
sanctuaries of Southeast Asia can be easily integrated in the religious
traditions of India. It is also evident that the mere existence of such boxes
in a sanctuary does not in itself indicate the practice of enshrining the
ashes of dead kings as in Java, nor is the existence of stone ninechambered boxes in itself any evidence of Javanese cultural influence.'
(O'Connor 1966:60.) One of the religious traditions of India which the
Southeast Asian practices may have been related to or derived from is that
observed in the construction of stpas in the days of Asoka (r. 272-231
B.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 the
stpa its internal vivifying and spiritual force and were part of the essential
ritual of consecration or pranapratistha. Later Buddhism, the Mahdydna
and especially the Vajraydna [...] codified the ritual of consecration which
does without the presence of a relic. Instead it substituted the liturgical
imposition of a divine spirit.' (O'Connor 1966:60.)
Where O'Connor, on Stutterheim's authority, left room for a deviant
pattern in Java and Bali which he described as 'a local inflection' of an
original Indian tradition, Soekmono believed such an exceptional position
to be impossible to prove and even to be inconceivable. Basing himself on
Bosch' study (1920) on the origin of Hindu Javanese temple architecture,
he observed that precisely in rituals people tend to display a strict
adherence to the rules, so that the Javanese could not have adopted a
variant position with regard to ritual deposit boxes (Soekmono 1974:103).
Indeed, after a thorough analysis of a wide range of archaeological
inscriptions and Old Javanese literary works, Soekmono concluded that

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

57

there is no real textual evidence that the funeral remains of kings were ever
collected for safekeeping in a temple. Rather, it seems to have been the
custom to throw the funerary ashes and other remains into the sea or in
rivers flowing to the sea. Moreover, the idea of funerary enshrinement is
hardly conceivable to the people of present-day Bali because this would
amount to a violation of the ritual purity of their temples (Soekmono
1974:42, 340).
Regrettably, Soekmono does not report what the Balinese would have
thought of the burial of animal and human remains in temple grounds.
Apparently he himself could not explain this, as is clear from his discussion
of the reports of the excavation of Candi Sojiwan, where he suggests there
was uncertainty about the identification of the human skeleton. If there
was any uncertainty, however, it was only in relation to the charred bones
found in the pit of a lost subsidiary shrine, about which the amateur
archaeological society of Yogyakarta failed to report whether these bones
were those of an animal, of a human being, or of both (see Van Blom
1935:109). The skeleton that was found in the north-western corner of the
temple site was definitely human. Van Blom explicitly refers to 'someone
who had died there [...] whose skull has been fairly well preserved' (Van
Blom 1935:13).5 As for the animal remains found at Prambanan, Soekmono,
in contradiction with his earlier remarks about the strict adherence to the
rules of temple rituals by the Javanese, suggested a possible connection
with the still current village ritual of pndman, involving the sacrificial
burial 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 the
sacrifice of a dog and an ant-eater, so the sacrifice of a human being at the
central courtyard of one of the most important Saivite temple complexes in
Southeast Asia cannot simply be explained as a Javanese folk-belief. On
the contrary [...] both the practice and the persistent belief in the efficacy
of human sacrifices can only be accounted for as borrowings based on
Indian examples.'
Regardless of the question of the origin of the practice of human
sacrifice - a subject to which we shall return presently - it is clear that the
Javanese temple can no longer be regarded as a royal sepulchral
monument. This conclusion subsequently leads us to suggest that candi in
Javanese, rather than having been derived from a word which Krom
glossed as 'burial monument' or 'mausoleum', perhaps initially referred to
5

Van Blom's information does not indicate whether this skull had been removed
from the skeleton through decapitation. This is regrettable, because such information
would indicate more definitely whether or not the ceremony performed here was a
Tantric one, if there was indeed question of a human sacrifice. As far as the mode of
immolation is concerned, Desmukh (1886:115) has noted that 'In all Vedic sacrifices
animals 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 the
Tantric mode allowed it to run out.'

