In the mid-19th century, Dutch colonial officials climbing an Indonesian volcano spotted an ancient statue meant to serve as protection against misfortune, looted it, and took it to the Netherlands.
Today, the volcanic rock likeness of the Hindu god Ganesha stands tall inside Indonesia’s National Museum in Jakarta.
The country is repatriating hundreds of similarly pillaged treasures, reclaiming parts of its history lost to looting under its former colonial ruler from the late 17th century to independence in 1945.
“We fully support it because it is part of preserving our culture,” said 23-year-old banker Devi Aristya Nurhidayanti.
The effort is part of a global restitution movement for goods plundered from the Global South, where heritage workers are preparing to bring back pieces missing from their colonial pasts, which could take decades.
As of mid-December, 828 cultural items have been returned to Indonesia from the Netherlands, according to the Indonesian Heritage Agency.
Among the items returned are three other Hindu-Buddhist sculptures depicting deities taken from a 13th-century temple compound in the Singosari kingdom located near the active Mount Semeru volcano on Indonesia’s main island of Java.
The standing Ganesha is one of only a few in the world, said archaeologist Dwi Cahyono.
“This standing position symbolises vigilance against danger,” he said.
So its repatriation is a “spiritual effort to calm the wrath of disasters in Indonesia”, which sits on the Pacific’s earthquake-prone Ring of Fire. — AFP
