The most famous trip from Yogykarta is to Borobudor.

We chose a mini bus trip that took us to Prambanan as well.

Borobudor

This is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, It was built as a palace to Buddha between 788-840 AD and was a site of pilgrimage. In 1812 Raffles discovered it covered in bushes and it was gradually cleared.

 

 

 

The temple  portrays three zones of consciousness.

Zone one, Kamadhatu,  is inhabited by the common people and has one hundred and sixty reliefs showing the law of cause and effect.

Zone two, Rapudhatu, is where humans are released from worldly matters. Here there are Sanskrit manuscripts.

Zone three, Arupadhatu,  is the abode of the gods and has seventy two bell shaped stupas containing Buddha statues.

This spiritual journey takes you up past carvings and statues until you get to the top.

There is nowhere quite like this, standing among the bell shaped stupas looking over the misty landscape is a magical experience. Just be careful going down some of the steps are steep.

 

Prambanan

Heading back towards  Yogykarta we arrived at Prambanan, a ninth century Hindu temple. The main temples are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. It was gradually abandoned and was badly affected by an earthquake in the sixteenth century. Also rediscovered by Raffles, he commissioned a survey of the ruins but no serious restoration began until the 1930’s.  In the 1990’s further work was done. Many of the stones had been used for more modern building so the government made the decision to only restore buildings with at least seventy five percent of the stonework still on site. This means many of the smaller temples are just piles of rubble.

On a day we hadn’t been to Borobudor this huge site would have had more impact. So for that reason I think it would have been better to save it for another day.