Tourists Must Now Wear Special Sandals to Climb Borobudur Temple

TheIndonesia.id - As an effort to preserve Borobudur Temple in Central Java, the Indonesian government will require visitors to wear a special sandals produced by the locals if they want to climb the monuments.

On Wednesday, January 26, a group of visitors were given the chance to try the special sandals, which has been named “upanat”. Deputy secretary for tourism and creative economy at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment Rustam Efendi said the new requirement is a necessary undertaking to ensure the site can be well-preserved.

“If there are no preventive measures taken, this world heritage will continue to be damaged,” Efendi said on Wednesday, as reported by Antara.

According to him, the sandals are comfortable even though they’re made of woven pandanus. The production is also done by locals who live around the travel destination, and it’s expected to promote economic empowerment.

 

“The sandals aren’t shipped from other regions, but [its production] empowers locals by using local materials, so it becomes a new source of income,” Efendi explained.

Earlier this month, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno announced that specials sandals would be produced for visiting tourists who want to climb Borobudur Temple, in an effort to protect one of world’s biggest Buddhist temples.

The production will involve local small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and is estimated to create 1,200 new jobs.