Java – Temple

13 km from Yogyakarta is the huge Prambanan temple complex, built in honor of the Hindu gods Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. The Loro Jongrang Temple, built in the 10th century, is considered the most beautiful Hindu temple in Indonesia. On a hill west of Yogyakarta lies Borobodur, probably the largest Buddhist sanctuary in the world, with stone reliefs totaling over 5 km in length.

The Royal Mangkunegaran Palace in Surakarta is now a museum that displays dance ornaments, jewelry, and royal carriages from the 19th century. Mount Bromo, in the east of Java, is a volcano that is still active today. From Surabaya, you can go on excursions on horseback to the crater wheel. In August and September, Madura is the scene of ox races. The highlight of the ox races is the Pamekasan City Carnival, which lasts two days and nights.

Today we left very early in the morning to visit the Prambanan Temple. It is located 17 km from Yogya. We caught a nice day with no rain so the visibility was very good. An endless queue of people is already rolling towards the temple complex.

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple complex on Java, which is said to have been built in the 9th to 10th centuries, as evidenced by the discovery of an urn with grave goods. On a huge terrace is a group of eight temples with the main temple Lara Jonggrang. To the south and north of it is a temple dedicated to the god Brahma and the god Vishnu.

The large terrace is surrounded by a lower one, on which 224 small temples stand in three concentrated rows. The whole complex was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in the 16th century. Reconstruction had already been carried out since 1918 with extensive restoration work. After the Prambanan temple complex we visit Borobodur the next day.

Among the Hindus, there are no appeals (e.g. through sermons) with regard to religious and moral behavior. There are also hardly any community celebrations. The Borobodur complex has no interiors at all, it covers an entire hill in terraces. Three levels correspond to the idea of Buddhism:

• the lowest for everyday existence,

• above it the spiritualized form

• and at the very top, complete abstraction and detachment from the worldly world.

The terraces have reliefs from the Buddha legend and are about 5 km long. At the top there are countless stupas (bell-shaped stone cages) in which Buddhas sit in the typical meditation position. The temple complex of Borobodur was buried by an eruption of the Merapi volcano until the last century, it was restored by UNESCO for 21 million US$.