The Borobudur temple is one of the most impressive monuments ever created by man. This was constructed between about AD 778 and 850, under the Shailendra dynasty. It was buried under volcanic ash from about 1000 and overgrown with vegetation until discovered by the English lieutenant governor Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1814.

Built with about 2,000,000 cubic feet (56,600 cubic metres) of gray volcanic stone, Borobudur encloses a small hill and is shaped like a stepped pyramid with three major levels—a square base,a middle level of five square terraces, and an upper level of three circular terraces—totaling, in effect, nine lesser sections (the number nine is mystic in Buddhism). The centre, 103 feet (31.5 metres) above the base, consists of a large individual stupa.

3 files, last one added on Nov 01, 2008

The Candi Prambanan (also known as Lara Jonggrang) was said to have been built by Dhaksa, a king of Mendang-Mataram (Hindu-Mataram) in the early 10th century, to worship the Hindu god Shiva. It is the largest Shiva temple in Indonesia. Lara Jonggrang, meaning Slender Maiden, was the name given by the people of the neighbourhood to a large statue of the Hindu goddess Durga (wife of Shiva) in the temple. The Lara Jonggrang was built on a four-square plane, surrounded by four walls with four large gates. The temples are subdivided into a higher and a lower terrace. On the higher terrace are major temples of Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma with three smaller temples of their animal vehicles. The temples of the gods are decorated with reliefs depicting the story of the Ramayana, one of the great Hindu epics.On the lower terrace are four sets of smaller temples surrounded by an inner wall with four gates. Restoration of the Lara Jonggrang, which had been partly damaged, was completed in 1951.

0 files

3 files, last one added on Oct 12, 2005

9 files, last one added on Mar 22, 2009