Prambanan Temple Refurbished...

This past week I made a visit to Prambanan, a large temple complex located about 17 kilometers from the center of Jogjakarta in Central Java.  I first visited Prambanan back in 2007 and was really impressed by the structure, which was built in the 9th and 10th centuries by kings from the Sanjaya dynasty.  At that time, though, the temples had been heavily damaged by the catastrophic earthquake that struck the Jogja region on May 27, 2006.  Scaffolding surrounded several of the main temples, and because of the danger of falling stones you couldn't get too close.  I was pleased to see on my most recent visit that the restoration work seems to have been completed, and now visitors can actually enter some of the temples of the main compound.  Although I'd been to Prambanan several times, I was still awestruck by the temples, which seem all the more majestic without scaffolding surrounding them.

Photo taken in 2007

During the later half of the first millennium AD there were several competing kingdoms in the central part of Java.  One of these dynasties, the Sailendras, built the Buddhist monument of Borobudor which I've described in a couple of posts previously.  It is thought that construction of Hindu Prambanan (1) started later and was at least in part a response to the Borobudor project.  Prambanan is the largest temple complex on Java (there are over 230 temples in total), and so construction of all the hundreds of temples at the site took a long time, but most of the work was carried out under the reign of two kings: Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Balitung.  The main part of Prambanan consists of a walled compound of 11 temples.  Six of these are quite large and are what you see in the postcards of Prambanan.  The one in the middle, at 47 meters, is actually 5 meters higher than Borobudur.  This temple is for Shiva, while the large temples to the north and south are for Brahma and Vishnu respectively.  These three gods represent the Trimurti of deities in the Hindu religion and correspond to the cyclical nature of the universe; Brahma is the god of creation, Vishnu is the sustainer, and Shiva is the destroyer.  Each of these main temples has a smaller temple immediately to the west for each god's vehicle: Nandi the bull for Shiva, Garuda the eagle for Brahma, and Hamsa the sacred swan for Vishnu.  Outside of this central square there are several concentric squares of smaller temples, known as perwara ("guardian" or "companion") temples.  Almost all of these still stand as heaps of rubble, but you can easily get the idea of how expansive the complex was in its heyday.  Beyond this second square is a third square where religious ceremonies were held.  It is thought that in this area there were buildings for priests and pilgrims, but since those structures would have been built out of wood, none have survived.  You can see a diagram of the main compound and the surrounding smaller temples in the diagram below.

Diagram from here.

There's also an interesting local legend about the construction of Prambanan.  According to the story, a prince named Bandung Bondowoso fell madly in love with a princess named Roro Jonggrang.  Prince Bandung wanted to marry Roro, but she refused because Bandung had killed her father.  Prince Bandung was insistent, though, and wouldn't take "no" for an answer.  Roro told Bandung that she'd marry him if he could construct a temple with 1000 statues in a single night.  Bandung accepted the challenge and went to work, summoning spirits to help him with the project.  As the night wore on Roro noticed that Bandung was close to finishing the task while morning wasn't approaching fast enough, and so she asked all the villagers to start fires to fool the roosters into thinking it was dawn.  Her plan worked; the roosters crowed and Prince Bandung was thwarted just as he finished the 999th statue.  Enraged and feeling jilted, he called upon evil spirits to curse poor Roro.  She was turned to stone and the legend has it that she's the 1000th statue; according to the story she's the Durga statue in the main Shiva temple.

Like Borobudur, Prambanan has a series of story-telling reliefs, but in this case they illustrate scenes from the Ramayana rather than the life of Guatama Buddha.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Ramayana epic is really important in the Hindu religion, and you can find versions of the story all across Southeast Asia.  The epic narrates how Prince Rama's wife, Siti, is kidnapped by the evil goblin king and spirited away to the island of Langka.  The story unfolds as Rama enlists the aid of divine friends, including the great white monkey king Hanuman, who has an impressive array of superpowers.  It's an interesting story to read, and it will help you understand Prambanan (as well as ceremonies still performed in Bali) a bit better.  Another attraction of Pramabanan is the Ramayana ballet, which is performed most nights.  The performance is a shortened version of the Ramayana and uses modern interpretive dance to tell the story.  It's fun to watch, and is really nice visually as they use pyrotechnics and use a dramatically-illuminated Prambanan as the backdrop.  They also have a buffet dinner that you can pay extra for.

One of the temple compounds to the north
of the main compound

It's easy to get to Prambanan from Jogja; you can hire a cab for about US$5 from the city center, but it's difficult to get a cab coming back.  You can also ride the crowded TransJogja busway to Prambanan and cross the busy street to get to the site.  Sometimes it's hard to get on the bus in the middle of the route because they are too full, but it's easy to get on at Prambanan because it's the terminus of the line.   My suggestion then is to take a taxi to the monument (unless you have your own transportation) and then take the busway back.  It costs US$13/7 (adults/kids) to get in, but if you have a kitas you can get in at the local rate.  If you are in the area you should definitely visit Prambanan; it's something you won't forget.

Notes

(1) The name "Prambanan" comes from a nearby village.