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| Borobudor |
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| Prambanan |
On January 12th and 13th Ralph, Miles and I went to Yogyakarta also known as Jogja, Yogya, or Jogjakarta. Yogya is in central Java and this city, along with its sister city Soho, is commonly thought of as the heart and soul of Javanese Culture. Yogya is the home of many small arts and industries such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. It is also famous as a centre for Indonesian higher education with about 120 different universities and academies in the area and the seat of Gadjah Mada University, one of the three most prestigious universities in Indonesia. Yogyakarta is also a unique district in Indonesia in that a good portion of it is still presided over by a Sultan. Yogyakarta was originally created as a kingdom in the 1750s and it has been governed by a member of the Sultan’s family ever since. While in Yogya we visited the Sultan’s palace and listened to a gamelan orchestra. We also toured some batik and silver factories and I purchased a number of Batik paintings produced by students at an art school. But the biggest attractions of Yogja are the ancient Hindu temples of Prambanan and the ancient Buddhist temple of Borobudor.
Both Borobudor and Prambanan were built in the 9th century, almost contemporaneous to one another, but some people believe that the building of Borobudor was commenced before Prambanan around 800 AD and that Prambanan was erected in response to Borbudor. But there are not many written contemporaneous histories of those times, if any, so a lot of this is conjecture. Construction of Borobudor probably began in the Srivijayan Empire during the Sailendra dynasty. The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years to complete. There is confusion between Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras were known as ardent followers of Lord Buddha, though stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto suggest they may have been Hindus. In any event there were three major Buddhist temples constructed during that time within ten kilometers of one another and many Hindu temples also in and around that area. Construction on Prambanan probably began around 850 AD, also during the Srivijayan Empire. Borobodur and Prambanan are about 60 kilometers apart, and another smaller Buddhist temple is about 2 kilometers from Prambanan.
Borobudor is the larger of the two, being a multi faceted but single large stupa in the form of a mandala with three distinct levels. It has nine different platforms of which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular. 
Along the upper level (which has three concentric circles are a series of Stupas with a different Buddha in each one.Each Buddha is bigger than life size. The lower level is filled with gargoyles and other intricate carvings. The middle level has less three dimensional carvings and more bas relief, the top level has simply the Stupa. 
The base is approximately 400 feet by 400 feet. The lower level represents the world of desires, then the world of forms, and finally the upper most level is the world without forms. 
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| I believe this is Venus rising over Borobudor |
As dawn broke, I took a seat on the second level behind a row of sitting Buddhas who have been watching the sun rise for over one thousand years now. 
Miles used this opportunity to catch up on his sleep.
On our way to Borobudor, we stopped by the Mendut Temple which lies about ten kilometers from Borobudor.
It is much smaller, but still fairly impressive. Next to the Mendut Temple is a Buddhist monastery where we found a few minutes of tranquility.
Prambanan has not been restored as much as Borobudor has been restored. Whereas Borobudor is a fairly complete restoration, only the largest shrines making up Prabanan have been restored.
The problem is that a good part of Prambanan has been looted and is missing. Both temples are world heritage sites and were restored with international funds. Prambanan was originally about the same size if not larger than Borbobudor with three different levels and maybe a hundred different temples laid out in a square pattern. The lower level was essentially a large square wall and elevated platform. The next level consisted of approximately 224 small individual shrines. The highest level had eight large shrines of which the three main shrines have been restored and a couple smaller ones. The three main shrines, called Trimurti ("three forms"), are dedicated to the three gods: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Keeper, and Shiva the Destroyer. But the World Heritage fund will not restore something if it cannot be restored with more than 60 or 70% of the original materials, and there are not enough of the original blocks to do such a restoration, so this is the most that will be restored and the rest lay as so much rubble around the restored shrines.
Both Prambanan and Borobudor have been damages by recent volcano and earthquakes. The top level of Borobudor was closed off to us as a result of the ash coverage from Mt. Merapi which erupted about four months prior to our visit. Merapi covered the entirety of Borobudor in about three inches of volcanic ash. It had all been cleaned away except for the top level which was still being cleaned. Prambanan was hurt by an earthquake in 2007 which caused some of the top most part to fall off and caused extensive structural damage to Brahama’s temple. As a result, we were not allowed into that temple. 
Along the base of Prambanan is carved in bas relief the story of RamayanaKrishnayana scenes. The carvings were carved after the stones were put in place. You can see that because some of the carvings were left unfinished. Apparently, for one reason or another, before Prambanan was finished, the King moved the seat of the empire from Yogyakarta to East Java. Perhaps because of concerns surrounding the eruption of Mt. Merapi.  |
| unfinished carving |
The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books and 500 cantos and tells the story of Rama (an incarnation of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana. Thematically, the epic explores the tenets of human existence and the concept of dharma. The Indian tradition is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet, the sage Valmiki, a contemporary of Rama and a peripheral actor in the epic drama. However, historians are not necessarily of the same consensus. The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana, dating to approximately the 5th to 4th century B.C. (By contrast, historians believe Homer lived around 800 BC, so the Odyssey, which Miles and I just finished reading, would predate the Ramayana). Rama is the hero of the tale. Portrayed as the seventh incarnation of the God Vishnu. Sita is the beloved wife of Rama and the daughter of king Janaka. She is the incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu. Sita is portrayed as the epitome of female purity and virtue. She follows her husband into exile and is abducted by Ravana. She is imprisoned on the island of Lanka until Rama rescues her by defeating the demon king Ravana. Later, she gives birth to Lava and Kusha, the heirs of Rama. Hanuman the monkey king is portrayed as the eleventh incarnation of God Shiva who helps Rama rescue Sita. Eventually they are re-united, but of course no good story has a happy ending. Sita, for all her long suffering is eventually exiled by Rama, who is forced to choice between saving his people or saving Sita.
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