58

Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

a sanctuary where animals and human beings had once been immolated in
honour 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, and
contact with it is achieved)'.
New perspectives on Tantrism and human sacrifice
Well before the decline of the funerary theory, changes took place in the
views on 'Tantric religion'. These changes concern both the (earlier) date
at which Tantrism became manifest as a distinct phenomenon in India as
well as in Southeast and East Asia, and the better understanding of the
complexity of this phenomenon, including its symbolic, its psychological,
and, to a much lesser extent, its sacrificial aspects. Pioneered by scholars
like P.Ch. Bagchi, B. Bhattacharyya, Sir John Woodroffe (pseudonym
Arthur Avalon) and S.B. Dasgupta, the study of Tantrism has by now
developed into a respectable branch of Indian studies, producing a rapidly
growing body of literature (see, e.g., Bharati 1975; Goudriaan 1979;
Padoux 1987; Lorenzen forthcoming). Intermittent attempts have also
been made to analyse Borobudur and other Central Javanese Buddhist
temple structures by reference to various Tantric texts (e.g., Stutterheim
1929; Pott 1956; Lokesh Chandra 1979a, 1979b). As regards Hindu
Tantrism and Saktism in ancient Central Java, however, our knowledge is
much more fragmentary.6
In view of this state of affairs, Jordaan (1993:44-46) drew attention
anew to Ijzerman's neglected observations on Prambanan's animal and
human sacrificial remains and to the parallels drawn by the latter with the
practices of certain Tantric sects in India. These Indian parallels seemed
worthy of note again particularly in view of the flaws in Stutterheim's and
Soekmono's interpretations of these sacrifices in terms of Javanese
folklore. As an Indian example Jordaan mentioned the Kapalikas, a sect
that is known to have practised human sacrifice, pointing out at the same
time, however, that not much was known about this long-extinct Saiva
sect except for the data collected by Lorenzen (1972; 1989). Furthermore,
the information we do have is confined largely to the Indian sub-continent
and cannot yet be extrapolated to Southeast Asia. As a systematic study of
religious beliefs and sectarian movements in ancient Java still remains to be

For instance, Stutterheim's (1939:151, n. 2) remarks on Saktism in Central Java

have been refuted by Lokesh Chandra's demonstration that the alleged Mother
Goddess depicted on one copper plate was none other than Harti, the Buddhist
goddess 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' (Padoux
1987:276).

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

59

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

What we can do is review the archaeological data on animal and human
sacrifice in ancient Java and assess the implications of this for the accepted
views on Tantrism in Java and on the mutual accommodation between
Hinduism and Buddhism, which was to culminate in the syncretic SivaBuddha cult. The first problem we must face here is that of the rather
careless way in which the ashes and bones in ritual deposits were dealt
with in the past. In the firm conviction that these were the remnants of
royal cremations, earlier scholars generally referred only to 'ashes and
charcoal' and 'bones', some of which were reported to be charred.
Prambanan, as we have seen, was an exceptional case, though this did not
prevent Ijzerman and others from referring to the ritual deposit boxes as
'urns' and even as 'coffins'.8 Unfortunately, with the demise of the
funerary theory, the Indonesian Archaeological Service seems to have lost
interest in the traces of organic material altogether. In recent reports on the
excavation of Candi Sambisari, a Hindu temple located about ten
kilometres west of Prambanan, the investigators refer to 'bones' without
further ado, which makes it impossible for us to decide whether these are of
one or more animals or of a human being. To be on the safe side, we shall
assume that the bones mentioned in the archaeological reports are those of
animals if they are referred to as such or are said to be 'partly burnt', as in
the case in Jolotundo and Trawulan in East Java (see Soekmono 1974:7894). Uncertain are the cases of Jabung (Mojokerto, East Java) and
Sambisari (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 at
the Gunongan, a mountain-shaped stone structure in Aceh, which may
predate 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 Central
Java is the poorly recorded discovery near Mount Merapi of a unique bronze skull
cup, a Tantric ritual object which probably dates from between the eighth and tenth
centuries 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 Indonesian
archaeologist Hariani Santiko (1987:370; 1990) suggests that the Kapalikas were
perhaps designated as Bhairavas, but this is contradicted by Zoetmulder's (1982 1:797)
mention of the term kapalikabrata as occurring in the Udyogaparwa. The earliest
written evidence on the Bhairavas dates from the East Javanese period.
s
This usage was first criticized by Bosch (1961:487, n. 3), who recommended the
use of a more neutral term like 'casket' rather than 'reliquary', as was done by Lamb in
his report on the excavation of Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat in Kedah.
9
Bondan, Latupapua and Djajadiningrat (1982:87) report that Candi Kalasan was
once 'surrounded by a series of stupas covering the buried ashes of monks, together
with some of their belongings', which were found at the site during excavations 'some
years ago', without any reference to excavation reports or any explanation why the
ashes of these monks would have been buried there, if indeed they were the ashes of
monks.

