Ecological considerations for the placement of the “Candi Negeri Baru” site in 14 AD in Ketapang, West Kalimantan

Abstract

The site of “Candi Negeri Baru” in Ketapang, West Kalimantan is a Hindhu temple and by the research team of the Archaeological Center of South Kalimantan it is included as one of the relics of the Majapahit Kingdom. The supporting data, namely the Negeri Baru toponymy, is related to the Tanjungpuri toponymy which is recorded in the Kitab Nāgarake˘rtagama, Canto 14 --- 1, so that the temple is thought to have originated from the 14th AD. The existence of the temple on the site of “Candi Negeri Baru” today, is the only Hindhu temple building found in the West Kalimantan region. In the context of building a temple, based on the provisions of the Kitab Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra, the placement of a temple building is based on ecological considerations. One of them is based on considerations of land where sacred buildings can be built and land where sacred buildings are not allowed. Land where sacred buildings are permitted are the types of “Brahmana land” and “Ksatrya”, while the types of land where sacred buildings are not permitted are “Waisya land” and “Sudra”. The “Sudra land” type is a type of soil that contains a lot of mud, is dark in color and has a bad smell. Based on the location of the location, the site of “Candi Negeri Baru” at this time, is in a swampy and watery environment, this type of land can be categorized as “Sudra land”. Based on this problem, it is necessary to study the ecological considerations of the placement of the “Candi Negeri Baru” site in the context of the physical environment in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. The placement of the sacred building “Candi Negeri Baru” in Ketapang, West Kalimantan still takes into account the standard rules in the Kitab Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra, namely in the “Ksatrya” land environment. Does the placement of the sacred building “Candi Negeri Baru” still take into account the ecological provisions that are taught in the “Kitab Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra”?