The temples of Prambanan and Borobudur

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While Indonesia has an extraordinary number of magnificent historical sites, its two most famous sites are very close to each other in central Java and are easily reached from the well named university city of Yogyakarta. "Yogya" means suitable and "karta" means to flourish -- the city that is fit to flourish, and indeed it was the capital of Indonesia during the revolution to wrest independence from the Netherlands after WW2.

I have been to Yogya twice and visited the temples both times, and I will visit them again with great enthusiasm when I next get a chance to visit.

In the largest Muslim country in the world, the temples are a bit of an anomaly because Prambanan is a Hindu temple and Borobudur is a Buddhist temple. It is clearly a land of strong religious beliefs but apparently somewhat fickle.

Construction of Prambanan began around 850 but a hundred years later, the temple was already in decline due to treacherous Mount Merapi and its violent eruptions. In fact the temple was more or less destroyed in the 16th century. It was rediscovered by the British in the early 19th century but it was restored by the Dutch only around 1930. Work continues on the temple, but the general rule is to only put things back together if at least 75% of the original stones are available. Unfortunately, major damage occurred again during the Java earthquake of May 2006. My photos date from 2002.

Here is evil Mount Merapi. It was threatening to erupt when I was there, so we kept an eye on it.

[Deleted]

The magnificent sculptures of the temple are the main attraction.

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The grounds were very peaceful. They used to be full of annoying vendors, now banned from the site. (They are waiting outside the gate.)

[htmb]

How beautiful! Was there anything to see inside, and were you able to get close to the structure? The blocks in some places look a bit unstable.

[fumobici]

Spectacular site. The amazing state some appear to be in seems uncanny, surely there has been a lot of restoration work done.

[bixaorellana]

This is glorious! Your pictures are breathtakingly beautiful. It's certainly obvious why you'd wish to return. The peacefully abandoned feel of it adds to its beauty. Love the sheep. The site appears to be on a high plateau. Is that correct?

[questa]

Beautiful moody pics. The temples carry their own aura. I went to Prambanan while I was studying Indonesian language at a college in Yogya. Spent a whole day there learning who was who in the statuary...enthralling stories.

Twice to Borobudor...2nd time as a student as above, but 1st time as a traveller. Got there just before dawn for the stunning photos...took the last 4 frames on my roll of film and went to reload camera only to find that in the half dark I had packed an already exposed film canister.

It gave me the opportunity to just look and wonder rather than search for the killer shot.

Thanks for your images and the reminders of a good time.

[questa]

Incidentally Kerouac2, you have been to Angkor Wat if I remember correctly...have you noted the resemblances between Prambanan and there? They were built during the same era and as Cambodia covered down to Java in those days, artisans would travel between the 2 sites carrying the ideas and techniques with them.

Borobudor had more of the Siamese influence as it was Buddhist and the whole structure told the story of Buddha and humankind's striving for nirvana.

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2014 1:12:59 GMT htmb said:

Was there anything to see inside, and were you able to get close to the structure? The blocks in some places look a bit unstable.

No, there were no major chambers to visit inside the temples, just dark holes for the most part. The unstable blocks were probably the first things to collapse again after the last earthquake.

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The Buddhist temple of Borobodur was built at approximately the same time as Prambanan, which means that Java must have been in extremely rich place in the 9th century. Like Prambanan, it was abandoned partly due to the antics of Mount Merapi but also due to the rise of Islam in Java. But it was still used, at least a little bit, until the 14th century.

Like Prambanan, Borobudur was redisovered by the British at the beginning of the 19th century, and the Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles is attributed with having made a major contribution to saving both places due to his love of Javanese art, even though he never went there personally -- it was much too hard to hack through the jungles. However, quite a bit of artwork was collected, and that has been the plague of all of these jungle temples throughout Southeast Asia for the last two centuries -- pillagers and "souvenir" hunters. Some renovation was made at the beginning of the 20th century, but the principal renovation did not take place until the period of 1975-1982. UNESCO World Heritage Site status was obtained in 1991, and Borobudur is the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia, although 80% of the tourists are Indonesian, which is probably as it should be.

Borobudur was bombed in 1985 by Muslim extremists. The earthquake in 2006 did not damage Borobudur, even though it greatly damaged Yogyakarta and killed quite a few people. Unfortunately Mount Merapi did not spare Borobudur during its eruption in October and November 2010. A layer of ash covered the temple and also killed a lot of the vegetation. Even though they cleaned the ash off the temple itself in no more than a week, the drainage system was then clogged, so they still had to dismantle about 55,000 blocks of stone to fix it. Whew!

Anyway, tourists are taken there at an ungodly hour, leaving Yogyakarta around 4 a.m. because it is very important to see dawn as the sun rises over the temple. You never regret it because wow oh wow oh wow....

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2014 8:52:08 GMT questa said:

Incidentally Kerouac2, you have been to Angkor Wat if I remember correctly...have you noted the resemblances between Prambanan and there? They were built during the same era and as Cambodia covered down to Java in those days, artisans would travel between the 2 sites carrying the ideas and techniques with them.

Borobudor had more of the Siamese influence as it was Buddhist and the whole structure told the story of Buddha and humankind's striving for nirvana.

Yes, the temples of Cambodia and central Java were all of Indian inspiration, even when they were for different religions. The pyramidal form of the Bayon at Angkor Wat is quite reminiscent of Borobudur. They are both "layer cakes" with level after intricate level gradually rising to the top. Naturally, this was also the easiest and most logical way to build them in a world of low tech tools -- the Aztecs and the Mayans would agree, I'm sure.

[Deleted]

Magnificent photos K2.
My husband has always held an ongoing fascination with Borobudur and I hope someday he (and I) will be able to see it first hand.
In the meantime, I will be thrilled to share this report with him.
Thank you.

[anshjain97]

I can easily understand why you would like to revisit. Were there lots of crowds?

[Deleted]

For that visit it was totally empty, because it was just one month after the notorious Bali bombings that had killed 202 people, and tourism had dropped by about 95%. The first time I visited was in the 1980's and tourism was not all that developed at the time. So I really don't know how crowded it can get these days. But just like Angkor Wat, I would imagine that the sites are big enough for the tourist masses to spread out almost to the point of being not noticeable. I remember seeing a number of school groups when I was there, but as you can see from my photos... I could have been there almost completely alone.

[lugg]

Fabulous photos K2. A place I would like to see for myself

For me an especially serendipitous post, as I am currently planning a visit to Indonesia this Summer

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The first time I went to Yogyakarta, I flew there, but the second time I took the train from Jakarta. I have just one photo of the train and one photo of the scenery from the train.

[questa]

You are determined to make me homesick, aren't you Kerouac?

[Deleted]

I found a few photos from a different trip to Borobodur.











And here is a photo of the little lane on which I stayed in Yogyakarta. I still have pangs of longing for that lane.

[nycgirl]

Wow, what beautiful ruins! They are so exquisitely detailed and I love the way the light caresses them. I would say also that they are remarkably well-preserved, but I don't know what they look like now after the earthquake. I hope they'll be restored.

[questa]

Once again you have made me wish I were still there...just like you miss your little gang in the kampung. Nice clean one it seems as well.
I see your photos have once more captured the mood of Borobudor...lovely.