CANDI SUKUH

Sukuh Temple is a Hindu temple complex which is administratively located in Berjo Village area, Ngargoyoso Subdistrict, Karanganyar Regency, Central Java. This temple is categorized as a Hindu temple because of the discovery of the object of lingga and yoni idol. This temple is considered controversial because of its unusual shape and because the depiction of human genitals explicitly in some of its figures. Sukuh Temple has been proposed to UNESCO to become one of the World Heritage Sites since 1995. Sukuh temple site was first reported during the reign of Great Britain in the land of Java in 1815 by Johnson, Resident of Surakarta. Johnson was then tasked by Thomas Stanford Raffles to collect data to write his book The History of Java. After the reign of Great Britain passed, in 1842, Van der Vlis, Dutch archaeologist, conducted research. The first restoration started in 1928. The location of Sukuh temple is located on the slopes of Lawu Mountain at an altitude of approximately 1,186 meters above sea level at coordinates 07o37, 38 '85' 'south latitude and 111o07 ,. 52'65 '' West Longitude. This temple is located in Hamlet Sukuh, Berjo Village, Ngargoyoso District, Karanganyar Regency, Central Java. This temple is located approximately 20 kilometers from the town of Karanganyar and 36 kilometers from Surakarta.Build Sukuh building gives the impression of striking simplicity to the visitors. The impression gained from this temple is very different from that obtained from other large temples in Central Java namely Borobudur Temple and Prambanan Temple. The shape of the Sukuh temple building tends to resemble the Mayan cultural heritage in Mexico or the Inca cultural heritage in Peru. This structure also reminds visitors of pyramidal forms in Egypt. This impression of simplicity attracts the attention of renowned Dutch archaeologist, W.F. Stutterheim, in 1930. He tried to explain it by giving three arguments. First, the possibility of carving Sukuh Temple is not a mason but a carpenter from the village and not from the palace. Secondly, the temple is made with a little haste so it is less tidy. Third, the political situation at that time with the fall of Majapahit, it is not possible to create a large and magnificent temple. Visitors entering the main entrance and entering the largest archway will see a distinctive architectural form that is not composed perpendicularly but rather oblique, trapezoidal shaped with a roof over it. The stones in this temple is a bit reddish, because the stones are used andesite type .. On the first terrace there is a main gate. In this gate there is a sengkala memet in the Javanese language that reads the blind gate of aban wong ("giant arch of human prey"), each of which has meanings 9, 5, 3, and 1. If reversed it is found in 1359 (Saka) 1437 AD). This year's figure is often regarded as the year of the founding of this temple, although more likely is the year of completion of this gate built. On the other side there is also relief sengkala memet tangible elephant that bite the tail of a snake. This is considered to symbolize the blowing sound of a blind gate ("giant gate biting the tail"), which can also be interpreted as 1359 Saka