Engaging Children in Reading Jataka Reliefs of Borobudur Temple in Indonesia through Digital Picture Book

Abstract

Jataka relief is one of the reliefs in Borobudur Temple, which is one of the biggest cultural heritages in Indonesia. Jataka reliefs tell the stories of the Bodhisattva's past life in search of enlightenment. These stories are unique, because they contain humanity values, such as kindness, helping others, and self-sacrifice which are universal. These values are still relevant and important to be told to younger generations. However, not everyone can read and understand reliefs, especially children from the age of 7-9 years old who live in big cities. Identification and readjustments of how to retell these relief stories are needed, in accordance with the increase usage of digital media by children in the alpha generation. The aim of this research is to find out which Jataka story is suitable for children in the alpha generation and to provide recommendations in designing a digital picture book that can support children's character building. This paper focused on the Discover part of the Double Diamond Design Thinking method, which used qualitative methods in gathering data, from literature study, interviews with two experts and a questionnaire for elementary school teachers. These findings showed that Jataka stories are still relevant and suitable for children's character building. One of those stories is the story of Wanaraja, which not only has leadership and self-sacrifice values, but also its non-sadistic plot. One of the possible media to be develop in retelling this story is the combination of videos/animation and picture book that provide interactivity. This two-way interaction gives a powerful and positive impacts on children's character building.

Testing the Budhara Digital Book Application (Borobudur Dalam Cerita)

“…The head of the temple is called Arupadhatu (upper realm), is the realm of the gods or the highest level which symbolizes emptiness, peace and tranquility, the spiritual realm without lust and desire. This level describes a person in his life's journey if doing good step by step will reach the peak, namely boddhi or the highest level [8], [9], [12].…”