Prambanan, the Most Beautiful Hindu Temple

Prambanan temple is extraordinarily beautiful building constructed in the tenth century during the reigns of two kings namely Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Balitung. Soaring up to 47 meters (5 meters higher than Borobudur temple), the foundation of this temple has fulfilled the desire of the founder to show Hindu triumph in Java Island. This temple is located 17 kilometers from the city center, among an area that now functions as beautiful park.

There is a legend that Javanese people always tell about this temple. As the story tells, there was a man named Bandung Bondowoso who loved Roro Jonggrang. To refuse his love, Jonggrang asked Bondowoso to make her a temple with 1,000 statues only in one-night time. The request was nearly fulfilled when Jonggrang asked the villagers to pound rice and to set a fire in order to look like morning had broken. Feeling to be cheated, Bondowoso who only completed 999 statues cursed Jonggrang to be the thousandth statue.

Prambanan temple has three main temples in the primary yard, namely Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva temples. Those three temples are symbols of Trimurti in Hindu belief. All of them face to the east. Each main temple has accompanying temple facing to the west, namely Nandini for Shiva, Angsa for Brahma, and Garuda for Vishnu. Besides, there are 2 flank temples, 4 kelir temples and 4 corner temples. In the second area, there are 224 temples.

Entering Shiva temple, the highest temple and is located in the middle, you will find four rooms. One main room contains Shiva statue, while the other three rooms contain the statues of Durga (Shiva's wife), Agastya (Shiva's teacher), and Ganesha (Shiva's son). Durga statue is said to be the statue of Roro Jonggrang in the above legend.In the Vishnu temple, to the north of Shiva temple, you will find only one room with Vishnu statue in it. In Brahma temple, to the south of Shiva temple, you find only room as well with Brahma statue in it.

Quite attractive accompanying temple is Garuda temple that is located close to Vishnu temple. This temple keeps a story of half-bird human being named Garuda. Garuda is a mystical bird in Hindu mythology. The figure is of golden body, white face, red wings, with the beak and wings similar to eagle's. It is assumed that the figure is Hindu adaptation of Bennu (means 'rises' or 'shines') that is associated with the god of the Sun or Re in Old Egypt mythology or Phoenix in Old Greek mythology. Garuda succeeded in saving his mother from the curse of Aruna (Garuda's handicapped brother) by stealing Tirta Amerta (the sacred water of the gods).

Its ability to save her mother made many people admire it to the present time and it is used for various purposes. Indonesia uses the bird as the symbol of the country. Other country using the same symbol is Thailand, with the same reason but different form adaptation and appearance. In Thailand, Garuda is known as Krut or Pha Krut.

Prambanan also has panels of relief describing the story of Ramayana. Experts say that the relief is similar to the story of Ramayana that is told orally from generation to generation. Another interesting relief is Kalpataru tree that - in Hindu - the tree is considered tree of life, eternity and environment harmony. In Prambanan, relief of Kalpataru tree is described as flanking a lion. The presence of this tree makes experts consider that Javanese society in the ninth century had wisdom to manage its environment.

Just like Garuda, Kalpataru tree is also used for various purposes. In Indonesia, Kalpataru is used as the logo of Indonesian Environment Institution. Some intellectuals in Bali even develop "Tri Hita Karana" concept for environment conservation by seeing Kalpataru relief in this temple. This tree of life is also seen in the gunungan (the puppet used as an opening of traditional puppet show or wayang kulit). This proves that relief panels in Prambanan have been widely known throughout the world.

If you see the relief in detail, you will see many birds on them; they are real birds as we can see on the earth right now. Relief panels of such birds are so natural that biologists can identify their genus. One of them is the relief of the Yellow-Crest Parrot (Cacatua sulphurea) that cites unanswered question. The reason is that the bird only exists in Masakambing Island, an island in the middle of Java Sea. Then, did the bird exist in Yogyakarta? No body has succeeded in revealing the mystery.

