Jogjakarta Day 1: PRAMBANAN

Scenes from Prambanan

Our first morning in Jogjakarta was spent at the Prambanan - a 10th century Hindu temple - which is the largest in Indonesia.  Situated inside an archaeological park, Prambanan is composed of several tall, jagged-like sculptures built around 850 AD.  There are three main temples for three Hindu divinities: Shiva the destroyer , Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver.

The largest of the three is the one dedicated to Shiva where bas reliefs of the Hindu epic Ramayana are portrayed on the walls surrounding the lower level.  The story of the Ramayana is then continued onto the walls of the temple to Brahma.

Prambanan reliefs telling the story of the Hindu epic Ramayana

It is amazing to see these high grey stone structures reaching to the sky and hard to imagine the amount of work it must have taken to build it.  The work that needs to be done to preserve this ancient marvel continues daily with more stones being uncovered and other nearby temples being discovered.  We didn't have much time to explore but it was enough to have seen it even for a couple of hours and absorb the historical significance of this temple to Hinduism.

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Prambanan

Jogjakarta, Indonesia