REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAGELANG -- Several additional attractions have been prepared to greet and entertain tourists visiting the Borobudur Temple during the 2015 Lebaran holidays, according to PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur (TWCB) spokesman Chrisnamurti Adiningrum.

"The number of visitors to Borobudur Temple is expected to culminate on July 18-19, 2015, thereby leading to an increase of 10 percent as compared to last year's total," he noted here on Monday.

He expressed optimism that during this year's Lebaran holidays, the world's largest Buddhist temple would be visited by more than 332 thousand domestic and foreign tourists, while in 2014, the number was recorded at more than 302 thousand people.

"Therefore, we will involve the villagers residing in proximity to the temple to provide additional cultural attractions to entertain the tourists in our bid to make them feel at home," he affirmed.

International visitors have become the main target for the managing company of Borobudur Temple, which is being promoted as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The peak season for tourist visits to the temple located in Magelang District, about an hour's drive from Yogyakarta, usually occurs during the Idul Fitri or Lebaran, school, Christmas, and New Year holidays.

"Tourists from the Netherlands, Japan, and Malaysia are the most common international visitors to Borobudur Temple, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991," he remarked.

Borobudur was built around 750 A.D. during the Syailendra Dynasty.

The temple was rediscovered by Englishman Sir Stamford Raffles in 1814, who commenced a preliminary cleanup operation a year later.

The Indonesian government, fully supported by the UNESCO, has commenced work to raise funds for the temple's restoration based on research conducted between 1983 and 1986.

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