Buddhist Temples Ruins around Yogyakarta

I had not known that there were other interesting Buddhist ruins around Yogyakarta besides Borobudur temple.

It was only after I had booked the trip and began to do some research that I discovered that there were quite a number of other ancient Buddhist temples ruins around Yogyakarta.

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Candi Pawon

Pawon is a small temple about 1 km away from Borobudur. There is nothing particularly interesting about it. But it's a worth a short visit on the way to Mendut temple.

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Candi Mendut

The Mendut temple is quite a large temple. It supposedly has the largest Buddha statue in the whole of Indonesia. What I like about Mendut temple is the very elegant and beautiful statues in the shrine hall. The 3 statues in the shrine hall are very well preserved. The Sakyamuni statue is the center. The other is Avalokiteshvara (Guan Yin). As for the third statue, it seems that there are some arguments over whether it is Vajrapani or Maitreya. What I found unusual was that the statue of the Buddha had what appeared to abdominal muscles and genital bulge. While not unheard of, it is entirely quite rare to see statues depicted with musculature or genital bulge. (Over at museum in Danang Vietnam, I saw a Hindu statue with abs muscles. It was pointed out that it is quite rare to find that.)

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Candi Sewu


Candi Sewu is within the Prambanan complex. It is north of the Prambanan temples.

It seems that most visitors visiting Prambanan temple missed the Sewu temple. While Prambanan was very crowded, Sewu was quite deserted.

Sewu is not a single structure. Rather, it is a temple complex. It's a big temple surrounded by many small shrines. However, most of the shrines are in ruins. I think it would have been very impressive if the shrines are intact.

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Candi Plaosan



The Plaoson Temples are also known as the twin temples because there are 2 almost identical temple next to each other. It is about 3km away from the Prambanan temples. However, most people do not know about it. Most tour itinerary to Prambanan do not include Candi Plaosan.

I could only enter the south temple as the north temple was barricaded. There are 3 shrine halls in the temple. The statues in the temple are beautiful as well. Unfortunately, they are not as well preserved as those at Mendut temple.



What I really like about Plaoson temple are the lotus motifs found on the temple walls. On the temple walls, there are many reliefs of devas holding lotus flowers. The lotus flower motifs are varied and beautiful. Some are in bud form. Some open like a sun flower. Some are like the usual lotus seat. Some are in half bloosom.

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Candi Kalasan



The Kalasan temple is dedicated to Tara, hence it is also known as Candi Tara. (Apparently Candi Kalasan is a misnomer. When the temple was discovered, people thought it was the Kalasan temple found in some record. It was only later that people realize this was a different temple from the Kalasan temple in the records.)

It is a relatively big temple but quite badly damaged. Most of the wall reliefs are gone except for the southern face. Some reliefs of Tara can still be found.

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There were a few more temples ruins which I did not visit, such as Candi Sari.

The website Yogyes has quite a comprehensive list of the ruins around Yogyakarta. http://www.yogyes.com/

Most tours going to Prambanan do not go to these other temples. So you do need to book your own vehicle. And since most tours do not go to these temples, you do pretty much have the place to yourself.

I do recommend booking your own vehicle. Candi Kalasan, Sari, Parambanan, Sewu, Plaoson are all along the Yogya - Solo road. The rate of a car booking was about Rp 400,000 (Apr 2009).
If you are alone, I would recommend booking a tour with Via Via Cafe (http://www.viaviacafe.com) on a motorcycle. It's about Rp100,000 per person.

It's well worth the money if you have an keen interest in the Buddhist ruins.