You can discover many more things in Prambanan. You can see relief of Wiracarita Ramayana based on oral tradition. If you feel tired of enjoying the relief, you can take a rest in the beautiful garden in the complex. Since 18 September 2006, you can enter zone 1 area of Prambanan temple. The damage caused by the earthquake on 27 May 2006 is being reconstructed. Please come and enjoy Prambanan temple.

Prambanan face-lift: A long, winding road

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 11/24/2001 7:11 AM | Life

Bambang Tiong, Contributor, Yogyakarta

The glorious appearance of the three main temples in the Prambanan Temple compound will prompt people to think of the past. Many have no idea that it took more than 100 years to make the temples look as they do today.

A book published by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 1991 points out that Dutchman C.A. Lons first reported the discovery of Prambanan (also known as Roro Jonggrang) Temple in 1733. The temple was in ruins, abandoned amid grass and trees.

An epigraph found at the site revealed that the Sanjaya Dynasty, the biggest Hindu kingdom in Java, built the temples around the middle of the ninth century.

It was discovered later that the compound consisted of three main temples devoted to Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. They lie from south to north. There were three smaller wahana (transportation) temples for Garuda (a mythical bird mounted by the god Vishnu), Nandi (cow) and Angsa (goose) and hundreds of perwara (accompanying) temples. There were also two apit (flanking) temples, four kelir (color) temples and four corner temples. The site has 240 temples in total.

Shiva is the tallest main temple, standing at 47 meters. The other two are only some 30-meters high. The wahana temples are the same size, measuring 13 by 13 square meters with a height of some 22 meters. The perwara temples - there are some 224 of them - are arranged in such a way that the shorter temples lie on the outside and become taller toward the center.

The first attempts to reveal the temple's presence were made in 1885 by clearing the site of grass and shrubs followed by grouping the stones, under the supervision of J.W. Inzerman, Groneman and Th. van Erp.

The work, focusing on the restructuring of the Shiva temple, was continued 33 years later by the local archeological office under the supervision of P.J. Perquin. Due to the political situation at that time, the project was halted for some years and was only restarted in 1937. World War Two then caused another delay in the restoration work.

In 1951, the work began again and was completed on Dec. 20, 1953, before former president Sukarno publicly opened the Shiva Temple the same year.

Another restoration project, for the Brahma Temple, began in 1977 supported by the government's five-year development budget of some Rp 740 million (US$70,500). It finished in 1987. As for the Vishnu Temple, a nine-year restoration project began in 1982, with a budget of Rp 1.1 billion.

Even the wahana temples underwent restoration, just a month after the completion of the Vishnu Temple project. The complete restoration project finished in 1993.

The Yogyakarta Historical and Archeological Heritage Reserve (SPSP) office chairman, Wahyu Indrasana, said that so far only 18 of the 240 temples at the Prambanan Temple compound had been successfully restored. ""It's mainly due to the lack of funds,"" he said.

The complexity of the work played a major role in the long-term nature of the restoration project, apart from the financial problems.

""The temple stones have different sizes and forms. Besides, we are only allowed to replace 25 percent of them with new stones. Otherwise, we could be accused of faking the history and archeology,"" Wahyu said.

Bambang Prasetya, Chairman of the Restoration Working Group of Yogyakarta SPSP Office, agreed with Wahyu's opinion, saying that restoring a temple should be conducted by following a number of steps including searching for the original stones, deconstructing, conserving, making replacement stones and reconstructing.

He said that the restoration work would not return the temple to its original state.

""It has involved engineering, the main objective of which is to preserve the durability and wholeness of the temple,"" Bambang said. He also said that construction of the foundations had reached a depth of between 11 and 15 meters in order to reach the stable land layer.

This had forced the restorers to use steel, which was not found in the original structures. ""We use brass construction for the temples, as it is more resistant to corrosion than iron,"" said Bambang.

The current structures of Prambanan Temple, especially the Brahma and Vishnu temples, will be able to survive for another 1,000 years.

""It will survive if nature is stable, even with earthquakes of five to six on the Richter scale and no human interference is involved,"" Bambang said.