JAKARTA, INDONESIA, January 17, 2011: Powerful flows of volcanic mud carried by rivers from Mount Merapi that have destroyed bridges, houses, farmlands and other structures along river banks also pose a threat to the Prambanan Temple. The famous Hindu temple complex, located in Prambanan on the border of Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, sits 100 meters from the banks of the Opak River, a confluence of the Petit Opak and Gendol Rivers that flow from Mt. Merapi.
Prambanan, a ninth-century Hindu temple compound — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and one of the largest Hindu temples in Southeast Asia. An official from the Volcanic Technology Development and Research Center in Yogyakarta, Dewi S. Sayudi, said the threat to Prambanan was immense because the upper streams of both the Opak and Gendol Rivers carried large amounts of volcanic debris from the 2010 Mt. Merapi eruptions.
The eruptions in October and November, Merapi’s most powerful in a century, were estimated to have spewed more than 150 million cubic meters of volcanic debris consisting of large rocks, stones, sand and ash. Experts predict that the threat of the destructive mud flow from the eruptions could remain for the next three years due to the massive volume of the volcanic debris.
Despite the threat, no preparations have been made so far by Prambanan Temple officials, who continue to monitor the flow of the Opak River as rainfall increases as Indonesia heads into the peak of the wet season.