Prambanan, built in 9th century, is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and easily recognized from distance because of the towering central buildings inside the large temple complex…
Located around 20km east of Yogyakarta, Prambanan has three main temples in the center of the complex as the symbol of Trimurti in Hindu belief, namely Brahma (the creator), Wisnu (the keeper) and Shiwa (the destroyer). Each main temple is accompanied by one smaller temple, Hamsa for Brahma, Garuda for Wisnu, and Nandini for Shiwa. At the outer area, there are other 234 smaller temples, some of them are still yet to be reconstructed…
The popular legend of Loro Jonggrang connects Prambanan with Ratu Boko site. The legend tells the story about Prince Bandung Bondowoso who fell in love with Princess Loro Jonggrang, the daughter of King Boko. But the princess tried to reject his proposal of marriage by posing one impossible condition: Bandung must build her a thousand temples in only one night. Helped by supernatural beings, he succeeded in building 999 temples. But when the prince was about to complete the task, the princess asked the villagers to begin pounding rice and set a fire in the east of the temple, tried to make it look like dawn was coming. As the cocks began to crow, fooled by the light and the sounds of morning time, the supernatural helpers fled. Bandung Bondowoso was furious with the trick and he cursed Loro Jonggrang to become the last of the thousand statues…
I went to this site early in 2007. Most sections of the site were still closed due to reconstruction of the damaged shrines caused by the earthquake in May 2006. Not being able to take as many pictures as I wanted to, I hope I can go back there in the near future and take more pictures of this wonderful site…
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