The Indonesia Diaries : Prolog

Prolog:

So I did a whirlwind tour of Indonesia about 3 weeks ago - there was an extra day off on account of Good Friday. As it has been with almost all of the South-East Asia trips this was quite adventure filled as well.

We decided to do the trip one a couple of days before the holidays and didn't have a plan until the last minute. Heck, we didn't even have a plan even after we arrived in Jakarta. Unlike Malaysia or Thailand or even Batam / Bintan (Although I'd like to call them Singaporean colonies rather than parts of Indonesia), the common man in Jakarta doesn't speak or understand even bits and pieces of English. This proved to be a nightmare. Somehow we managed to beat all odds and successfully completed a 30 Hour long, 1300+ Km road trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta by the locals) amidst some of the worst, haphazard and dangerous traffic you could ever imaging. Pause for a moment and picture this phrase about traffic woes in a different country coming from an Indian.

Our main attractions were supposed to be in Jogja - Mount Merapi (an active volcano), Borabudhur (the largest buddhist temple complex in the world!) and last but not least the Prambanan Temple complex!

I will do detailed posts on the trip in its entirety an all these attractions separately, but to kick-start this series, here is a shot of Candi Prambanan.

Introduction:

The opening stanza of the Wikitravel article on Prambanan sets the tone for what is about to come:

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, in almost any other country a magnificent ancient monument on the scale of Prambanan would quickly be designated a national symbol. In Indonesia though it is somewhat overshadowed by the even more awe-inspiring nature of nearby Borobudur. The two sites are quite different in style with Hindu Prambanan being a collection of sharp, jaggedly sculpted towers in contrast to the vast horizontal bulk of Buddhist Borobudur.

This temple was built around 850 CE - to put it in perspective, the famous Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was built in 1010 AD.  The complex was built by the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty apparently to mark their return to central Java after the Buddhist Sailendra Dynasty.

Etymology:

Since we are getting started with just this series, let us start by understanding the name Prambanan. A quest for this might give us some very interesting insights.

The present name Prambanan, Wikipedia tells me, is probably a corrupted Javanese pronunciation of "Para Brahman" ("of the brahmins"). What do they have to do here, you may ask?

To understand that, we need to go back a little bit in history.

Unlike most of the Eurpoean colonialism that we have been used to from the Medieval ages, Hinduism (and surprisingly, Islam) did not land in Indonesia by force. They were influencers - whose culture and way of life attracted the local kingdoms during their trading relationships and was eventually embraced upon. Apparently, references to Java and Sumatra have been found in Sanskrit texts from as early as 200 BC and such Indianized empires are supposed to have thrived in the region until Buddhism arrived in the 8th century. 

Not much of this information is present in the Indian history books other than customary references to Rajendra Chola's invasion of the region in 1025 AD. This not only weakened the Srivijaya empire but also eventually led to their fall and the rise of Islam over the next couple of centuries.

On a parallel topic, let us understand how the Prambanan temple is laid out. Originally there was total 240 temples stood in Prambanan. The Prambanan Temple Compound consist of:

• 3 Trimurti temples: three main temples dedicated to Shiva, Visnu, and Brahma
• 3 Vahana temples: three temples in front of Trimurti temples dedicated to the vahana of each gods; Nandi, Garuda, and Hamsa
• 2 Apit temples: two temples located between the rows of Trimurti and Vahana temples on north and south side
• 4 Kelir temples: four small shrines located on 4 cardinal directions right beyond the 4 main gates of inner zone
• 4 Patok temples: four small shrines located on 4 corners of inner zone
• 224 Pervara temples: hundreds of temples arranged in 4 concentric square rows; numbers of temples from inner row to outer row are: 44, 52, 60, and 68

We will go about how much of it has been restored and when it happened in a future post but for now, let us understand about the Pervara temples.

Apparently the 224 Pervara (Prahara?) temples served as a place of meditation for the temple priests! In addition to the structures in the complex, there is a HUGE park around it today. Originally, this was supposed to have been a priest's boarding school (Veda Pata sala). The supporting buildings for the temple complex were made from organic material; as a consequence no remains occur.

I will dwell into a little more interesting details / history in the future posts including how different is Hinduism that is practised in Indonesia from that we see close to home in India.

Stay tuned!