Description: Less famous then its Buddhist counterpart Borobudur, the Hindu temple complex of Prambanan is another great historical sight close to Yogyakarta. It is also inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO (see
link). It was most likely built in the 9th and 10th century AD by the Mataram kingdom of central Java. Only a century after its construction, the temple complex was abandoned and came into decay. During Dutch power in Indonesia, the temples were being restored, still an ongoing activity today and partly funded by UNESCO.
The largest Hindu temple complex of Indonesia consists of around 250-foot tall pointed candis or Hindu shrines, scattered around in a nice area lined with trees. The three most important candis, centrally located, are the shrines dedicated to the supreme Hindu gods Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, with the highest one (for Shiva) measuring almost 50m. Inside of them you can find statues of them and people around them like their wife. On the outside you can find some nice stone carved reliefs. The smaller temples are not so interesting as many of them are still in rubble, but seen all together it forms a nice union.
Just 800m north of the Prambanan temple complex and still inside the park premises is another temple complex, namely the Buddhist Candi Sewu. This complex consists of one main temple and many smaller ones scattered around like on Prambanan. It is the biggest Buddhist temple in the country after Borobudur, built in the same period as Prambanan. As it was built so near to the Hindu temple, many historians conclude that Hindu and Buddhist people lived in harmony during those days.
The temple complex of Prambanan is located in the village Prambanan, 17km northeast of Yogyakarta. The village is located just next to the Yogyakarta to Solo highway, so there is plenty of public transport available. Bemo's to Prambanan leave every 5 to 10 minutes from the bus station in Yogyakarta. From the centre of the small town, the temples are just 5 minutes on foot. Entrance to the temple grounds used to be $7 but is now fixed to $10, payable in US dollars or the equivalent in local rupiahs, which might fluctuate due to its weakness on international markets.
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