Obama visits temple during family vacation in Indonesia

Former US President Barack Obama visits Borobudur Temple in Java, Indonesia, on Wednesday (28)

Barack Obama took his wife, Michelle, and his daughters to the ancient Borobudur temple in Java on Wednesday (28) on a family vacation in Indonesia, where the former US president spent part of his childhood.

The Obama family came to the city of Yogyakarta in central Java and went straight to explore Borobudur, a former Buddhist temple built in the 8th and 9th centuries.

"Obama is fascinated by Borobudur, and he recalls seeing this temple as a child," said Edy Setijono, head of the temple management complex, who accompanied the family there.

Obama spent four years in Indonesia in the late 1960s in Jakarta after his mother married an Indonesian after the end of his marriage to his Kenyan father.

During those years, his mother and his Indonesian stepfather took him to Yogyakarta a few times during the school holidays.

Prior to their arrival in Yogyakarta, the family visited the tourist island of Bali, where they went to a Hindu temple and walked through rice plantations.


On June 30, Obama and his family should visit Jakarta.



Former US President Barack Obama rafting with his wife Michelle and his daughters Sasha and Malia during a Bali vacation in Indonesia on Monday.

Many Indonesians feel strong sympathy for Obama because of his initial exposure to Indonesian culture. There is a bronze statue two meters high from the former president in his old school.

The Little Barry statue - as Obama was known to his friends at the Indonesian school - portrays the Obama boy dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, with a butterfly perched on his hand.

When in the capital, Obama will meet with President Joko Widodo and give a speech at the convention on the Indonesian diaspora.