Guest Post: The Wonders of Prambanan and Borobudur

If you are visiting Indonesia for the first time, I wholeheartedly recommend scheduling a visit to the temples of Prambanan and Borobudur in central Java. These two remarkable temples were buried for hundreds of years beneath layers of vegetation and were discovered during Indonesia's period of British rule (1811 – 1816), by surveyors working under Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. You can comfortably visit both in a two-day period, basing your excursions out of the Amanjiwo resort.

Along with Borobudur, a grand lotus-shaped Mahayana Buddhist candi, or stupa, built by the Sailendra dynasty between 770 and 850 A.D., Prambanan is a wonder to behold. This Hindu temple is dedicated to Shiva and was built by the king of the Medang court during the 9th century. It is thought to owe its name to a Javanese linguistic equivalent of the Sanskrit Para Brahman, “the Supreme Brahma.” It tells the story of the great Hindu epic Ramayana, and is covered in beautifully descriptive bas relief renderings.  

We visited Prambanan on the way from the Yogyakarta airport to Amanjiwo, but to fully appreciate Borobudur, I recommend a pre-dawn tour the following morning. We rose at 4 a.m. to cover the five miles by bus and climbed to its summit with relative ease. This grand temple illuminates nothing less than the representation of the cosmos as Buddhist theology understands it.

As the sun rises above the distant smoky dome of Mount Merapi, a very active strato-volcano that sits above the city of Yogyakarta, one can look out over the verdant Kedu Plain and see the early morning fog floating lazily through the jungle. If you are bringing along a high-performance DSLR camera, a tripod is mandatory in order to capture the morning light. The views from the "realm of formlessness," or upper levels of the temple, are wonderfully serene.

We concluded our morning with a visit to the local fish and herb market. The warm and friendly vendors offer many treasures, ranging from Jatilan “horse trance-dance” finery to delectably dried spices and herbs. Each will be ready to negotiate the “best price” so arrive prepared to haggle a little.

Other options include a horse-drawn carriage ride through the nearby villages or a pleasant bike ride through terraced rice fields. The young uniformed students will be happy to pose with you for a picture as they make their way home from school.

Clayton Aynesworth is an Austin-based photographer and Andrew Harper member. His portfolio can be viewed here.