The third Journey of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) to Java, 5 May – 24 July, 1901
News source :
The third Journey of King
Chulalongkorn (Rama V) to Java, 5 May –
24 July, 1901
King Chulalongkorn was the eldest son of H.M. King Mongkut (Rama IV)
and Her Majesty Queen Debsirindra. He was born on 20 September 1853. He
succeeded his father on 1 October 1868 as King of both Northern and
Southern Siam and all its dependencies which at that
included Laos Chiang, Laos Kao, Malay people, Karean etc.
The first journey of King Chulalongkorn to Java was on March, 9
th – April, 15
th , 1871. the second
was 9 May – 12 August, 1896.
6 July. At 8 a.m. the King Chulalongkorn
accompanied by Dr. Groneman and many archeological society members took a train
to Prambanan station and continued by carriage to visit the ancient shrine. His
Majesty ascended the Siva shrine in the middle, which was the most complete
one, but found that some parts of the wall with the Ramayana reliefs were
disarranged or misplaced. There was a Ganesha statue but it was smaller and not
good as the one in Singosari. His Majesty commented that Dr. Groneman could
give a good presentation “but it was no fun this time because he had become my
student so there was nothing on which to
disagree with each other.”
At
4 p.m. His Majesty visited the
Jogjakarta
Palace privately to see the royal weapon
collection. From there, the King called at the Resident’s house which was
decorated with many good Buddha statues. To his surprise the King noticed that
“now the Dutch take better care of the statues.”
7 July. About 8 a.m., His Majesty left the
hotel to go to the station, where the Sultan and dignitaries in full
uniform were waiting. The King thanked
everyone then traveled by tram to Muntilan station. Attended by the
Assistant Resident, His Majesty rode in
a four horse drawn carriage in a procession to Mendut, a Buddhist stone temple
which had beautiful reliefs. The Mendut area had undergone some significants
changes. It was surrounded by a fence. Being under restoration, there were many
sheds for workers and stone storage.
Inside
the building was dark and needed light because they had repaired the roof. On
the last visit the roof was half damaged and His Majesty had made a suggestion
that it should be repaired for, as noted in the diary, “if another eartquake
occurs, the roof would fall onto the statues and break them. It would be a
great pity because the three statues are extremely valuable.”
Source:
Imtip Pattajoti Suharto, The
Journey to java by a Siamese King.
Jakarta : The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Thailand, 2001.
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