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Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

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 be
drawn about this. Nevertheless, some preliminary observations may be
made.
The first remarkable thing about the Javanese skeletons is that they
were all found in Central Java. This is difficult to reconcile with the
accepted ideas about the rise of Tantrism, especially the 'left-hand' or
demoniacal forms of Tantrism which existed from the beginning of the East
Javanese period onwards (that is, after the tenth century A.D.). The animal
and human skeletons found at Prambanan and Sojiwan hint at the
observance of 'left-hand' forms of Tantrism during the Central Javanese
period. It seems inevitable that this finding will have important implications
for art-historical research. Not only does it rebut categorical statements
about the absence of Tantric influences in Central Javanese art, but it also
calls for a rectification of euphemistic terms like 'bacchanal' for the Tantric
scnes of intoxicated dancers and musicians depicted on relifs at
Prambanan, Sewu, and Borobudur (see, e.g., Bernet Kempers 1950:25;
Bosch 1959:239; De Casparis 1956:266, n. 99).10 Even the strict symmetry
evidenced by the layout of the Prambanan temple complex may now be
interpreted in Tantric terms, considering that 'the notion of the bipolar
structure 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 found
on the site of a Buddhist temple, which would seem to contradict the oftrepeated assertion that 'Buddhism rejected sacrifice in principle' (Henniger
1987:555; see also Rhys Davids 1920:7; Kirfel 1951:46; Smith and Doniger
1989:214-5). The only other example known to us of human sacrifice in
Buddhism as practised in Indonesia12 is connected with the worship of
Heruka among the Batak of Sumatra. Heine-Geldern (1972:325) writes
about this: '[Heruka], one of the most terrible gods of Vajrayana Buddhism,

10
Clearly, alcohol drinking and indulgence in sensual pleasures can be qualified as
pahcamakara, or 'the rite of the Five M's' followed by Tantric adepts (Moens
1924:530). Hence, to say that the scnes of Padang Lawas were of a more demoniacal
variety of sadamada ('always drunk') than those of Borobudur is incompatible with
Bosch'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 of
the ritual deposits in Malayan temples in the light of the information yielded by
Prambanan. Besides, references to alchemy in various Buddhist scriptures suggest a
much earlier date for alchemical practices in the Indonesian archipelago than the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as assumed by Treloar on the basis of the evidence
supplied by Chandi Batu Pahat (see, e.g., Waley 1932:1102-3).
12
Examples from other areas are mentioned by Heine-Geldern (1917:30), according
to whom King Mindon, 'who was otherwise known as a strict Buddhist and opponent
of spirit veneration', had a pregnant woman sacrificed on the occasion of the founding
of the city of Mandalay in 1857. See also Zrcher (1959) for several examples of
such 'heterodox' sacrifices performed by Buddhist monks in early medieval China.

