Prambanan Things to Do

Hindus believe in a cosmic life force called Brahman that pervades the universe and is embedded within everything that exists, including humans.

Brahman is a singular "God" for most meaningful purposes, and Hinduism is technically monotheistic. But the idea of Brahman is subtle and complex. Fortunately, Hindus believe in a series of secondary god-figures who provide more bang for your entertainment buck. There are so many of these gods that most Westerners assume Hinduism is polytheistic, and more than a few Hindus as well.

Those four strange Gods.

You find Bramabanan temple area about 17km outside Yogya. The temples were constructed around year 856 and each of the 3 main temples are in honor of the Gods Vishnu, Brahma and Siva. The tempel for Siva is 47 meter high.

Other temples are for the Gods transportation: Nandi who was Sivas bull, Hamsa who was Brahma's and the sunbird Garuda who belonged to Vishnu

The story tells that the whole temple was buildt in one day by a man who wanted to marry the princess Loro Jonggrang because she would only marry him if he mananged the task.

Along the walls of the temples you will find stories of the lifes of the Gods in form of relieffes that are very well preserved. The preservation was done from 1937 until 1953

"Based on the God statue and the reliefs, could be known that Prambanan complex was the place of Hindust worshiping.
An inscription that could be related to the Prambanan temples, was Siwaghra inscription (778 C / 856 M). The insription mentioned about inauguration a holy building for the God Civa. Then the name of king Jatiningrat (Rakai Pikatan) in which has to fight againts Balaputra, and after he won the war he gave the kingdom to Dyah Pitaloka (Rakai Kayu wangi 851-852). In that inscription was also detaily saod about the Hindusts holy building, as well as mentioning about Dwarapala."

Ganesh, the elephant headed god, is particularly popular, due to his role as the patron of success and remover of obstacles.

Compared to the temples in Angkor Wat, the temples in Prambanam are easier to do and more tourist friendly. Before you get your hopes up and wish for a rustic setting of tall grass, a handy machete and a monkey or two, let me just tell you that this temple complex (four temples) is positioned in a large, landscaped park complete with spot lights and lots of stalls that has tourist trap written all over them.

While I was at Prambanan, I hired a guide for USD5. It was a good deal. This Indonesian was fluent in English and not afraid to show it. He rattled on and on, as much as my small brain could take it. It was much later that I found out where this chap got his information from. He proudly admitted that he graduated from the best university in the world - Google!

I visited Prambanan Temple, another 8th century Buddhist site. It is built in a flat plains area, so the temple itself is narrow, but more vertical in order to give it its majestic feel and silhouette. Then we took a long drive around the mountains and volcanoes, only stopping long enough to get a gilled corn on the cob from a street vendor.

The entry fee to this archeological museun is included in the entry fee for the Prambanan temple complex. The museum has many statues and idols that have been recovered from the various temples. It also has a very detailed description of the massive recovery efforts taken by the Indonesian Govt in conjunction with UNESCO to maintain and preserve the temples. It also has many old photographs of the temples showing how the temple was in complete shambles before the restoration efforts and how it looks now.

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This was my last temple for the day, hence I decided to spare more time for this monument. Kalasan temple is located south of the Jogja-Solo road and not very far from Candi Sari temple, which is on other side of the road. The temple is just next to the main Jogja-Solo road. In fact there is no space for car parking, hence the car had to be left behind on the highway.
Kalasan temple was constructed in late 8th century and the roof top has a polygonal shape, slightly different from the other temples in this area. As with other Hindu and Buddhists temples, the main door opening is in the east direction and the presence of Boddhistavas on the reliefs suggest that this was a Buddhist temple.
As with other temples, there are very rich carvings on the walls and since my camera did not have a good zoom, I could not do justice to the reliefs. Since they are located at very high reaches of the temple, I could not reach out to those places to take a close up. The main door has a beautiful Kaal relief, which is very common to temples in this area.

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This temple is located to the south of Kraton Ratu Boko and is slightly further away in remote village. The road to this temple is a narrow one, full of grass overgrowth and the scenary is very good. There are paddy fileds on both sides of the road and there not much of road marking. In my case, my driver Wisnu knew about the location and hence we did not face any difficulty in reaching there. The temple is in a very secluded place and was constructed in 9th century. It is a buddhist temple and its design is slightly different from the other temples I have seen so far in Prambanan area. The rooftop is in the shape of ancien bow and arrow and looks same feom all directions. There is just one stupa and the carvings on the temple are still in a very good shape, inspite of the fact they are more then 1000 years old. Incredible. The quiet atmosphere around this temple lends a eerrie silence and mystic ambience.