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Walking monks on final stopovers before Borobudur temple
Thirty-two Buddhist monks have arrived in Magelang, Central Java, home of the famous Borobudur temple, where they plan to join ceremonies to celebrate Waisak that marks the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha, on Sunday.
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Buddhist monks walk past the Semarang and Ungaran administrative border in Central Java on May 29 as they perform a walking pilgrimage from Thailand to the Borobudur temple. (JP/Suherdjoko)
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hirty-two Buddhist monks have finally arrived in Magelang, Central Java, home of the famous Borobudur temple, where they plan to join ceremonies to celebrate Waisak that marks the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha, on Sunday.
The group began their long-distance pilgrimage, also known as thudong, at the end of March from Nakhon Si Thammarat, southern Thailand, walking for 10 days to Malaysia and then for 29 days to Singapore.
They later crossed the Singapore Strait to Batam, Riau Islands, on May 8. On the next day, they traveled by plane to Jakarta and walked to the Borobudur temple.
Blasted by the equatorial heat and exhaustion, of 54 who started the journey, 32 remained at the final leg of the pilgrimage, which covered around 2,600 kilometers. Twenty-seven monks of the group are Thailand natives, four are Malaysians and one is Indonesian.
Throughout their trip in Java, they were greeted by hundreds of local residents, mostly non-Buddhists, as they entered new towns along the way.
Local administrative, military and religious leaders of various faiths have joined the residents in greeting the monks. Military personnel and members of Muslim groups have also joined the walk to safeguard the monks as the pilgrims pass their hometowns.
In every town, residents would immediately greet them and capture photos of the walking monks with their devices. In their brown robes, the monks responded with smiles and said “thank you” and “assalamualaikum”.
