Source: Deutsche Press – Agentur
WEST JAVA, INDONESIA, September 3, 2002: A Cangkuang villager hunting for termites under a tree discovered a sharp hand-carved stone. Further investigation revealed that the location was the site of an ancient Hindu temple. The site is especially significant as the archeologists are hoping to obtain more information about the Sundanese kingdoms in West Java. Tony Djubiantono, head of West Java’s Bandung Archeology Agency says, “Based on a preliminary finding of various remains there are indications that this is a Hindu temple built in the seventh or eighth century.” The article says, “Buddhism and Hinduism were Indonesia’s first world religions, popular among the first kingdoms of Java until the 14th and 15th centuries when Islam started to gain a greater foothold in the archipelago.” Djubiantono further describes the finding of such a temple, “as spectacular and very significant for recovering the missing history of the so-called Tatar Sunda, or Sunda territory.”