Travelistar: The Prambanan Plain, Land of Ancient Ruins (part 2 of 3)

Ruin of Candi Sari

Only few hundreds meters from Kalasan Ruin, we can find the ruin of Candi Sari. Constructed at the same time when Kalasan was built, around 778 AD, as mentioned in Kalasan Inscription. This Budhist Monastery is easy to find, when you see the Kremlin Mosque, a Mosque that looks like the Orthodox Church in Kremlin, make a left turn. Small road with only 200 meters away from the ruin.

The ruin of Candi Sari served as Budhist Monastery. Unlike other temples I have seen previously, this ruin has two levels and 5 rooms or spaces inside. It is said that the upper level of the ruin were the rooms for the Budhist monks to rest. The center room was the worship place and supposedly to have Budha statue on its corner. The stairs to the second level made of wooden, which easily to decay over time.

It has rectangular shape with main door at the center, supposedly to have stairs like other ancient ruins, which has gone. There are five windows on the front face of the ruin, one above the main door and the other four are on the left and right side of the main door. Another four windows on each side of the ruin and two at the back. Each windows is decorated beautifully with Budhist Deities and the Kinnaras relief bass, mythical creatures that has bird body with human head. Some damaged small stupas are found on the top of the ruin.

This ruin, like the Kalasan ruin, is a single building. There is no trace of other building in the surrounding area. It is nice to just sit on a wooden chair provided and enjoy this ancient building. There were no other visitor at the time. I think this ruin is much less famous than the other. It offers tranquility we cannot find in other ruins. At the end, it's all we need to deeply impregnate the ancestor's glory.

Front face of Candi Sari

Appearance of Candi Sari

Side appearance of Candi Sari

A Niche inside Candi Sari

Ruins of Candi Prambanan

At estimated two km away from the Candi Sari Ruin, we will find the Magnificent Prambanan Compound. Located in the Prambanan Village, Klaten Regency. The Prambanan Compound, together with some other ruins, are located in the same area. We can just walk to explore all of them. Prambanan itself is the largest Hindu Temple Compound ever built in Indonesia Archipelago.

It consists of three main temples at the center dedicated to the Trimurti or the three main Hindu Gods Brahma, Siva an the Visnu. The Siva Temple would be the largest of them all and was built at the center. There are also two smaller ruins called Candi Apit and as many as 240 small ruins of Candi Perwara at the outer circle of the compound. Most of them are badly damaged, only few are well restored.

This compound was built during the Sanjaya Dynasty of Medang Kingdom, said to compete the preceding dynasty's, the Syailendra, glorious monument of Borobudur which was a Budhist. It was built at around 8th AD, at approximately four centuries before the construction of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. There are no words worthy enough to describe it's beautiful design. Prambanan is absolutely one of the most beautiful ancient structures in Indonesia, a must visit place before you die.

On the foot structure of the temples we can see relief bass telling the story of Ramayana Epic and the ancient life of Javanese people. Each structure has well designed stairs with two lion like beast statues on its end. Like many other ruins found in Java, the Kalamangkara or Mythical Beast head found on each entrance of the structures. This is the one feature that originated from Javanese culture and found nowhere else in the world. There are statues of Hindu's Deities reside in each of the main temples that gives the name of each building. They are The Temple of Brahma, Temple of Siva and The Temple of Visnu. Together with the statue of their vehicles namely Candi Nandi, Candi Angsa and Candi Garuda. Each are the Vahana or Vehicle of Siva, Brahma and Visnu.

Prambanan Compound

Close view of Prambanan Compound

Ramayana story relief bass

Ramayana Epic

The supposedly appearance of Prambanan Compound

The Roro Jonggrang Legend

Talking about Prambanan Compound is not complete if we forget to mention its construction according to local legend. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess of the Medang Kingdom named Roro Jongrang. She was considered as the most beautiful woman at the time. There are many Princes of other kingdom proposed a marriage to her which always end with rejection. Until, a one prince called Bandung Bondowoso, a powerful man that hold the power over spirits.

One day He proposed to marry Roro Jonggrang, and She refused. Only that, she did it in a polite way since She's afraid of the man's power that could harm Her or Her Royal Family. She proposed, which She thought it is impossible, to Bandung Bondowoso to built large temple complex, which consists of as many as a thousand temples in a night. Having a great power over spiritual beings, He agreed to the terms.

He, with the help of spiritual beings, started to built the temples. In midnight, the temple complex was almost finished. At the same time, Roro Jonggrang realized that Bandung Bondowoso is capable of fulfilling Her term to built the temple complex. She had an idea of how to make the man fails. So She started to wake up the villagers to start their morning routines, which is to pound the rice on a tool called "Penumbuk Padi". As the work started, the rooster started to crow as they hear the sound of the rice pounding by the villagers. Roro Jonggrang also asked the villagers to lit a fire from the east side of the Kingdom, as if the sun is rising.

Knowing that the sun has almost risen, all the spiritual beings started to run away and hide, leaving the work unfinished. Bandung Bondowoso got pissed by the tricks made by Roro Jonggrang. So He looked after Roro Jonggrang immediately. Once He found Her, He put a spell to Roro Jonggrang to become the last Statue to complete the work. The statue of Roro Jonggrang is now reside in the Temple of Siva as the Durga Goddess. Which is why the Prambanan Compound is also famous for its nickname Roro Jonggrang Temple. This story is told verbally from our Javanese ancestors as spoken folklore.