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PEJENG
There
are no great ruins here or ancient palaces.
The remains of the old kingdom are mostly
statues kept in many temples. One of the
most impressive antiquities in Indonesia,
however, is the monumental bronze drum called
the "Moon of Pejeng", loftily
enshrined upon a high pavilion in the Pura
Penataran Sasih. It is a thousand years
older than the Pejeng kingdom, for it survives
from the Bronze Age in Indonesia which began
about 300 B.c.

First
made known to the West in a book published
as long ago as 1 705, it is the largest
drum in the world to be cast as a single
piece. Shaped like an hour glass and over
3 meters long, the drum is of a rare type,
decorated with eight stylized heads. A stone
mold for a similar found in Bali proves
that a highly sophisticated technique of
bronze casting was used in ancient Indonesia.
The
old Balinese, however, tell a different
each year instead of twelve. One night,
one o the moons fell to the earth and was
caught in a tree. It shone so brilliantly
that it prevented the local thieves from
their nocturnal depredations. The boldest
among them determined to extinguish the
light.
He
climbed up the tree and urinated on it.
The "moon" burst, killing the
thief, and fell to the ground in the form
of a drum, explaining why it is now broken
at the base. The large stones lined in back
of the pavilion are said to be fallen black
stars. Besides in the Pura Penataran Sasih,
which was the state temple of Pejeng, important
antiquities are found in three other temples.
Pura Kebo Edan (Crazy Buffalo) houses a
giant statue 3.6 meters tall. In Pura Puser
ing Jagat (Navel of the World) a remarkable
stone vessel tells in carving the story
of the Churning of the Ocean by the gods
and demons to obtain the elixir of life.
Two kilometers east of Pejeng is the old
monastery of tale: once there were thirteen
moons in the sky Goa Garba. |