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- Yogyakarta
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For
centuriesYogyakarta was a
royal kingdom and powerful trading centre, the
seat of the powerful Mataram Empire. The patina
of power and pride built up over the centuries
still lingers. Today, it is best known as a city
of culture and the arts with a population of over
10 million. Yogyakarta Kraton, a two
century old palace complex stands at the very
heart of the city. According to traditional
cosmoslogical belief, the Javanese ruler is
literally the "navel" or central spike
of the universe, anchoring the temporal world and
communicating with the mystical realm of powerful
deities. In this scheme of things, the Kraton is
both the capital of the kingdom and hub of the
cosmos, bringing the two into coincidence through
the application of certain eleborate design
principles. It houses not only the sultan and his
family, but alos the powerful dynamic regalia,
private meditation and cermonial chambers, a
magnificent throne hall, several audience and
performance pavilions, a mosque, an immense royal
garden, stable, barracks , an arnaments foundry
and two expensive parade ground planted with
sacred banyan trees.
Taman
Sari (the Water Castle) , constructed
over a period of many years by Hamengkubuwono I,
and then abruptly abandoned after his death. It
is now a series of pleasure gardens rebuilt in
the 18th century for the sultan and his family.
The complex once boasted lighted underwater
corridors, underground mosques and meditation
platform floating in a sea of lilies. The most
remarkable structure at Taman Sari is the Sumur
Gumuling, commonly refer to by the local as the
mosque.
Prambanan, the
Buddhist and Hindu temple complexes of the
Prambanan Plain are among the finest flowerings
of ancient Javanese architecture. It was
completed sometime around 856 to commemorate the
victory of Sanjaya’s Sivatic descendent,
Rakai Pikatan, over the last Sailendran ruler.
The central courtyard of the complex contain
eight building . The largest temple, the
masterpiece dedicated to Siva is Loro
Jonggrang. 
Local legend has it that
Loro Jonggrang was a princess woved by an
unwanted suitor. She commanded the man to build a
temple in one night, then frustated his nearly
successful effort by pounding the rice mortar,
prematurely annoucing the dawn. Enraged, he turn
the maiden to stone, she remains here in the
northest chamber of the temple, as a statue of
Siva’s consort, Deuga.
Borobudur, at the
northwest of Yogyakarta, is a the world’s
largest Buddhist temple and the greatest ancient
monument. It was built sometime during the
relatively short reign of the Sailendra Dynasty
between 778 and 856, 300 years before Angkor Wat
and 200 years before Notre Dame. It is one of the
wonders of the world, and artificial mountain of
some 60,000 cubic meter of stone. Borobudur was
forgetten, buried and protected by ash from
successive eruptions of Mt Merapi until its
rediscovery in the early 19th century. The temple
was reconstructed to resemble Indian sacred Mt
Meru, with a series of square and circular
terraces linked by four main stairways.
- Candi Mendut is located on the route to Borobudur. The large central dagob and a series of smaller ones that once crowed the temple’s roof are now missing, so that its broad base and high body now seem rather plain from a distance. However, the delightful bas- relief come to life as you approaches it. The base and both side of the staircase are decorated with scenes from moralistic fables and fokltales, many of which concern animals. The main body of Mendut contains superbly carved panels depicting bodhisattva and Buddhist goddesses, the largest reliefs found on any Indonesian temple. The wall of the antechamber are decorated woth money trees and celestial beings , and contains two beautiful panels of a man and a woman amid swarms of playful children. It is thought that these represent child eating ogres who converted to Buddhism and became protectors instead of devourers
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