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Published: August 6th 2007
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Beca
Beca in Jogja. 22 July 07
Shopping
Morning, we walked along the Malioboro street. The prices of the goods were so attractive, though we still have a long way to go in the journey, but we still want to buy it as afraid it couldn’t be get in other places.
From Malioboro we walked to Market Beringharjo. Variety of foods, fruits, clothes etc were found along the road. Just next to the market, there is a small alley, which along the alley many antics and old utensils were sold. To know a living of local people, market is the best place to explore. Market Beringharjo is one of the best place to walk and look around. Near to the market, there is a small shopping complex, called Beringharjo center. The complex is just like our central market, downstairs got variety colorful batik, up stair is shops and the upper most level is a small food court.
After lunch, we walked back to Sosrowijayan. By referring to LP’s guidline, we walked to the end of Sosrowijayan and took a bus (no.3) to Jumbol Bus Terminal. The bus is a mini bus and the distance is around 8km and it cost 2000
Malioboro street
Malioboro street. The horse and beca crammed on a small road. The left hand side is Malioboro Mall. Rp per person. The bus is an old bus, just like our 1980s mini bus.
From Jumbol Bus Terminal, we got to change a bus to Borobudur. When the conductor told us it cost 8000Rp to Borobudur, we thought we were cheated as the LP said is 5000Rp. After that we discovered it is true, the fare has been increased.
The distance from here to Borobudur is around 42 km and the journey would take an hour. Borobudur is one of my destinations and always dreaming of visiting to this great Buddha monument since I have come back from Angkor Wat. When the earthquake hitting Jogja in May last year, I was worrying that it would be destroyed in one day. Hence I have started my planning of visiting to this great structure. Thanks to ck and kk, both of them also interested of Borobudur.
What is Borobudur?
Many people know the Angkor Wat, however many people do not realized there is a great Buddha monument not far away from our country, Malaysia, i.e Borobudur. It is one of the great ancient buildings in the east, others are the China’s great wall, Pyramid in Egypt and
Discount
Promotion of discount in a ratail shop. the Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Bororbudur was believed built in between 7th and 8th century (in between 750 and 842 AD) during Sailendra Dynasty, i.e more than 300 years before Angkor Wat. At that time, the king of Sailendra Dynasty was adhered to Mahayana Buddhism and thus the architectural design of the temple was based on the Mahayana doctrine.
The original name of Borobudur is unclear, however according to Javanese, the Borobudur means “a Buddhist temple on the mountain”. But some think the name is taken from a village nearby called “Bore” and “Budur” is Buddhist sanctuary, thus it is “Candi in the Bore village”. However another people believed that 'Boro' was taken from an old Javanese term bhara ('honourable'), which describing the monument as "The Honourable Buddha". It is believed that the construction of Borobudur took between 30 to 60 years to complete and most of labourers were farmers.
This is the biggest Buddha temple in the world where its height is 35.29m, covers a vast area of 14,165m2 with a width of 120m. From base to the peak, it has a total of 10 “steps” with 3 stages which represents the Mahayana Buddha’s 10 steps
Market Beringhajo
Market Beringhajo has lot to offer. (Dachabhumi) to achieve Buddhahood. There are 504 Buddha statues, 432 at square terraces and 72 at circular terraces. It is unimaginable that the ancient peoples have such wisdom and force to build this great monument.
However the temple was abandoned during the 10th and 11th centuries due to transfer of power from central java to the east. The temple was neglected after this and decayed due to volcanic eruption and other ravages of nature. After that it was completely abandoned and forgotten until 1814 when it was rediscovered by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (Singapore governor) in 1814. The restoration work was started by Dutch Goverment and led by Theodore Van Erp. from 1907 to 1911. However the structure remained in danger and until 1973, the Indonesian government, together with UNESCO and several private organizations undertook to restore the temple. It was a very big project (can be seen in Borobudur Archeological Musuem) and on 23 February 1983, it was officially announced the completion of the restoration project.
We arrived in Borobudur bus terminal at around 3pm. There were many peoples ascended us and offering a ride to our hotel. There was no town map at the bus terminal,
Beringhajo centre
Beringhajo centre. thus we took an offer from a horse cart driver. After bargain it cost 10,000 Rp for 4 persons. It took us to hotel first, then to 2 old temples, i.e Candi Pawon and Candi Mendut and then back to Hotel. Our hotel is a very “Javanese” hotel, the wall, chair, table..etc are made from bamboo, the environment is good, serene and peaceful .
Candi Pawon
After putting our backpack, we straight away to Candi Pawon & Candi Mendut. They were built almost the same period with Borobudur. The ticket is 3000Rp for the two temples. Candi Pawon is a small Buddhist temple which was 1750m away from Borobudur and 1150 from Candi Mendut. The wall of this temple was decorated with deities. However according to the information obtained, the reliefs at each direction of wall had a pair of male and female deities. There was one had already damaged, the six remaining figures in the serial are remain intact. Other than deities, there was a relief of
kalpataru tree (天国之树)where the deities were flying around the tree. However there was empty in the temple, no statue. Therefore it is very difficult to tell that this temple is
Batik
Batik is famous in Jogja. dedicated to who.
Candi Mendut
We stayed around 30 minutes in Candi Pawon, then heading to Candi Mendut. The Mendut is bigger than Pawon. Before entering the temples there were so many sellers ascended on us which felt very annoyance.
This temple was found in 1836 and it was renovated in 1897 to 1925. From the outer wall of walkway, we can see there were some reliefs. Each relief has its own story. The story is regarding Buddha’s story of Pancatantra and Jataka. There is a stature of Buddha in the temple. A very unique is the Buddha is sitting in a western style on the Phraba (throne). This was my first time of seeing the Buddha is sting in this way. The Buddha is around 3 meter height. There were two statures beside the Buddha, the left hand side is Padmapāņi and the right is Wajrapāņi.
Once we walked out from the temple, the sellers again chasing us from behind. It was even terrible than Angkor. However we did buy some souvenirs from them. I think their business was bad as not many tourist there.
After dinner at the bus terminal, we went back
In the market
In the market. to the hotel for a rest and then discussed on tomorrow’s Borobudur sun rise. According to a travelogue, Manohara hotel is the only hotel which could take you for the sun rise. Though we got some info from our hotel but in order to verify that, we decided to go to Manohara for checking. We walked more than 1km to the hotel and finally we found that to see the sun rise, got to pay 211,500Rp extra. After checking its hotel rate, it is more worth you stay in Manohara Hotel if you want to catch the sun rise. The calculation is as follows:
At Manohara Hotel
Double Bed: 351,000Rp (include Borobudur entrance) + 102,500Rp (sun rise)
Total: 278,000Rp per person
At other hotel
Twin Bed: 150,000Rp (let say) + 211,500Rp (include Borobudur entrance and sun rise)
Total: 286,500Rp per person
Thus we lose 8500Rp which is equivalent to RM3.40.
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