Java Sojourn - Part II (Prambanan)

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Prambanan

Statutory Warning: This blog contains the ferocious Komodo Island dragon.
Open the blog at your own risk.
http://www.heptune.com/komodo.html

You must be wondering, how the reptile got in the blog at all and more importantly, how we managed to lock him in. I mean that sort of thing should happen only to people like Gerald Durrell, Frank Buck and Steve Irwin (May his soul rest in peace.) and not to poor old Charu and Avi, who are a most mild and unassuming couple, not even remotely connected with zoology.

It happened like this. Some 5-6 years back, we had decided to visit Indonesia and I was ‘reading up’ on it. Suddenly, I came across an advertisement, that promised to take the tourists to Komodo Island from Java and more importantly, ALSO to ‘bring them back alive’ to Java. What a golden opportunity!!

“Let us go to Komodo Island also” I said excited to my husband.

“WHAT? Is there a “Commode Island” in Indonesia? What a stupid name for an island.” he said. “And why you want to go there? We do have a western toilet, you know.”

“No, no, it is Komodo Island. It is unique, because it has big mo” I stopped because I suddenly remembered his dislike of all reptiles.

“Big mo what? Big mouthed commodes?” he asked.

“No, no, it is a nice little tropical island” I said, dillydallying. He was suddenly suspicious.

“Bah!” He said sternly, “Elephanta (Elephanta is a small island in the Mumbai bay) is a good enough tropical island. So, out with it! What is there to see?”

The Moment of Truth had arrived. I took a long breath.

“ItHasBigMonitorLizardsCalledKomodoDragonsThereHaveYouSeenThem?” I said in one breath. Whew!! That is over.

His grievances spilled out. “Haven’t I?” He said accusingly. “You remember you dragged me to the San Diego zoo to look at some big fat lizard that could hardly walk?”

I kept quiet, hoping he would not further remember my misdeeds, but he did.

“You also made me sit through that ghastly National Geographic program where they showed that ghastly lizard on some ghastly island that grows to two meters” He said bitterly. (The lizard grows two meters, NOT the island)

“Three times ‘ghastly’ in a single sentence? What sort of composition is that? That is not how I write my blogs.” I blurted out thoughtlessly, because I was nervous.

He blew his top. “I will say ‘ghastly’ four times in a sentence. You and your ghastly, ghastly, ghastly, ghastly blogs!!! So there!” he said with great satisfaction. “And no, we are NOT going to that ghastly island” he added for good measure.

This is the sort ghast, I mean, this is the sort of treatment I get for trying to educate him.

So, we did not go to that island, but meanwhile that ghastly reptile had already come inside the blog and was occupying most of the space. How to get rid of it?

“Hey!! Shoo!! Scoot!! Vamoose!! Get lost!! Make tracks” I said to the Komodo dragon. I take great pride in using synonyms and that is why this unfortunate incident with ‘ghastly’ had occurred. The monster only glared at me.

“Aho” I called my husband. “Please shoo this thing away”

“Aho” was implacable. “You brought it in, you deal with it” he said. “I am going” and went out of the door.

I was left alone with that awful creature, which was looking at me speculatively, and advancing stealthily. I did not like the look in its eyes, so, I too ran after my dear hubby and locked the Komodo dragon in.

Hence the Statutory Warning! We are not going to open this blog again.

So, now I am sitting outside, constructing a sort of, new blog.

Prambanan

The discovery of “Lorojonggrang temple” at Prambanan was reported by C. A. Lons in 1733. The temple was abandoned and was in ruined condition when he found it.

From 1885 to 1918, Yzerman, Groneman and van Erp restored the temples of Prambanan. It still is an ongoing process.



It was a mystery to me that how Sir Stamford Raffles, who discovered Borobudur in 1814, missed the temples of Prambanan, which were already reported by C.A.Lons. After all, the distance between the two monuments is only 33 kilometers. However, the mystery was cleared when I read that Java was under British rule only for a short period (1811-1816) during which Sir Raffles discovered Borobudur; and then reverted back to Dutch, who did nothing till 1885.

As usual, wikipedia gives excellent information on Prambanan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan

Huge temples are nothing new to Indian eyes. They are so ubiquitous in India that I personally would never step into a temple if I could decently avoid it, but I find temples like Angkor Wat, Prambanan, Ellora very interesting, and would go great distances to see them. That is because they were ‘lost’ in the jungle and then rediscovered and restored.

From 6th century B.C.(Birth of Buddha) up to 12th century A.D., the whole of Indian subcontinent as well as Southeast Asia seems to be in a religious turmoil. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, everywhere, the kings and people kept on changing their religion from Hinduism to Buddhism, to Hinduism to Buddhism in a manner, very puzzling now. What made them do it? (Now, of course, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim countries.)

It is interesting to note that Buddha’s birth place is on the border of India and Nepal and only these two countries are NOT predominantly Buddhist, while others like Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, China etc. are. There is a parallel here with Christianity in the sense, Jesus Christ’s homeland Israel is not Christian, while a large chunk of the world is.
Same story with Zoraster, you will find Zorastrians in many countries except in Iran.

This is just an observation. I am NOT trying to draw any conclusions here.

Everywhere, the Hindu and Buddhist monuments are almost side by side. However, there is not much evidence of vandalism on these monuments. The damage caused is mostly by elements.

In Indonesia, volcanoes also played a part in tumbling down the works of man. Mount Merapi was belching smoke in the air as usual, when we started for Prambanan from Yogyakarta.

As we explored the three main temples of Prambanan, the temple of ‘Slender Virgin’ and the three temples of ‘vehicles’ of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma (bull, Garuda, swan respectively) these thoughts kept running on my mind.

Sambisari Temple

I was particularly interested in the Sambisari Shiva temple because I had read that though small, it is perfectly preserved. It was discovered in 1966 because it lay 6.5 meters below the ground. The perfect state of the preservation was due to Mount Merapi’s eruption in1006, which covered the temple in volcanic ash completely.

It must have been a very large and very strong eruption to raise the level of the ground around by 6.5 meters, because I am sure the builders did not dig a large pit 20-25 feet deep and then built the temple inside the pit, but that is how it looks now.

It was not easy to find. Our cab-driver did not know anything about it and thought that probably we had heard some cock-and-bull story about a buried temple. Still, he was more than willing to drive around and search. The meter of the taxi was running and our bill was mounting. However, we still managed to find the temple, and the taxi-bill was worth it. It is a very cute, little, perfect temple, and its position in the pit (which is excavated) gives it an added charm. Our driver too was very happy. Now he had added one more tourist attraction of his repertoire.

What is that noise?

What? The Komodo dragon has come out of the blog? Run!!!

Bye Bye!! Ta Ta!! Chio !! See you!! Au Revoir!! Adieu !! Sayonara!!

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