Dream leads miner to 'artifacts'

Sosok Dewa Brahma.

The Jakarta Post has published this story on March 02, 2007

The pointed end of Maksum's pickax stuck in the ground when it hit a hard object, a stone. Maksum, a resident of Besuk in Kediri regency, East Java, missed a beat.

"Everything I had seen in my dream has come true. There is something under the ground," Maksum said in retelling the story of his discovery to The Jakarta Post.

Slowly, the 48-year-old Maksum dug deeper with both hands round the hard object. The original shape of the stone, which later revealed itself to be that of a crown, began to emerge.

"I immediately called my friends and asked them to help me. Shortly afterwards, we saw it was a statue with four heads. It was the statue of the god Brahma," he said.

This discovery, which took place on Jan. 20 at about 5 p.m., remains fresh in the mind of Maksum. And with it, the sand miner proved the truth behind the spiritual guidance he received in a dream.

Several nights before he unearthed the statue of Brahma, Maksum said, he had a recurring dream in which someone of Indian descent took him for a walk.

This person, which he believes represented Brahma, took him along a rice field in Gayang village of Gurah subdistrict in Kediri, where Maksum quarries sand.

"Strangely, in my dream, this place turned into a kingdom with a palace and a royal bath for the kings and his children," Maksum said, adding that the beauty of the kingdom made him reluctant to return to the "real" world. "It sounds like a fantasy, but that was my dream," said Maksum, who now wears his udeng, a traditional East Javanese headdress for men.

The udeng has cultural ties to Hinduism, with the half-moon shape of its crown thought to symbolize Brahma, and part of its function is to focus the "third eye".

In this dream, Brahma told Maksum that he would be "reborn" around the night of the Javanese New Year, often called the Eve of the 1st of Suro.

"I did not tell this dream to anybody because I was sure nobody would believe me. Only when the statue was discovered did I tell people about this dream," Maksum said.

The statue of Brahma was thus excavated from its earth-bound tome. Standing a meter tall, the statue depicts Brahma meditating in the lotus position atop a square base. The four heads of Brahma face the four cardinal directions, and royal ornaments adorn its crown, throat, torso, and arms. A kettle is carved to the left of the statue.

The statue's discovery has prompted the search for other artifacts, and local residents continued digging at the site where the statue had been found.

In less than a month, several other statues were also unearthed. The statue of Lembu Andini, or Nandi, was discovered to the south of the Brahma statue. Another statue, of the goddess Durga Mahesa Sura Mandini, was found lying to the east of Lembu Andini.

"We have also discovered a rectangular lingga (phallus) statue at a point of some distance from the rest of the statues," Maksum added.

The discovery of a number of these statues in Kediri has prompted the Trowulan Center for the Rescue of Archeological Relics (BP3) to study the artifacts. BP3 has sent a research team to the site of the discovery for reconstruction and further excavation. This research will also prove the authenticity of the statues, which some believe to be counterfeits.

To the naked eye the statues look like new, which has led several Kediri residents to doubt their authenticity as ancient artifacts.

"They look like new statues. The side of the statue is clean and you can also tell from the type of the stone," said Eddy, a Kediri resident.

Unfortunately, the BP3 research has come across an obstacle. The team that arrived at the site on Feb. 16 to take possession of the Brahma, Lembu Andini and Durga Mahesa Sura Mandini statues was rejected by the local villagers who had discovered them.

The villagers feared that the original statues would be confiscated and replaced by imitations.

Following a dialog between villagers and the BP3 team, the villagers finally allowed the team to take one statue -- on condition that they issued a letter of agreement for its return after a fortnight.

"This Friday, the statue of Brahma will be returned to Gayam village," said Maksum. After the team returns this statue, they will be permitted to examine the other statues.

The research team has been studying the statue at the BP3 office in Mojokerto.

Prapto Saptono, head of the center's preservation section, which also determines how an artifact can be used to benefit society, said additional studies on the pieces would follow.

News about the discovery has spread far and wide. The residents of Kediri, a regency noted for its tofu and located some 150 km from Surabaya, has come in droves to visit the Gayam site.

Meanwhile, the local media have blown up the story so that this area, formerly deserted, has become crowded with outsiders.

The site of the discovery, which is situated in a sugarcane plantation, is now full of street vendors selling their wares to visitors.

"This is a blessing for the locals. This popular market gives extra income to many of the villagers, who are jobless or who work only during the sugarcane harvest," said Suwono, a Gayam villager.

Visitors pay a fee of Rp 1,000 per person for entry to the site, and a Rp 2,000 parking fee for motorcycles. A voluntary donation is requested of visitors upon reaching the actual site where the statues were unearthed -- usually around Rp 1,000. In addition, visitors may take home a plastic bag of "holy" water from the Sendang Tirto well for another Rp 1,000.

In a day, the village collects about Rp 200,000 from the site, and even more on Sundays. In a single month, the village can collect some Rp 4 million for its treasury after wages have been paid to those assigned to manage the area.

"This money is for the village treasury and we collect them from visitors without any force," Suwono added.