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

61

who was offered bloody sacrifices, probably even human ones. [...] This
worship of Heruka formed a point of contact between the Indian and the
indigenous rites [...] and gave impulse to the transformed interpretation of
Batak cannibalism into a magie rite of degenerate Buddhism.'13 We shall
look at this explanation more closely in a later section.
Given this evidence, we are unable to corroborate Henniger's
observation on 'tendencies to the spiritualization and ethicization of
sacrifice' in Indian religions, at least as far as those practised outside the
Indian sub-continent are concerned. Nor can we attest O'Connor's abovecited remarks about the process of substitution, which is also described by
Smith and Doniger in their valuable essay focused on sacrifice and
substitution: 'Under the influence of Buddhism or, more generally, of the
doctrine of ahimsd that became part of Hinduism and Buddhism, a
revisionary attitude toward the use of vegetable offerings came to the fore
[...] The carnivorous Vedic gods were replaced by strictly vegetarian Hindu
deities who are said to accept no blood offerings, but only rice, fruits, and
so forth [...] Hindus, Buddhists and Jains all rejected Vedic sacrifice,
especially the animal sacrifice; but they also dressed up their new doctrines
and religious activities in the guise of Vedic sacrifice' (Smith and Doniger
1989:214-5). Rather than substitution, the remains found in Prambanan
and Sojiwan testify to the side-by-side existence of human and various
animal sacrifices.
This does not negate the fact that at both temple sites the human
remains were found not in the main temple, but rather at or near a
subsidiary one. It seems quite likely to us that the officiating priests, in their
choice of location, wished to give covert expression to the subordinate
nature of the role played by human sacrifice in the ritual of consecration of
the temple. In support of this argument, we would cite von Glasenapp, one
of the few scholars to appreciate the less attractive side of Vajrayana
Buddhism, including its sanctioning of animal sacrifices and even murder
(von Glasenapp [1940]: 145-6). Von Glasenapp noted that in later
Bengalese and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism an increasingly important role
was assigned to all kinds of terrifying gods and demons, to whom
evidently even meat and alcohol were offered. Because this took place
mostly at night and, furthermore, not in the inner sanctum but in an
adjoining area, von Glasenapp inferred that the cult could be characterized
as 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 rise
of an indigenized form of Tantric Buddhism during the East Javanese period.
However, in the case of Padang Lawas, where Heruka was worshipped, the 13thcentury dating of the temple seems to be the result of a circular argument, as this date
was said to have been arrived at 'on account of these obvious traces of late tantric
Buddhism' (Bosch, as cited by Heine-Geldern 1972:325).

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Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

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 the
sacrifcial remains at Prambanan and Sojiwan that there must have been a
very close similarity between Hinduism and Buddhism in the Central
Javanese period. This conclusion corroborates Sarkar's (1967) theory
about 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 ninth
centuries. Support for this theory is also provided by the architectural and
stylistic similarities between Prambanan and some of the neighbouring
Buddhist temples that have long since been observed by many
archaeologists. Whether these similarities can indeed be taken as evidence
for the assumed 'process of approximation' between Buddhism and
Hinduism, however, depends on the question of when and exactly how
they came about. This problem having been dealt with elsewhere (Jordaan
1993; in press), we will here only reiterate the supposition that Buddhist
influences in the art of Prambanan are most readily explained in terms of
the involvement of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, which seems only
conceivable in an atmosphere of religious tolerance and mutual
accommodation.l4
Now we can adduce, in addition to the sacrifcial remains, the evidence
of recent excavations at two different temple sites close to Prambanan.
These unearthed among other things a small silver statue of Siva at Candi
Sewu, a Buddhist temple, and a small bronze figure of Vajrapani at Candi
Sambisari, the Hindu temple already referred to above.15 These finds are not
unique. Brandes (1887:24), for instance, reported the discovery in Central
Java of a silver statuette of Durga with the Buddhist credo 'ye dharmmd
hetuprabhawd ..." inscribed in Nagar script on its back. More recently,
Fontein (1990) mentioned the discovery in Surocolo, Central Java, of a jar
containing 19 small bronze statues of Buddhist divinities as well as three
others, one of which represented Siva. Judging by workmanship and size,
Fontein did not believe it probable that these all formed part of the same
set. Concerning the Siva statuette in particular, he concluded that 'it could
not have been part of the original Buddhist ensemble, which constitutes
14
By those archaeologists and art historians who subscribe to the conflict model first
put 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 of
the Sailendras' mode of discourse' by the Hindu Javanese rulers after the expulsion of
the 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 rather
vaguely described as an arca wanita (statue of a woman) but which may well
represent the Buddhist goddess Tara, as she displays the varadamudra with her right
hand and holds a (utpalal) flower in her left hand, which are both of them attributes
of Tara par excellence (Ghosh 1980:31).

