Prambanan and Borobudur
Close to Yogya, there are 2 sets of temples: Prambanan and Borobudur. The first one is Hindu and the second one is considered one of the most important Buddhist monuments in the world. I visited both of them, starting with Prambanan.
When I visited Prambanan it was very crowded because of the Indonesian holiday. I got there around 2pm and was planning on staying at the site till the evening when the Ramanaya ballet would perform a dance at the temple. The site by itself is relatively small, so I was done seeing everything within an hour.
Since I had a lot of time, I decided to just sit somewhere in the shade and read a book. I didn’t get very far in my reading as, to my greatest surprise, many Indonesians stopped next to me to take pictures with me. I’m surely not the first Western person they see, so I couldn’t quite figure out why they wanted their pictures taken with me. However, within 10 minutes of sitting in my nice shady corner, a line had formed and people were waiting their turns to take pictures. I felt a little bit like Santa Claus with people putting their toddlers in my arms, but because I had nothing better to do, I went with it. It ended up being quite entertaining actually.
The Ramanaya dance performance in the evening was very beautiful. The dancing itself wasn’t quite my taste, but it was worth seeing once. The costumes and the makeup of the dancers were very intricate, and at some point they even lit both sides of the stage on fire. The whole performance took place in front of the temples.
The next day, I went to see Borobudur. I had to get up by 3am, because I wanted to see sunrise. This ended up being a good decision, as the sunrise was one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. The fog in the valley surrounded the temple and made the whole place look very mystical.
We arrived at the temple site itself at 6am. But mind you that at 6am, the place was as busy as times squares. I’m not joking… I blame it on the Indonesian holiday again… Borobudur is like a pyramid of small Buddhas. I fought my way to the top, took a few pictures and then immediately went to visit some of the lower levels of this pyramid. I was lucky that most Indonesians didn’t seem to appreciate the lower levels as much. There were only few people at each level and, to some extent, I could have part of the complex to myself. The Buddhas and the other stone carvings at each level were very beautiful. I was told that they depict the story of Buddhas life.
I am glad I visited Prambanan and Borobudur. They were both impressive monuments, but I can only imagine how much nicer it would have been without the crowd.
See more pictures here.