{"id":592,"date":"2015-02-18T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/indonesian\/?p=592"},"modified":"2015-02-11T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T10:14:08","slug":"prambanan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/indonesian\/prambanan\/","title":{"rendered":"Prambanan – Indonesia’s Largest Hindu Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the highlights of traveling across Java is a visit to the 9th century Hindu temple compound of Prambanan. The largest Hindu temple in all of Indonesia and one of the biggest in SE Asia, this impressive structure was recognized as an outstanding religious complex when it was given UNESCO status in 1991. To help you plan your visit to Prambanan, here’s a bit of history and details on traveling there:<\/p>\n

History<\/h1>\n
\"Indonesia's<\/a>

Indonesia’s largest Hindu temple – Prambanan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Construction of the Prambanan temple complex began with\u00a0Rakai Pikatan<\/b>, a king of the Medang\/Mataram Kingdom. It was dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva – the destroyer, and was expanded by successive kings. At its peak, there were 240 temples in total with the compound serving as the royal temple. The good times wouldn’t last, though, as the grand temple was eventually abandoned and left to deteriorate. It’s believed this was either due to an eruption of the nearby Mt. Merapi or potentially a political struggle.\u00a0In the 16th century, a huge earthquake led to the collapse of the temple.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The main three shrines at Prambanan.<\/p><\/div>\n

After many years of neglect, Prambanan was rediscovered by the Dutch. Surveys and excavations began on the temple grounds, but formal restoration efforts did not begin until 1930. As much of the original stonework had been stolen, only those structures with 75% of the original material available were rebuilt. Yet another earthquake in 2006 did further damage to the temple. Restoration efforts are ongoing, so don’t be surprised if some of the shrines are covered in scaffolding on your visit.<\/p>\n

Local Legend<\/h1>\n
\"There's<\/a>

There’s an old legend behind this temple…<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the temple was rediscovered by the Dutch, the locals were fully aware of the temple ruins. In fact, they developed quite the interesting legend to attach to the temple. As the story goes, a man named Bandung Bondowoso wanted to marry a beautiful princess named Loro Djonggrang. Although the king agreed to his request, the princess did not want to oblige. She came up with a clever idea to avoid marrying him, though – she told him she would only accept if he could build 1,000 temples before dawn. Thanks to a little bit of magic and some assistance from genies, Bandung had the 999th completed and was about to win the girl. With time running out, she decided to ask the women of the village to start pounding rice and light a fire in order to wake the roosters. Her plan worked, and Bandung fell just short of finishing the 1,000th temple. Furious, Bandung decided to turn the princess into stone. A statue of her graces the main temple, which explains the Javanese name for the temple –\u00a0Rara Jonggrang<\/i>, meaning “slender maiden.” In addition, a nearby temple is named Candi Sewu – “a thousand temples.”<\/p>\n