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

63

the remnants of a three-dimensional mandala in which a large number of

Buddhist divinities were arranged ...' (Fontein 1990:223), obviously
excluding the possibility of a Hindu deity being used in a Buddhist
mandala. Lokesh Chandra, however, pointed out that the Siva and the
other two statues excluded by Fontein could have fitted quite well into a
Buddhist mandala, as did the five bronze images representing Brahma,
Kuvera, Indra, Yama and Varuna that were found underneath the pedestal
of 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 full
justice to the ideas of the Javanese of the times, for whom such
terminological distinctions may have been merely formal and relative. Both
early Hinduism and Buddhism were flexible enough to accommodate and
utilize each other's icons, as well as those of other religions (cf. Ghosh
1980:22; Bayly 1986). This kind of situation would be consonant with
Stutterheim's view that 'the designation "Buddhism" is quite misleading
for Java. It would be better t speak of Tantrism on a Buddhist basis. But
Tantrism is as much Saivite as Buddhist and the difference is more one of
accent 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 Hnayana, but
represented some later development of Mahayana, probably Mantrayana
or Vajrayana. In this connection we would call to mind the curious report
by a Chinese pilgrim, Hian-tsang, that the Hinayana monks from Orissa
denounced their colleagues in Nalanda the famous centre of Mahayana

Buddhist learning that maintained close links with the Sailendras in

Indonesia - as heretics, saying that they did not differ in any way from the
Saivite Kapalikas (see Kern 1888:156). Of course, one might question the

adequacy of this single piece of - possibly biased - information as

evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in Nalanda. Indeed, as
Snellgrove asserted, '[i]t would be quite erroneous to assume that the
literal contents of the tantras describe the type of life led by the monks of
the great monasteries of Vajrasana, Vikramasila and Nalanda. The references
are all to yogins who wander free from all ties, coming together with their
fellows only for the seasons and at the places of pilgrimage' (Snellgrove
1957:87). 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 was
until quite recently considered to be inconceivable. As far as religious
16
We hesitate, however, to accept Lokesh Chandra's (1995:134) suggestion that 'Their
workmanship 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 contexts
are 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.

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Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

doctrine is concerned, it is relevant to realize that both these temples are

located in the same area as Kalasan, which was known in old Indian texts
as 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 would
have allowed the reciprocal influencing that would account for the
regional 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 (Zrcher 1959:26, 37,
55). Even so, it should be noted that the distinctions between centre and
periphery, Sanskritic India and its 'adaptations' abroad, and orthodoxy
and heterodoxy are not as clear-cut and rigid as they may at first appear to
be. For instance, Nalanda did not exist in splendid isolation but was
located in or close to those areas in north-east India (Bihar, Bengal, and
Assam) that were of old associated with kidnapping and human sacrifice
(Gait 1898; Joshi 1892). It lay close not only to the well-known Kali temple
at Kalighat, where in the days of Hian-tsang Hindus may still have
practised human sacrifice, but also to the aboriginal tribes who had just
been converted to Hinduism or Buddhism and who were still in a process
of transition, trying, with the help of the priests and monks of these
religions, to bring their old customs in line with the dogmas of the new
creeds (see, for instance, Van Kooij 1972:8, 32). It is quite possible,
therefore, that the Orissan Hnayanists' accusation was really levelled at
these monks. Perhaps the latter did not leave it at this, moreover, and, as
some scholars have argued, the Hindus in turn adopted the practice of
bloody sacrifices as a result of these contacts. Gait, for instance, writes that:
'The terrible goddess [Kali] whose cult is described in the Puranas and
Tantras is [...] a comparatively recent addition to the Hindu pantheon. It is
believed that her worship and the bloody orgies with which it was
attended were adopted from the religion of non-Aryan tribes with whom
the Hindus came into contact on the north-east frontier of India' (Gait
1913:851). Thus Tantrism served as a vehicle by which foreign and exotic
elements made their way into Hinduism (Eliade 1960:207). Heine-Geldern
developed this argument a step further by pointing to a connection
between human sacrifice, head-hunting, and a so-called 'matriarchal'
ideology in these tribal societies. The survival of some of these archaic
elements in India itself may then have facilitated the advance of Tantric
Saktism 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 of
prehistorie customs entailing human sacrifices and the cult of skulls'
(Eliade 1960:299). This revalorization contributed to the introduction of
new types of bloody sacrifice, which had fallen into oblivion with the
decline of the Vedic religion (Basham 1967:336-7; Van Kooij 1972:21).

