Journey To Prambanan Temple

I’ve been always take my personal trip to some places in Indonesia. And on last june 2010, I spent my vacation in Yogyakarta. Visiting the highest temple in the south-east asia, Prambanan temple or a thousand temples. I take my 2 weeks vacation with my colleague friends. It was a very unforgottable memories.

About Prambanan

Construction

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple of ancient Java, and the construction of this royal temple was probably started by Rakai Pikatan as the Hindu Sanjayas answer to the Buddhist Sailendra’s Borobudur and Sewu temples nearby. Historians suggested that the construction of Prambanan probably was meant to mark the return of Hindu Sanjaya dynasty to power after almost a century fell under Buddhist Sailendra domination on Central Java. Nevertheless the construction of this massive Hindu temple signify that the Medang court has shifted its patronage from previously favour Mahayana Buddhism to Shivaist Hinduism.

A temple was first built at the site around 850 CE by either Rakai Pikatan or Balitung Maha Sambu the Sanjaya king of the Mataram Kingdom. According to Shivagrha inscription that wrote chandrasengkala ”Wwalung gunung sang wiku” (778 Saka/856 M), the temple was built to honor lord Shiva and the original name of the temple is Shiva-grha (the house of Shiva).Indeed, some archaeologists propose that the idol of Shiva in the garbhagriha (central chamber) of the main temple is modelled after King Balitung, serving as a depiction of his deified self after death.

The temple compound was expanded by successive Mataram kings such as Daksa and Tulodong with the addition hundreds of perwara temples around the chief temple. Prambanan served as the royal temple of the Hindu Kingdom of Mataram, with most of the state’s religious ceremonies and sacrifices being conducted there. At the height of the Mataram kingdom, scholars estimate that hundreds of Brahmins with their disciples lived within the outer wall of the temple compound. The urban center and the court of Mataram were located nearby, somewhere in the Prambanan Plain.

Abandonment

In the 930s, the court was shifted to East Java by Mpu Sindok, who established the Isyana Dynasty. While the reason for the shift remains uncertain, it was probably caused by an eruption of the volcano of Merapi located north of Prambanan, or a power struggle. That marked the beginning of the temple’s decline. It was soon abandoned and began to deteriorate.

The temples themselves collapsed during a major earthquake in the 16th century. Although the temple ceased to be the important place of worship, the ruins scattered around the area itself still recognizable and known to local Javanese people in later period. The statues and the ruins become the theme and the inspirations for the Loro Jonggrang folktale. After the division of Mataram Sultanate in 1755, the temple ruins and Opak river mark the boundaries between Yogyakarta and Surakarta (Solo) Sultanates.

The legend

The popular legend of Loro Jonggrang is what connects the site of the Ratu Boko Palace, the origin of the Durga statue in northern cell/chamber of the main shrine, and the origin of the Sewu temple temple complex nearby. The legend tells of the story about Prince Bandung Bondowoso who fell in love with Princess Loro Jonggrang, the daughter of King Boko. But the princess rejected his proposal of marriage because Bandung Bondowoso had killed King Boko and ruled her kingdom. Bandung Bondowoso insisted on the union, and finally Loro Jonggrang was forced to agree for a union in marriage, but she posed one impossible condition: Bandung must build her a thousand temples in only one night.

The Prince entered into meditation and conjured up a multitude of spirits (demons) from the earth. Helped by supernatural beings, he succeeded in building 999 temples. When the prince was about to complete the condition, the princess woke her palace maids and ordered the women of the village to begin pounding rice and set a fire in the east of the temple, attempting to make the prince and the spirits believe that the sun was about to rise. As the cocks began to crow, fooled by the light and the sounds of morning time, the supernatural helpers fled back into the ground. The prince was furious about the trick and in revenge he cursed Loro Jonggrang to stone. She became the last and the most beautiful of the thousand statues. According to the traditions, the unfinished thousandth temple created by the demons become the Sewu temple compounds nearby (Sewu means “thousands” in Javanese), and the Princess is the image of Durga in the north cell of the Shiva temple at Prambanan, which is still known as Loro Jonggrang or Slender Virgin.

Prambanan is the ninth century Hindu temple compound in Central Java, Indonesia, dedicated to Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). The temple compound located approximately 18 km east of Yogyakarta city on the boundary between Yogyakarta and Central Java province.

The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, currently is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the towering 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.

Prambanan was the most beautiful Buddhist temple I’ve ever seen in Indonesia, probably in the world (Even I’ve never go abroad LOL). But most of the temple was broken after the earthquake 2006. But it didn’t make visitors reduced. We can learn history, we will also meet many people here and sharing together, and we feel happy being there.

How To Get There ?

From Bali, Surabya, And Jakarta Take 1 Hour Flight
From Malang 8 Hour By Bus/Car
From Bali Take 1 Hour Flight
From Surabaya, Malang, And Jakarta Take 8 – 10 Hours By Train

Journey To Prambanan Temple

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