The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

VII.] JAVA. 81hill, and consists of a central dome and seven ranges of terracedwalls covering the slope of the liill and forming open gallerieseach below the other, and communicating by steps and gateways.The central dome is fifty feet in diameter ; around it is a triplecircle of seventy-two towers, and the whole building is sixliundred and twenty feet square, and about one hundred feethigh. In the terrace walls are niches containing cross-leggedfigures larger than life to the number of about four hundred, andboth sides of all the terrace walls are covered with bas-reliefscrowded with figures, and carved in hard stone ; and which musttherefore occupy an extent of nearly three miles in length ! Theamount of human labour and skill expended on the GreatPyramids of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared withthat required to complete this sculptured hill-temple in theinterior of Java.GuNONG Prau.—About forty miles south-west of Samarang,on a mountain called Gunong Prau, an extensive plateau iscovered with ruins. To reach tliese temples four flights of stonesteps were made up the mountain from opjjosite directions, eachflight consisting of more than a thousand steps. Traces of nearlyfour hundred temples ha^e been found here, and manj' (perhapsall) were decorated witli rich and delicate sculjDtures. Thewhole country between this and Brambanam, a distance of sixtymiles, abounds with ruins ; so that fine sculjjtured images maybe seen lying in the ditches, or built into the walls of enclosures.In the eastern part of Java, at Kediri and in Malang, there areequally abundant traces of antiquity, but the buildings themselveshave been mostly destroyed. Sculptured figures, however,abound ; and the ruins of forts, palaces, batlis, aqueducts andtemples, can be everywhere traced. It is altogether contrary tothe plan of this book to describe what I have not myself seen ;but, having been led to mention them, I felt bound to do somethingto call attention to these marvellous works of art. One isoverwhelmed by the contemplation of tliese innvnnerable sculptures,worked with delicacy and artistic feeling in a hard,intractable, trachytic rock, and all found in one tropical island.What could have been the state of society, what the amount ofpopulation, what the means of subsistence which rendered suchgigantic works possible, will, joerhaps, ever remain a mystery ;and it is a wonderful exami^le of the power of religious ideas insocial life, that in the vei\y country where, five hundred yearsago, these grand woi'ks were being yearly executed, the Itihabitantsnow only build rude houses of bamboo and thatch,and look upon these relics of their forefathers with ignorantamazement, as the undoubted productions of giants or of demons.It is much to be regretted that the Dutch Government do nottake vigorous steps for the preservation of these ruins from thedestroying agency of tropical vegetation ; and for tlie collectionof the fine sculjjtures which are everywliere scattej-ed over theland.