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

65

Several mutually contradictory processes may therefore have gone on

simultaneously in one and the same locality or society: the processes of
substitution and replacement, leading to vegetarianism and asceticism
among some groups, and the processes of either revalorization or
devalorization of bloody sacrifices among others. Thus, Heine-Geldern's
explanation of the Padang Lawas human sacrifice as 'a transformation of
Batak cannibalistic customs into a magie rite by a degenerate form of
Buddhism' seems to lend itself particularly well to restatement in terms of
revalorization 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 in
Indian Hindu-Buddhist Tantric texts and into the supposed role of the
Kapalikas in the transmission of the temple ritual to Central Java, we will
try to investigate the nature of the local traditions that favoured the
adoption of this cult and provided the officiating priests with the means
with which to bring it into harmony with the ideology of the recipint
culture. All references to such former indigenous ideas, whether these were
ancient Batak or Javanese, tended to be received with the utmost reserve,
if not scepticism, by Krom and Bosch. Although Bosch himself, as regards
the extraordinary development of the cult of royalty in ancient Java and
elsewhere in Southeast Asia, had recognized the possibility that this might

be explained by the fact 'that there were among the Javanese, Khmer and
Chams certain individuals who had fleshed out foreign-looking rituals with
notions derived from their own native world view and in this way arrived
at a syncretism of the cult of royalty and indigenous ancestral worship'
(Bosch 1954:8), he never ceased to doubt the usefulness of statements of
this kind. It was his opinion that, 'since we know nothing of what went on
in the minds of the individuals concerned, it seems safer to relegate this
kind of assumptions to the realm of useless speculation' (Bosch 1954:9). n
Bosch can not have suspected that, for an explanation of the Javanese
royalty cult, it would nevertheless have been useful to seriously consider
such a synthesis of Indic rituals and native ideas, and that the idea of this
could even have been made plausible to a certain extent. A point of
departure now is provided by the human sacrifice at Prambanan and the
Javanese culik belief that was already mentioned by Stutterheim. Recent
research in other parts of Indonesia has shown that the rumours of
kidnappings in connection with construction sacrifices are not just a
product of Javanese folk-belief but are a pan-Indonesian phenomenon of
quite long standing (see Barnes 1993 for a well-considered recapitulation
17

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

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Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

