Prambanan Temple, the Archaelogical Park

In the first post, I want inform to you about the Prambanan Park. Prambanan temple is one of the  archaelogical park besides Borobudur temple or Tamansari. This temple is located in Jl. Raya Yogya-Solo km.16 Prambanan, Yogyakarta-Indonesia.

Let me tell you a little about the history of Prambanan temple: Ancient Java’s greatest empire. The Mataram, first appeared on the stage of history in 732 AD, the year Sanjaya, a Hindu noble, established territorial rule over the fertile plains between the Progo and Opak rivers. In 750 AD, the Budhist Syailendra  dynasty overthrew Sanjaya, whose family and followers were exiled to the highlands on the periphery of Mataram. A century later, Rakai Pikatan, a descendant of King Sanjaya married into the Syailendras and rose to power. With his ascedancy came the rebirth of Hinduism and a new spate of the temle building, most notably the construction of Prambanan’s Roro Jonggrang complex.

Rakai  Pikatan began contruction of the temples in 856 AD to commemorate the return of the temples in 856 AD to commemorate the return to power of Sanjaya Dynasty. However, the complex was abandoned the next century when the Mataram court and most of the population moved to east Java, and the temple themselves collapsed during an earthquake in the 16 century. Half hearted excavations by the archaeologists in 1880s only facilitated looting. Proper restoration began only in 1930 and continues today.

Three towering temples (candi)  on the central terrace dominate the complex. The most imposing is the 47 meter central edifice, Roro Jonggrang – The Slender Maiden. Arguably, Roro Jonggrang is dedicated to Shiva, while the smaller temples to the north and south are dedicted to Vishnu and Brahma respectively. (taken from the brochure of Prambanan temple)

We can see another temple in Prambanan park, such as Sewu temple, Bubrah temple and Lumbung temple. And this park has various another facilities, such as:

·         Ramayana Open theater(at evening that scheduled, we can watch the performance of Ramayana Ballet),

·         Play Ground Area

·         Archaelogical Museum & Audio visual

·         Restaurant

·         Souvenir Shop

·         Camping Area

       If you are residing in Jogja now, i suggest to you to visit this place, this is the wonderfull place. Come on gets the maps of tids temples     

(all of the photo's i take from  http://www.google.co.id/images?hl=id&q=candi%20Prambanan&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=579)