Borobudur and Prambanan

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I'm currently in Yogyakarta in central Java. Most things here are closed for Ramadan which is a shame - you can pay to get into the Sultan's palace, but can actually only see the very outer courtyard which is pretty plain and a bit pointless. There are however, two fantastic temples nearby, that during Ramadan are much much quieter. The day before yesterday I went to see the most westerly of the two - Borobudur. Borobudur is the largest buddist temple in the world, and is a huge square stone temple, built of several layers. The first few layers have carved stone stories, showing aspects of life that will result in you being reincarnated as at a higher, or a lower level of life. After the story levels, and three levels with huge stupas, containing budda statues - most without heads. It's meant to be good luck if you can reach inside and stroke a foot though I didn't try.

Yesterday, I headed to see the other temple - Prambanan. Prambanan is a Hindu temple, and very very different in style. It consists of several stones pyramid shapes, each to a different Hindu god. It was really sad to see if though because the earthquake in 2006 did a lot of damage. The largest of the temples is surrounded with scaffolding, and there are hundreds and hundreds and stone pieces laid out on the grass that will take years of painstaking work to match up - although a lot of these are not from the earthquake. You can't go up to many of them now because they just aren't safe, but a few years ago you could walk inside.

Not far from the main Prambanan temple is another temple on the same site called Candi Sewu. I was walking around with an American couple and we were the only people that seemed to walk out to this temple. We met a guy who's life work is the restoration of the temple there, and it has been for the last 4 generations of his family. He showed us the order of his work, and how they match up and mark each stone, making a complete layer on the grass before they transport it to the right spot to add it to the structure, and then start on the next layer. He took us under the barriers inside the most complete structure and led us around under scaffolding and over beams.

There is a ballet the Ramayana ballet that runs about twice a week, on a stage with Prambanan lit up in the background, which is really beautiful. That was on last night - I'd timed the trip to the temples to match it. Really beautiful costumes and a really intricate story, about a man who falls in love with another man's wife, because she looks like someone he knew as a child and then kidnaps her away. It leads to war, and trickery and all sorts before the story ends with the woman back with her husband again.

No time to upload photos today but will add some soon I hope. I'm flying back to Bali tonight, so need to change some money and eat etc before I head to the airport. Pray for me!!

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Photos

Borobudur - budda inside stupa
A budda head viewed through the holes in one of the stupas on the upper levels.

Borobudur - Stupas and budda
A series of stupas on the upper level, one with the budda exposed.

Borobudur - carved images
One of the lower levels of Borobudur showing the carved scenes around the walls.

Prambanan - before the quake
Poster of before the quake

Prambanan - after the quake
Poster showing images after the quake.

Ramayana ballet
Ramayana ballet - performed on a stage with Prambanan temple in the background