Candi Prambanan (April 20, 2011)

Nope, I didn’t run this time. I walked and climbed flights of stairs to appreciate every detail of the beauty of Candi Prambanan. When my colleagues learned I was visiting Jogjakarta (Yogyakarta), they egged me to visit Prambanan. And so I did. As the locals have told me, it’s another beautiful creation. Magestic and towering with its Hindu character.

 Candi (temple) Prambanan is a few hundred years older than Borobudur. About 20-30 kilometers separates both temples. Prambanan boasts of three group of temples, the biggest and highest of which is Candi Siwa (Shiva) followed by the other temples representing the Hindu gods: Vishnu,  and Brahma.


Prambanan is said to have been constructed between the eight century and the ninth century A.D. In ancient time, it was the place where the capital of a kingdom-now known as “Keraton Boko” stood. According to our group’s tour guide, it is a pity that the ruins of the palace and temple can not give a hint about the existence of the kingdom and those who
had reigned there.

 

 

As I went from one small temple to bigger temples, It was obvious that reconstruction was being made. The guide told me that unlike Borobudur, which is getting its reconstruction and preservation fund from the Dutch government and UNESCO, Candi Prambanan is merely depending on allocation from the Indonesian government, thereby slowing the process of restoring the temples.

         

                                                                                                     

        

From one small temple to bigger temples, It was obvious that reconstruction was being made. The guide told me that unlike Borobudur, which is getting its reconstruction and preservation fund from the Dutch government and UNESCO, Candi Prambanan is merely depending on allocation from the Indonesian government, thereby slowing the process of restoring the temples.

As I went around, I couldn’t help myself admire and touch the reliefs and images depicting the story and legend of  Ramayana. Feeling them with my fingers felt good to the touch. The images had about 41 frames at the Shiva temple.  I studied this in high school and in my world literature class in university.







 
As I touched and traced the reliefs, the story run in my mind and how I loved the story. The other frames of reliefs in the temples told other stories of legends and reincarnation.








My experience with the tour guide in Borobudur wasn’t as pleasant, for I had to fill-in the blanks and infer what he was trying to tell me. However, the guide that we got for Prambanan was a lot better. Presumably in his sixties, he was a kind, gentle and a patient old man who zestfully answered my strings of questions.  He impressed me by his command of English and figurative expressions. He had my attention.  He knew his history and knew what he was talking about and above all, he made sense.

             

The tour ended but my mind was still playing all the images of the tour. Indeed it’s a special day, my d’ Day. The day I got to see two of the greatest temples ever built, on the very day that the stars were kind enough for me to meet and experience the best thing that ever happened to me.





Thank you for reading...'til the next journey.

Experiencing Borobudur, Central Java

April 20, 2011
Wednesday

d' Day...my day. A special day. I left the four corners of my school to go on a road trip to Borobudur. It was quite a long drive from Jogja, about 35 kilometers away or more from where i stayed.



It’s a very humid day giving me a bit of a migraine. As i sit in front of the kijang we rented and see parts of the province as we drove by, i tried to recall my first memory of Borobudur from a picture in my elementary history class. I'll never forget when i wished to myself that I'd visit it one day. Borobudur is on my list of places to visit. It's nothing fancy and modern but i knew in my heart it was worth visiting.

I dreamed of this day since I was twelve. It was scorching hot and i could feel the sun burning me but it didn't matter. I was just happy to see, touch and kiss this place as i have imagined it a long, long time ago.






Upon reaching the gates, we got ourselves a guide to explain, particularly to me about the brief history and legend of this famed Buddhist temple.

Setting the backdrop of Borobudur is a chain of hills and mountains. If not for our guide, i wouldn't know that the shape of the mountain on the west side was of a reclining man. According to the legend, a very strong and powerful man named Gunadarma, built the temple. When he got old, he just went nearby the temple and slept and died there.

As i take in the immense size and beauty of Borobudur, our guide started the historical account of this temple. For hundreds of years, Borobudur had existed unnoticed, overgrown in the tropical climate of Central Java. According to our guide, this Buddhist temple was constructed around 750 A.D. by a powerful and wealthy ruler of the Cailendra Dynasty. Borobudur  is a modification of two words from Sanskrit which means "accumulation of Virtue in the Ten Stages of the Bodhisattvas".

Taking note of its technical, architectural and symbolic structure, Borobudur is closely related to the other Buddhist temples in Cambodia and India. Our guide further said that though modern measuring, drilling techniques, aerial photography have helped to reveal much which until a few years ago was unknown, nevertheless a considerable amount of ignorance, speculation and mystification remains. Neither the exact date of construction nor the name of the ruler who ordered it is known.
 I felt genuinely sad about this.

 







Borobudur consists of nine superimposed terraces, symbolizing the nine levels of the Holy Mount Meru. All these levels represent the spiritual phases of existence. The first lower levels Kamadhatu symbolizes the transitoriness of life; where mortals still embrace earthly desires.The slightly upper levels represents Rupadhatu, where the followers renounce all human desires. While the highest level represents Nirvana or Eternal Deliverance.

The walls of the temple is adorned by frames of reliefs and stupas.  These images were said to have been carved painstakingly by followers depicting the life of  Siddharta Gautama - the founder of Buddhism, who was born in 560  B.C. and the legend of Gautama’s mother: Queen Maya. The Stupas surrounding the temple resembling like a bell are actually abstractions of a lotus blossom, again symbolizing Holy Mt. Meru.

 

                              

As I survey from the top, I thought of taking in the experience one more time. I went around and took pictures and touched the details one last time, reminding myself that I may not see Borobudur again.

I bid farewell to Borobudur and thanked God for the chance to see it on a special day: my d’ Day.

Thank you for reading.