Yogyakarta–Prambanan Temple

This is the biggest complex of Buddhist/Hindu temples in South East Asia.  The word on the street is that it is best viewed during late afternoon eventually leading to a sunset view across the many many many temples.
We arrived in the rain and it was overcast so a unforgettable sunset was not going to happen.  Having learned from past temples, we decided to hit the temple museum first to get the history of this complex of temples.  Like Borobodor, it had been badly damaged by earthquakes in 2006, and the fact that it was build in 8th century.  All of the smaller temples in the complex were still being rebuilt, but the major ones were mostly whole.  There are 4 main temples in the complex, Sewu, Bubrah, Lumbung and the main one, Prambanan (47m tall).  We watched an audio-visual film explaining the history and the story of the reliefs, the main story is of course Ramayana (Sinta and Rama, the most popular story in Yogyakarta and one we have heard many versions of, an Indonesian Romeo and Juliet!  Rama is the reincarnation of Vishnu)

1806 photo of the temple

Andre under a tree of life

We started at Sewu Temple,built by Hindu King Rakai Pikatan who married a Buddhist princess, this complex has 240 temples surrounding the main one.  All the buildings have a rock fence and a dwarapala (large rock statue armed with a club) guarding the entrance.

Bubrah Temple

Lumburg Temple

Roro Jonggrang Temple (Prambanan temple)

This is made up of 3 main temples (and hundreds around the outside) dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma (the biggest is Shiva’s) and the reliefs around each temple tell a story.  The legend behind Roro Jonggrang temple is a powerful man wanted to marry Roro Jonggrang, but she said no unless he built 1000 statues overnight.  He got some Genies to help, but Roro gathered women to beat rice pounders to make a big bonfire to the east so it looked like the sun was rising, the Genies thought it was morning, so they stopped.  Roro went to the man and said you did not complete the task, when he realised what she did, he cursed her to be a Dewi Durga statue.  This final statue bought the total to 1000, as requested!

Step two three

The tree of life and the little bird people protecting it

 and me pointing

Here is some reliefs and statues from the complex

3 faces

Rama, we think

goddess of sun, 7 figures underneath for days of week

goddess of moon, 10 underneath to show 10 seasons

the bull that someone rode.......in a nice way!

figure in middle gave flower to krishna, and recognised him, so he gave her long life etc

rama making a deal with the monkey army

Rama and Sinta married

youngest brother of Rama who was sleeping, was awakened for a battle,died, and servants covered tomb with flowers

king of monkey army on right, in battle