Residents around Karawang, West Java, Indonesia, have their own nickname for the patch of rice fields they have cultivated for generations: Kampung Seribu Candi, or “Village of a Thousand Temples.” And it turns out the name is more than just a figure of speech.
Whenever archaeologists excavate in the area, ancient red-brick structures seem to emerge from beneath the soil. This has continued throughout excavation work conducted between September 2025 and June 2026.
The string of discoveries is strengthening what researchers have long suspected: the Batujaya Site was not simply a collection of places of worship, but a Buddhist center of learning that was actively used centuries ago.
Older Than Borobudur
The site stretches across roughly 337 hectares, covering Segaran Village in Batujaya District and Telagajaya Village in Pakisjaya District. Since a Universitas Indonesia research team began studying the area in the mid-1980s, dozens of temple structures have been identified, making Batujaya the oldest known Buddhist temple complex on the island of Java.
The temples were built from red bricks mixed with rice husks, a technique repeatedly found at different excavation sites. Some of the structures were already standing more than 200 years before construction of Borobudur began.
Four of the temples have since been restored and are now clearly visible: Candi Blandongan, Candi Jiwa, Candi Serut, and Candi Sumur.
Carbon-14 dating indicates that the main complex was built between the 6th and 7th centuries and continued to expand through the 9th and 10th centuries, spanning the transition from the late Tarumanagara Kingdom to the early Galuh Kingdom.
On March 11, 2019, the complex was officially designated a National Cultural Heritage Area under Minister of Education and Culture Decree No. 76/M/2019. The Karawang Regency Government has also proposed Batujaya as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status, although it has yet to be included on the official Tentative List.
Evidence from Gold and Clay Tablets
What convinced archaeologists that Batujaya was more than just a place of worship came from small artifacts excavated at Candi Blandongan. Around ten fired-clay votive tablets were found almost intact, along with roughly 50 fragments. Each tablet is about the size of a palm, measuring approximately 6 by 4 centimeters.
The tablets depict the Miracle at Shravasti, an episode in which Shakyamuni Buddha performed a series of miracles. Three Buddha figures appear meditating at the top. Another Buddha figure sits at the lower center, making a gesture associated with protection from danger. Brahma Sahampati and the deity Sakra flank him on either side.
Two small gold plates provide further evidence. They were discovered in 2002 and 2004 and are engraved with sacred Buddhist verses written in the Pallava script and Sanskrit.
Together, these discoveries have led researchers to a broader conclusion. By the 7th century, the Batujaya complex appears to have served a dual purpose. It was a place of worship, but also a monastic center where Buddhist teachings could be taught and reproduced.
Structures typically associated with religious education stood alongside those used for worship, all within the same complex.
Discoveries That Keep Adding Up
Recent excavations have added new layers to this body of evidence. Between September and early October 2025, the Karawang Cultural Heritage Expert Team, led by Obar Subarja, worked with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Office Region IX to excavate Candi Serut 3 and 4.
The excavation took place in Kampung Gunteng, Telukbuyung Village, Pakisjaya District. Two other Serut temple structures had already been identified in the same area. The newly excavated structures are estimated to date from the 4th to 6th centuries, placing them in the same period as the height of the Tarumanagara Kingdom.
Then, in June 2026, archaeology students and lecturers from the Faculty of Humanities at Universitas Indonesia, together with the West Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Office, uncovered another temple structure.
This time, it was found near the Citarum River. Its location follows a pattern commonly associated with ancient settlements that depended on waterways.
The temple was also built from red bricks mixed with rice husks. But one detail caught the excavation team's attention: a staircase on one side of the structure.
The feature suggests that people accessed and used the building directly. It was not simply a structure meant to be circumambulated from the outside as part of a ritual.
West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi responded to the discovery by suggesting that the temples in the area served purposes beyond formal religious rituals.
In his view, their functions were multidimensional. They could have served as spaces for meditation, education, literature, and community deliberation. Even the rice husks mixed into the ancient bricks, he argued, point to a more developed agricultural landscape around Batujaya at the time.
