Director of archeology at the UI, Irmawati Johan, said the agreement would later focus on the publication of scientific journals about the temples.

"The number of scientific journals about the temples are still limited and mostly written by foreigners. Meanwhile other materials about the temples just sit on the shelf," she said.

"So this is the perfect time to publish the scientific works related to our people."

Irmawati said they would first publish the papers produced by the professors before publishing those written by the students.

The journals, which will be published some time this year, will cover chapters about the temple's philosophy, religious aspects and the stories of the bas-relief from which life in the ancient period is depicted.

Irmawati also said the cooperation would include training for tourist guides in the temples to equip them with better and more accurate information about the temples.

The Buddhist temple Borobudur is located in Magelang, Central Java. It sits on 15,129 square meters of land with a height of 42 meters and a width of 123 meters. It is believed the temple was built in eighth century.

Meanwhile, the country's largest Hindu temple, Prambanan, located in Yogyakarta, was built in the ninth century and has eight main temples that contain statues of gods. Both are included on UNESCO's world heritage list.

As part of measures to preserve the sites, which began on Feb. 1, visitors to Borobudur are now required to wear batik sarongs and rubber sandals around the temple area.

TWC president commissioner Darmono said the moves were taken to create a sacred feeling around the sites and to encourage visitors to respect the ancient temples.

"Many tourists see the temples as tourist attractions rather than as a holy place, making them less careful around the sites," he said. Besides sarongs, Darmono said that visitors were also required to wear sandals in order to minimize the effect that heels or other hard materials could have on the stone.

For the trial, the management will still lend the sarongs and sandal to visitors, but starting next month, visitors can choose whether they want to buy or rent them.

"The price of the sarong is Rp 25,000 and Rp 6,000 for the sandals and it will be included in the entrance fee," said president director Purnomo Siswoprasetjo.

The entrance ticket is Rp 15,000 for locals, Rp 135,000 for foreign tourists and Rp 10,000 for students.

The same regulation will also be applied in Prambanan and Boko temples over the next three to six months.

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