Prambanan Temple

The "Big Two" ancient attractions in Jogja are Borobudur (the largest Buddhist complex in the world and 40 km from center) and Prambanan (the 2nd largest Hindu temple in the world after Ankor and 17 km from center). We had pre-booked a package from Sunrise Tours for this Hindu temple with car, admission, guide, dinner, and the ballet.

The sun was waning with threats of thunderstorms so the temperature was quite pleasant and Prambanan is surrounded by city parkland; a very different setting than Angkor. Our guide was very good, telling us it took 100 years to rebuilt the temples that once were a collection of over 200 built about 1000 CE and abandoned by the Javanese Hindus after only 150 years of occupation when an earthquake toppled the temples. They eventually moved to Bali after Islam gained a hold on Java. The temples were reconstructed by identifying the blocks “lock and key” over a period of 100 years with no more than a maximum of 25% of new building materials (according to UNESCO world heritage site rules). Just as in Rome, local people had carted off many of the original stones to reuse and our guide said he knows that some were used in the foundation of his house by his grandparents when they built; thus further reconstructions are not really feasible.Read more