Yogyakarta

For centuriesYogyakarta was a royal kingdom and powerful trading centre, the seat of the powerful Mataram Empire. The patina of power and pride built up over the centuries still lingers. Today, it is best known as a city of culture and the arts with a population of over 10 million. Yogyakarta Kraton, a two century old palace complex stands at the very heart of the city. According to traditional cosmoslogical belief, the Javanese ruler is literally the "navel" or central spike of the universe, anchoring the temporal world and communicating with the mystical realm of powerful deities. In this scheme of things, the Kraton is both the capital of the kingdom and hub of the cosmos, bringing the two into coincidence through the application of certain eleborate design principles. It houses not only the sultan and his family, but alos the powerful dynamic regalia, private meditation and cermonial chambers, a magnificent throne hall, several audience and performance pavilions, a mosque, an immense royal garden, stable, barracks , an arnaments foundry and two expensive parade ground planted with sacred banyan trees.

Taman Sari (the Water Castle) , constructed over a period of many years by Hamengkubuwono I, and then abruptly abandoned after his death. It is now a series of pleasure gardens rebuilt in the 18th century for the sultan and his family. The complex once boasted lighted underwater corridors, underground mosques and meditation platform floating in a sea of lilies. The most remarkable structure at Taman Sari is the Sumur Gumuling, commonly refer to by the local as the mosque.

Prambanan, the Buddhist and Hindu temple complexes of the Prambanan Plain are among the finest flowerings of ancient Javanese architecture. It was completed sometime around 856 to commemorate the victory of Sanjaya’s Sivatic descendent, Rakai Pikatan, over the last Sailendran ruler. The central courtyard of the complex contain eight building . The largest temple, the masterpiece dedicated to Siva is Loro Jonggrang.

 

 

Local legend has it that Loro Jonggrang was a princess woved by an unwanted suitor. She commanded the man to build a temple in one night, then frustated his nearly successful effort by pounding the rice mortar, prematurely annoucing the dawn. Enraged, he turn the maiden to stone, she remains here in the northest chamber of the temple, as a statue of Siva’s consort, Deuga.

 

 

 

Borobudur, at the northwest of Yogyakarta, is a the world’s largest Buddhist temple and the greatest ancient monument. It was built sometime during the relatively short reign of the Sailendra Dynasty between 778 and 856, 300 years before Angkor Wat and 200 years before Notre Dame. It is one of the wonders of the world, and artificial mountain of some 60,000 cubic meter of stone. Borobudur was forgetten, buried and protected by ash from successive eruptions of Mt Merapi until its rediscovery in the early 19th century. The temple was reconstructed to resemble Indian sacred Mt Meru, with a series of square and circular terraces linked by four main stairways.

Candi Mendut is located on the route to Borobudur. The large central dagob and a series of smaller ones that once crowed the temple’s roof are now missing, so that its broad base and high body now seem rather plain from a distance. However, the delightful bas- relief come to life as you approaches it. The base and both side of the staircase are decorated with scenes from moralistic fables and fokltales, many of which concern animals. The main body of Mendut contains superbly carved panels depicting bodhisattva and Buddhist goddesses, the largest reliefs found on any Indonesian temple. The wall of the antechamber are decorated woth money trees and celestial beings , and contains two beautiful panels of a man and a woman amid swarms of playful children. It is thought that these represent child eating ogres who converted to Buddhism and became protectors instead of devourers