CANDI PRAMBANAN

Beginning at a time in the time of the ancient kingdom on earth this archipelago. Tersebutlah two large Hindu kingdoms on the island of Java. Namely Pengging Kingdom with its king is King Damar Moyo, the other kingdom is the Kingdom of Pengging with king King Boko. It is said that Pengging Kingdom is a highly developed Hindu kingdom in Java and its people are very prosperous. King Damar Moyo who is King Pengging, is a very kind and wise king. He ruled his people very justly. This is what makes Penging Kingdom peaceful and very prosperous. King Damar Moyo has a son named Bandung Bondowoso who is very mighty and valiant. While in another part, the Kingdom of Boko is a palace that is still under the royal territory Pengging. In accordance with the era of this royal palace was ruled by a king named Prabu Boko. It is said that King Boko is known as a ghastly and cruel-faced giant, and also fond of eating human flesh. It is said that King Boko is also very well known as a despotic, cruel, and very arbitrary king in ruling his kingdom. But behind the form of a very cruel and terrible, it turns out King Boko has a very beautiful daughter beautiful face. Roro Jonggrang, that is the name of Puteri Prabu Boko. In addition to having a beautiful princess, Prabu Boko also has a patriarch of trust. The patih named Patih Gupala is also the form of a giant. The architecture of Prambanan temple follows the typical Hindu architecture traditions based on Vastu Shastra. The temple design incorporated mandala temple plan arrangements and also the typical high towering spiers of Hindu temples. Prambanan was originally named Shivagrha and dedicated to the god Shiva. The temple was designed to mimic Meru, the holy mountain, the abode of Hindu gods, and the home of Shiva. The whole temple complex is a model of the Hindu universe according to Hindu cosmology and the layers of Loka. Just like Borobudur, Prambanan also recognizes the hierarchy of the temple zones, spanned from the less holy to the holiest realms. Each Hindu and Buddhist concept has its own terms, but the concepts are essentially identical. Either the compound site plan (horizontally) or the temple structure (vertically) consists of three zones: [18] Bhurloka (in Buddhism: Kāmadhātu), the lowest realm of common mortals; humans, animals also demons. Where humans are still bound by their lust, desire and unholy way of life. The outer courtyard and the foot (base) part of each temple is symbolized the realm of bhurloka. Bhuvarloka (in Buddhism: Rupadhatu), the middle realm of holy people, occupied by rishis, ascetics, and lesser gods. Browse here to see the light of truth. The middle courtyard and the body of each temple symbolizes the realm of bhuvarloka. Svarloka (in Buddhism: Arupadhatu), the highest and holiest realm, reserved for the gods. Also known as svargaloka. The inner courtyard and the roof of each temple symbolizes the realm of svarloka. The roof of Prambanan temples are adorned and crowned with ratna (sanskrit: jewel), the shape of Prambanan ratna took the form of vajra that represent diamonds. In ancient Java temple architecture, ratna is the Hindu counterpart of the Buddhist stupa, and served as the temple's pinnacle. During the restoration, a well contained pripih (stone casket) was discovered under the center of the Shiva temple. The main temple has a well 5.75 m deep in which a stone casket was found on top of a pile of charcoal, earth, and remains of burned animal bones. Sheets of gold leaves with the inscription Varuna (god of the sea) and Parvata (god of the mountains) were found here. The stone casket contained sheets of copper, charcoal, ashes, earth, 20 coins, jewels, glass, pieces of gold and silver leaves, seashells and 12 gold leaves (which were cut in the shapes of a turtle, Nāga serpent, padma, altar , and an egg.The temple is adorned with panels of narrative bas-reliefs telling the story of the Hindu epic Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana The narrative bas-relief panels were carved along the inner balustrades wall on the gallery around the three main temples. The narrative panels on the balustrade read from left to right. The story starts from the east entrance where visitors turn left and move around the temple gallery in a clockwise direction. This conforms with pradaksina, the ritual of circumambulation performed by pilgrims who moves in a clockwise direction while keeping the sanctuary to their right. The story of Ramayana starts on Shiva temple balustrade and continues to Brahma temple. On the balustrades in Vishnu temple there is a series of bas-relief panels depicting the stories of lord Krishna from Bhagavata Purana.In the 930s, the court was shifted to East Java by Mpu Sindok, who established the Isyana Dynasty. An eruption of Mount Merapi volcano, located north of Prambanan in central Java, or a power struggle probably caused the shift. That marked the beginning of the decline of the temple. It was soon abandoned and began to deteriorate. The temples collapsed during a major earthquake in the 16th century. Although the temple ceased to be an important center of worship, the ruins scattered around the area were still recognizable and known to the local Javanese people in later times. The statues and the ruins became the theme and the inspiration for the Loro Jonggrang folktale. After the division of Mataram Sultanate in 1755, the temple ruins and the Opak River were used to demarcate the boundary between Yogyakarta and Surakarta (Solo) Sultanates, which was adopted as the current border between Yogyakarta and the province of Central Java.The Javanese locals in the surrounding villages knew about the temple ruins before formal rediscovery, but they did not know about its historical background: which kingdoms ruled or which king commissioned the construction of the monuments. As a result, the locals developed tales and legends to explain the origin of temples, infused with myths of giants, and a cursed princess. They gave Prambanan and Sewu a wondrous origin; these were said in the Loro Jonggrang legend to have been created by a multitude of demons under the order of Bandung Bondowoso. It is the largest hindu temple of ancient Java The temple attracted international attention early in the 19th century. In 1811 during British short-lived occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Colin Mackenzie, a surveyor in the service of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, came upon the temples by chance. Although Sir Thomas subsequently commissioned a full survey of the ruins, they remained neglected for decades. Dutch residents carried off sculptures as garden ornaments and native villagers used the foundation stones for construction material. Half-hearted excavations by archaeologists in the 1880s facilitated looting. In 1918, the Dutch began reconstruction of the compound and proper restoration only in 1930. Efforts at restoration continue to this day. The reconstruction of the main Shiva temple was completed around 1953 and inaugurated by Sukarno. Since much of the original stonework has been stolen and reused at remote construction sites, restoration was hampered considerably. Given the scale of the temple complex, the government decided to rebuild shrines only if at least 75% of their original masonry was available. Most of the smaller shrines are now visible only in their foundations, with no plans for their reconstruction