of the debate on this in the journal Oceania). Considerations of space

permit us to discuss only two conclusions of recent research on the subject,
relating to the political dimension of the phenomenon and concerning the
types and the purposes of construction sacrifices. We will then look at the
human sacrifice at Prambanan again in the light of the information
uncovered.
First let us look at the political dimension of the practice of human
sacrifice, for insights into which we are indebted to Barnes. His analysis
has lent the subject a greater depth than any of those of the other
participants in the debate, who only mentioned the alleged involvement of
the Dutch colonial and the Indonesian national governments - a projection
of their informants' limited historical consciousness. According to Barnes,
the phenomenon of human sacrifice should be related to political power as
such: 'If a state or leader is potent, then presumably it or he can afford to
sacrifice human heads when important projects are undertaken, such as
opening fields or building temples' (Barnes 1993:155). Barnes' important
claim that 'rather than being a new phenomenon and the product of the
colonial era, these rumors may well have been characteristic of Indonesia
from ancient times ...' (Barnes 1993:146), however, is not as fully
developed as it might have been had he known of the evidence that lay
buried in Central Javanese temples and Dutch archaeological reports. In
the light of this evidence, some archaeologists and historians may find it
useful to link Barnes' hypothesis to other recent theories in their
disciplines, such as those about the 'Big Man' or 'man of prowess' and
about 'localization', particularly in connection with the Javanese and
other Southeast Asian cults of royalty.
Second, let us look at the problem with the above-mentioned and other
articles on construction sacrifice to which we drew attention earlier,
namely the failure of the authors, when talking about construction, to
differentiate between the construction of a bridge or a road and that of a
single family dwelling, a longhouse, or a [village] temple. It is our
contention that there is an essential difference between the different
categories of construction and that this difference is reflected in the kind of
offering at each. In the case of the first category it is the appeasement of
any spirits whose habitat is in any way disturbed by the construction
activities that is important, and in that of the second the animation of the
structure by means of a sacrificial victim's soul in order to establish
favourable relations with benevolent ancestors or other supernatural
beings. Our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrifices can
be easily brought into relation with the difference in religio-political
importance of the construction: the more important the structure, the more
elaborate the sacrifice, and the slighter the opportunity for substituting
18

The authors wish to thank Rosemary Robson for drawing their attention to the
articles in Oceania.

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

67

animal or human offerings with vegetable ones. Formulated as a general

rule, 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 see
whether our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrifice
corresponds in any way with the ideas of the builders of this temple
complex. A unique opportunity for this is provided by a stone inscription
recording the inauguration of this temple complex in A.D. 856. We will
proceed from De Casparis' epigraphic analysis of this inscription (De
Casparis 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 sanctuary
had been completed in its divine splendour [...] there was no danger from
the wicked ones, for they had all received their due; then the grounds were
inaugurated 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 to
the wicked spirits (bhtas etc), who might disturb the ceremonies if they
were not satisfied. These "gifts" include caru, for instance, rice strewn on
the ground, and perhaps even meat for the Rdksas etc.' (De Casparis
1956:328, n. 96.) As we have argued, the 'satisfaction' of potentially evil
spirits is the main objective of appeasement rituals, which constitute a
distinct type of construction sacrifice. Regrettably, the inscription does not
yield decisive information about the kinds of offerings that were used for
the appeasement of these malevolent spirits. Still, we feel that De Casparis
is unnecessarily cautious when he says that, in addition to food, the
offerings may have consisted of meat for the rdksas, while he was in a
position to know about Ijzerman's discovery of the remains of a dog, an
ant-eater, and various birds.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the inscription refers to 'the wicked
ones who had all received their due' without any further specification, is
that in this way the Hindu priests were able to put a slight upon the
indigenous element in the consecration ceremony. By using the term
'wicked ones', or demons, they may have tried to convey their opinion
about the lesser status of the local gods and spirits, something that has also
been suggested by Van Kooij (1972:21) in connection with the attitude of
Vedic priests towards the gods of the non-Aryan folk religion. Similarly, by
using the phrase 'their due', the priests did not have to bother to mention
the curious set of animals that were sacrificed, which seem very difficult to
match with the kind of animals (horses, buffaloes, goats, sheep, fowl)
commonly immolated in Indic sacrifces.19
19

Unfortunately, because of the paucity of the data, it is impossible to say what, if

any, were the symbolic considerations in the selection of the sacrificial animals, except
to define these in only very general terms such as the oppositions wild/tame, land

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Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing

