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Published: March 25th 2009
As I mentioned in the last blog, this one is a bit behind reality - I visited these temples on March 15 I'm having troubles uploading the pics, I think Travelblog is playing up, and my connection here is slow, after about three hours I'm giving up. Sorry if some of the photos are missing, or are in here twice, or are upside down, or don't have a comment. Blame Travelblog, which seems to be down more often than it's up The most famous attractions of Yogya are the two ninth-century temples, Borobodur and Prambanan. To see both temples I took a tour. The tour itself cost Rp 70000 I think, about $9, plus the entrance to the two temples which I think was about Rp 300 000 ($AUS 40). Maybe the entrance fee was a bit cheaper, I don’t remember the exact amount any more. Both temples are very close to Yogya, pretty much in the suburbs. There are a number of other ruins scattered about the place, and various other temples.
Having forgotten much of what the guides said, you’ll notice that much of the background information in this blog corresponds with the wikpedia
Borobodur temple
read from right to left - these were beautiful people, but then gossipped which is bad, so they came back in the next life as ugly peopleentries. This of course proves that it is correct, coming from two different sources
Borobodur was “discovered” by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (the same Raffles whose name is on pretty much everything in Singapore and after whom someone - presumably one of his enemies - named the Rafflesia). Of course he “discovered” it in the same way that Captain Cook “discovered” Australia - it’s not like people didn’t already know it was there! But that’s how it became known to Europe. The site attracted attention from the Dutch government during the 19th century, and a concerted renovation project in the first decade of the 20th century. In the 1970s the Indonesian government, with UNESCO, completely restored the site. Part of UNESCO’s demands before doing this was that the site would be open to everyone. So currently even on Buddhist holy days, everyone is welcome at the site, without even any of the restrictions of a normal temple such as wearing long pants.
Part of the problem in the 1970s was that there was a village surrounding Borobodur. The government tried to get the people to move, and they protested and stayed put. Rather pragmatically, the
Borobodur temple
Buddha, the human with the most images made of him. Indonesian government’s response was to cut off their water and electricity. They moved. So now there’s a large garden complex, a museum, and such-like surrounding Borobodur.
Despite being open to everyone, the site is still used occasionally by Buddhists, who walk around each level clockwise, and read the stories told in the reliefs. There’s some phenomenal number of panels telling various stories from the life of the Buddha, including previous lives, each meant to highlight some good aspect such as selflessness or kindness, which Buddhists are meant to emulate. The lowest level is covered in these reliefs, carved into the stone, but then the whole thing is surrounded by masses of plain rocks. The reliefs were only seen during renovation when basically the whole thing was taken apart and put together like a giant jigsaw (the blocks interlock). Whether these are covered up for structural or religious reasons is still open for conjecture. Apparently a lot of these were erotic in nature, as the lowest level represents the most base of human desires, in Buddhist thinking. At the top there are a large number of Buddha figures in stupas, apparently representing heaven, and the crowning, main stupa at the
Borobodur temple
another Buddha figure with a missing head. I'm sure there's something poetic about his head being replaced by a wasps nest - circle of life or something. centre (which is solid, unlike the others where you can see the Buddha inside), which is empty. Whether it’s empty because it represents Nirvana - higher than heaven, the absence of desires or attachments - or because someone stole whatever was inside it when one part of the wall was broken, is anyone’s guess.
It’s slightly weird to me, but encouraging, to see the number of Muslims visiting both sites. Most tourists to these sites are locals.
The tour lasted maybe two hours. It’s much better with a local guide. We took a guide from the monument itself, for a cost of about $1 each, which meant that our actual guide in the bus didn’t do much. Still, these local guides are very good and well worth it, our guide who said he’s not Buddhist, was full of stories about the Buddha and very complimentary of Buddhism.
So after that it was back through the large array of shops selling food and all manner of tourist crap (really, who buys fake blow-darts from Java of all places?). Past the beggar with no arms and no legs, out to the minibus and off to Prambanan.
Borobodur temple
I don't remember the story associated with this, I think it's something to do with the Buddha's birth In the bus chatting to one of the other backpackers he told me a story which sounds like an Urban Legend. It was told to me as a true story, but has all the characteristics of an Urban Legend, like the one about Mexican hookers stealing people’s kidneys, or the one about Eskimos having five hundred different words for “snow”; so if it’s not fictitious, it deserves to be. Since I heard it second hand, I’m telling you so that you will have heard it third hand and hence it can be an urban legend. Apparently this guy had been travelling with another backpacker, an Aussie. The Aussie had had an accident in Bangkok, and since he was allergic to opiates and other things, the doctor prescribed Valium for pain relief or something. After a while, his condition got worse and he had to return to Australia. At the Australian customs they stopped him and asked about the little unmarked pills in the bottle. “They’re OK”, he said, only less coherently, “they’re just my valium”.
