North Track




      North track from the holy shrines

     Prambanan is the 9th century Hindu temple compound in Central Java, Indonesia, near Jogja (Yogyakarta city), dedicated to Trimurti—the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia & one of the largest south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, and by the towering 47m high central Shiva temple inside a large complex of individual temples. These temples stand despite having seen abandonment and deterioration due to power struggles and decline in the ruling empire as well as major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of Merapi, located north of Prambanan, in the 10th, 16th, and 21st centuries.

     The Prambanan compound has 200+ temples in this Shivaite temple complex. There are three main zones. First the outer zone marked by a rectangular wall that has been destroyed and next the middle zone containing in four concentric rows 224 individual small shrines ("Candi Perwara" guardian or complementary temples) whose foundations stand but the remainder of the temples are scattered stones. The final zone is the holiest inner zone that comprises of eight main temples and eight small shrines on a square elevated platform surrounded by square stone walls with stone gates on each of the four cardinal points. The three main temples are dedicated to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. The three shrines in front of the three main temples are dedicated to the vehicles or vahanas of Brahma (the swan Angsa), Shiva (the bull Nandi), and Vishnu (the eagle Garuda).

     Prambanan was an important religious, political, and urban center. The construction of this royal temple is believed to have been started by Rakai Pikatan around 850 AD as the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty’s answer to the Buddhist Sailendra's Borobudur and Sewu temples nearby. It likely marked the return of Sanjaya dynasty to power after almost a century under Sailendra domination on Central Java. The complex served as the royal temple of the Hindu Kingdom of Mataram, with most of the state's religious ceremonies and sacrifices conducted there. At the height of the Mataram kingdom, scholars estimate that hundreds of Brahmins with their disciples lived within the outer wall of the temple compound. The urban center and the court of Mataram were located nearby in the Prambanan valley. The temple compound was expanded by successive Mataram kings with the addition hundreds of perwara temples around the chief temple.