An interesting question is whether the offering of the 'flesh' of these

animals can be equated with that of the two human beings. Confirmation
of the relevance of the distinction between them might be provided by the
final sentence of the same stanza, were it not for De Casparis' omission to
reconstruct the sentence fully because of uncertainty about the meaning of
some 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 parallel
between the earlier mentioned offerings for the lower spirits and certain
other ones intended for the gods, noting: 'One might connect trima
harang huma sahiyang, "the rice-field with [sic] the Gods received ..."
{harang in the meaning of harng, "charcoal", does not make sense), I
have no idea what humet could mean' (De Casparis 1956:328, n. 97). In
view of these diffculties, an epigraphical re-analysis of this inscription is
very much needed.
Whatever the case may be, the sacrifices here apparently were aimed not
only at appeasing local spirits, but also at animating the temple structure.
The appeasement of spirits in Javanese ruwatan (exorcism) ceremonies is
generally supposed to take place before the ground is broken for the
construction work. For this reason one might suppose that the offerings
the remains of which were found in the temple grounds served this
purpose. Animation, on the other hand, involves the infusion of a live spirit
into the structure itself, which could have been accomplished by burial in
the temple pit. We are supported in this inference by the information
supplied in an earlier stanza of the text, which mentions a tree, Ki Muhr
by name, which has come to full maturity as a result of its proximity to the
temple. Literally translated, the 16th stanza reads: 'There also was a
Tanjung tree [...] Ki Muhr, the stem was only one year old; the
neighbourhood of the Lord was the reason of its matchless growth at the
Eastern side; its beauty was extraordinary, equal to the (divine) Pdrijdtaka
tree; 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' (De
Casparis 1956:323). That it is indeed animation, comparable to the 'internal
vivifying and spiritual force' which O'Connor attributed to the ritual
deposits, that is concerned here is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on
'the neighbourhood of the Lord' rather than on the proximity of the
temple as such.
It is worthwhile to dweil a little longer on the statement that the tree is
associated with the descent of a god (or gods). According to the
inscription, 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 goldfoil objects bearing the names of Varuna, god of the sea, and Parvata, lord of the
mountain.

Human Sacrifice at Prambanan

69

De Casparis, Tanjung trees (Mimusops elengi) are frequently mentioned in

Old Javanese literature as being planted near temple sites and in Javanese
royal courtyards (De Casparis 1956:304, n. 94). Though only a Tanjung
tree, its beauty was so exceptional as to prompt comparison to the
Parijata(ka), one of the five divine trees produced during the Churning of
the Ocean (cf. Stutley 1977:220). What is more important, the tree is
referred to also as pariawataran, i.e., 'place for an avatdra', which De
Casparis has taken as 'the place where the God would descend when
coming to Earth, using it both as a ladder and as a payung [parasol]' (De
Casparis 1956:304,324).
Elsewhere, Jordaan (1991:169) has argued that the special character of
the tree probably has something to do with the fact that the inauguration
of 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 curious
statement in the inscription that the tree, planted in front of the temple as a
young tree, 'its stem being only one year old' had grown to divine
proportions. The connection with the deceased king is also corroborated
by the name of the tree, Ki Muhr, which may be a pun on Ki Luhur,
'Venerable Ancestor'. The doubl link of the tree with a god and a deified
royal ancestor is quite significant, justifying our surmise of a close
relationship, if not complete identity, between the god (or gods) and the
ancestor(s).20 Not only is the Tree of Life as a place for the gods and
ancestors known as well in other parts of Indonesia (see, e.g., Stutterheim
1926:347, Aichele 1928:38, Scharer 1966), but this idea also seems to be
compatible with ancient Euro-Asian, and even Vedic, notions (see, e.g.,
Bosch 1948, Sauv 1970:182-3). Whatever the Indian parallels, taken
together, these data are a strong confirmation of the hypothesis of a
syncretic adaptation of the Indic cult of royalty to indigenous Javanese
ancestral beliefs - the very hypothesis which Bosch once relegated to the
realm of useless speculation.
20

See further Ras (1968:175-6) for a discussion of a similar Borneo folk-motif

linking the growth of another large kind of shade tree with the fate of the local
dynasty.

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