“No they’re not” said the customs guys. “We just analysed them, and they’re heroin”.
Which according to this guy explained
Borobodur temple
our local guide explaining the meaning of the bas relief which was something to do with the buddha as a talking sheep converting a human to vegetarianism. why the Aussie had been in such a bad way for a while. He’d bought the tablets from a legitimate pharmacist. The moral of the story is: Heroin is evil and is out to get you. Or maybe the moral of the story is, never transit through Singapore because you might unwittingly be a heroin addict. Oh, wait, the moral of the story is, if you’re a pharmacist, keep your personal stash separate from your work supplies.
The creation of the Prambanan temple complex came about because of a prince who wanted to marry a princess. The problem was that he had killed her father, so she wasn’t madly in love with him. Eventually after much pestering, she couldn’t safely any longer refuse him for no reason. So she agreed, on one condition - that he build her one thousand temples in one night. She thought that this was an impossible condition, but she had underestimated the prince, who summonsed a multitude of demons from the underworld. The demons worked like, well, demons, and were well on their way to complete the job. When the villagers told the princess this, she ordered them to set a massive
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don't remember the interpretation sorry. fire in the east. The villagers’ roosters thought it was morning, and began crowing. The light and the roosters succeeded in tricking the demons, who shrugged their shoulders and said something along the lines of “oy, mate, it’s mornin’ innit? see there’s the sunrise, so it’s knock-off time, we’re not gettin’ paid overtime is we?” (or words to that effect in Sanskrit) and off they went. When the prince counted the temples, there were 999. The prince was so pissed off at this deception, that he cursed the princess and turned her into stone, a temple that’s still standing today a few kilometres away the most beautiful of the one thousand statues.
The moral of this story is: If you’re trying to seduce a girl, it’s not a great move to kill her father first. Or maybe the moral of the story is: Never trust roosters. No, actually I think this is a parable about Business Process Outsourcing - it involves making deals with demons, it can be a great way to get stuff done amazingly quickly, and they’ll work weird hours without complaining, but sometimes you end up with workers don’t even know what time of day it
Borobodur temple
This one is a story about when the Buddha had to chose a wife, and how he let the others down gently. The peacocks symbolise wisdom. is. Clearly the prince should have hired a really good Project Controller to make sure that the demons were highly incentivised to complete the project before sunrise.
In reality while that temple indeed stands, a few kilometres away, there were never one thousand. The other temples are piles of dislocated stones. Since these were souvenired by locals, used in construction, etc., most of these temples will never be rebuilt. I read on the Internet, I don’t know if it’s true, that a building will only be reconstructed if at least 75% of the original stones are present. I think the figures the guide suggested for the number of original temples was between 300 - 700, depending on whom you believed. The site was severely damaged in the 2006 earthquake, and parts of it were still closed because of that.
The temple complex has three main temples, for each of the three manifestations of the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. At the centre is Shiva, “the destroyer”, and it is the largest temple - he is generally considered the best of the three in these parts, because he is associated with time, and is also the destroyer of
Borobodur temple
our local guide, explaining the meaning of the bas relief, which was about the Buddha in a previous life when he was a sheep and sacrificed his life for his friend the donkey, showing that even in previous lives the Buddha had enlightened qualities problems and obstacles and suchlike, he’s not all bad, so J. Robert Oppenheimer was being a little bit unfair. This is why, for example in Bali, there were statues of Ganesha - Vishnu’s son - around the place. Brahma has for a long time not been a popular god, even in India itself. Inside the central temple is a statue of Vishnu, probably two metres tall on top of a one metre or so base. We can’t get inside the other main temples because they’re still structurally damaged from the earthquake.
Around each of the three gods’ temples are smaller temples to the steeds of the relevant gods - Angsa, the gander, for Brahma; the bull Nandi, for Shiva; and the eagle Garuda (a symbol of Indonesia, plus of course the name of their national airline) for Vishnu. Like the Hindu temple there’s bas reliefs depicting various Hindu stories, including, according to Wikipedia, the Ramayana, which is performed in Yogya with shadow puppets.
The temple, at 47 metres, is meant to be taller and older than Angkor Watt so I don’t know why they’re less famous. Anyway, I don’t remember all the stories the guide told, but I’m
Borobudur temple
looking out towards Mt Bromo sure you can google for it if interested. So that was Borobodur and Prambanan, well worth going to Yogya for if you happen to be in the vicinity and you like that sort of thing.
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Bijal
non-member comment
i wish i was there..
hey Daniel it is really fascinating to read and get insights from you.. esp as i am really interested in visiting the temples.. enjoy bijal