25 May 2007 (Antara) – UNESCO says that the Prambanan Temples of Java, damaged during the 2006 earthquake, will need at least another five years and some 6 million dollars for restoration.
Quake-hit Indonesian temples need years of repairs
Damage to one of Indonesia’s most spectacular temple complexes caused by last year’s devastating Java earthquake was so extensive that repairs will take at least five years, UNESCO says.
Some of the temples at Prambanan are threatening to topple and restoration of the entire Hindu compound, the largest in the country, will be slow and difficult, according to the UN culture agency.
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Repairs are expected to start later this year. Experts from UNESCO, the Indonesian government and other agencies have spent 12 months conducting extensive damage assessments, and devising an action plan.
Gurung said a big concern was the depth of cracks in the temples, which may have severely weakened their structure.
“When you look at the physical damage, falling stones, falling pinnacles, broken stones, we can place them back. But the serious part is the internal structural cracks, we don’t know how deep (they are),” she said.
“Some temples have inclined, they are tilting,” she added.
Read more about the restoration work on the Prambanan Temples.
Books on the Prambanan Temples include:
– Prambanan by Jhonny S.
