Four Stupas in The Muara Takus Temple Complex, Following Their Names

Photo Source: Tripadvisor

INDEPHEDIA.com - The Muara Takus Temple Complex is a historical heritage located in Muara Takus Village, District XIII Koto Kampar, Kampar Regency, Riau Province, Indonesia.

This complex of Buddhist sacred buildings surrounded by walls is the largest on the island of Sumatra in the form of a stupa.

Within the Muara Takus Temple Complex there are four temples or stupas, namely the Mahligai Stupa, the Youngest Stupa, the Old Stupa and the Palangka Stupa.

Mahligai Temple – Mahligai Temple or Mahligai Stupa, the temple building which is considered the most intact. This building is divided into three parts, namely the legs, body and roof.

This stupa has a rectangular foundation and measures 9.44 meters x 10.6 meters, and has 28 sides surrounding the base of the temple with the entrance on the south side.

In the past, there was a rock at the top of the tower with oval leaf paintings and reliefs around it.

This building allegedly underwent two stages of development. This conjecture is based on the fact that inside the foot of the current building there is a profile of the old foot before the building was enlarged.

Old Temple - Old Temple or Sulung Temple is the largest building among other buildings on the Muara Takus Temple site.

This building is divided into three parts, namely the legs, body and roof. The legs are divided in two.

The size of the foot of the first Old Temple is 2.37 meters high, while the second has a height of 1.98 meters.

The entrance stairs are on the West and East sides which are decorated with lion statues. The width of each ladder is 3.08 meters and 4 meters.

Judging from the rest of the building, the base has a circular shape with a diameter of about 7 meters and a height of 2.50 meters.

The size of the foundation of this temple building is 31.65 meters x 20.20 meters. The foundation of the temple has 36 sides that surround the base. The top of this building is a roundabout.

There is no empty space at all on the inside of the Eldest Temple. The building is made of bricks with the addition of sandstone.

Sandstone was only used to make the corners of the building, pilasters and seams that border the lower framing of the temple's foot and the body of the foot and the boundaries of the body of the foot and the upper frame of the foot.

Based on research in 1983 it is known that this temple has undergone at least two stages of development.

An indication of this can be seen from the existence of a building profile which is covered by another wall with a different profile shape.

Youngest Temple – Youngest (Indonesian: Bungsu) Temple is not much different from the Eldest Temple. It's just that at the top is rectangular.

Youngest Temple stands to the west of Mahligai Temple with a size of 13.20 x 16.20 meters.

To the east there are small stupas and there is a staircase made of white stone.

The foundation section of the building has 20 sides, with a plane at the top. In that field there is a lotus.

In the soil, three pieces of gold were found and another piece was found at the bottom of the hole, which was etched with pictures of the tricula and three Nagari letters.

At the bottom of the hole, a square piece of stone was found which, on the underside, was etched with a tricula and nine letters.

The building is divided into two parts according to the type of materials used. 

More or less the northern half of the building is made of sandstone, while the southern half of the building is made of brick.

The boundary between the two parts follows the shape of the building profile which is made of sandstone.

This shows that the part of the building made of sandstone has been completed and then the part of the building made of brick has been added.

Palangka Temple – This temple building is located on the east side of the Mahligai Stupa with a temple body size of 5.10 meters x 5.7 meters and a height of about two meters.

Palangka Temple is made of bricks, and has an entrance facing north. (*)