Catatan Rhino

The Borobudur temple is the world’s biggest Buddhist monument, an ancient site widely considered to be one of the world’s seven wonders. In the 1970’s the Indonesian Government and UNESCO worked together to restore Borobudur to its former majesty The restoration took eight years to complete and today Borobudur is one of Indonesia and the world’s most valuable treasures. The temple is decorated with stone carvings in bas-relief representing images from the life of Buddha. Commentators claim that this is the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world, unsurpassed in artistic merit. This monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. As visitors begin their journey at the base of the temple, they make their way to the top of the monument through the three levels of Budhist cosmology, Kamadhatu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). As visitors walk to the t...

The recent resurgence in inter-communal violence in western Myanmar, forced forced hundreds of people to sail to safety on their fishing boats. From students demonstrating in Aceh to lawmakers and netizens, calls are increasing among Indonesians for the government to come to the aid of the persecuted Muslim Rohingya. But the Indonesian government has so far remained firm it can’t accept any more than those already on its shores. In Aceh, about a hundred students demonstrated on Tuesday, May 19, asking the government to rescue the Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.  On Change.org, a petition initiated on March 17 asking President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to allow the Rohingya refugees still out at sea to disembark on Indonesian land gathered more than 13,500 signatures in less than two days. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative Thomas Vargas met with Vice President Jusuf Kalla to discuss the influx of Rohingya refugees who reached shore i...