PRINCIPLES OF SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT AND ORIENTATION IN THE ANCIENT HINDU AND
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE OF INDONESIA: AN EXAMPLE OF THE PERSISTENCY OF THE
DONG-SON HERITAGE

By Marijke Klokke

The aim of this research is to investigate the principles on which spatial
arrangement and orientation of the ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples in
Indonesia was based.
The temples to be studied date from between the 8th and 15th centuries. They
are the foundations of the ruling classes in various parts of Indonesia
(Sumatra, Java, and Bali especially), who had then, or shortly before that
time, adopted Hinduism or Buddhism as their religion. The foundation of temple
was an act of religious merit, and it also was a source of social status and
political authority.
In the 8th century this led to a new type of construction: the Hindu and
Buddhist temples built of fairly durable material. Nobody knows who was
responsible for the building plans. However, it is very obvious that there was
borrowing from a form of Indian temple architecture, which was then itself not
very old, but to which design changes were made.
In the Indian architectural manuals, alongside a great many other
prescriptions, one finds rules relating to the spatial arrangement and
orientation of the temple. The initial steps in the research programme
proposed here have shown that these architectural principles were only
partially adopted. As well as the principles of spatial arrangement and
orientation borrowed from the Indian tradition, use was made of different
principles engendered by an indigenous building tradition which was rooted in
the Dong-Son culture.
The research fits with two recent theories which refer to the relationship
between Indian and local Indonesian culture in the early period of Indonesian
history. The first of these is the 'localization' theory formulated by O.W.
Wolters (1982). This contains a reinterpretation and a reformulation of Indian
concepts in the local context. The second theory with which this research
concurs takes as its premise a more pronounced continuity between South-East
Asian prehistory and the early historical period than has hitherto been
postulated. This has been shown in relation to religious practices (Soekmono
1974 and De Casparis 1986) and in the formation of political structures (Kulke
1986). The aim of the research which is being introduced here is likewise to
show that in the Hindu-Buddhist architectural traditions there was also more
continuity with the older indigenous traditions (Domenig 1980, Izikowitz and
Sorensen 1982, Waterson 1991), especially in the field of spatial arrangement
as this is expressed in the narrative reliefs on the temple and in the
orientation of the temple towards particular features in the landscape. The
research can also later be extended to, for example, Khmer temple architecture
in Cambodia.

M.J. Klokke (1958) studied Indian and Iranian Languages at Leiden University
from 1976 to 1983. In 1990 she received her PhD from that same university for
a thesis entitled 'The Tantri Reliefs in Ancient Javanese Candi'. She has
published extensively on Asian Archeology and is presently lecturer at Leiden
University.