Yogyakarta

Ancient Capital

July 2024

Yogyakarta is in the south of the mountains in Central Java and home to Java's first ancient capital. My hostel called Happy Buddha was to the south of the city and a 20 minutes bike hop from the station. On reaching the hostel, I was greeted by Ardi who was in charge of the hostel and soon settled in comfortably into the Aircon private room that I had booked. 

Ardi gave me an orientation and the first thing that I did was to book the tickets to Borobodur which is limited per day and sells out very fast. I could get a climbing ticket only 3 days later and that too for the afternoon when it would be reasonably warm. After booking the tickets, based on Ardi's recommendation, went to have a Sambal meal at a nearby local restaurant which turned out to be extremely popular and crowded. It took almost an hour but finally I emerged having a wonderful lunch of Sambal Masak Teri (Anchovies) and Sambal Gudangan ( long beans, spinach, beansprout, cassava mixed with spicy grated coconut called Urap). The vegetables are half boiled, so they taste both crunchy and fresh. I had it with rice and Ayam Kampung Dada Goreng (translated as fried chicken breast from Kampung)

In the evening, went out for a stroll at Jl. Prawirotaman which was a few meters from the hostel, which is a street in the backpacker district with hostels, money changers, cafés & restaurants. This would be where I would spend most evenings in the restaurants and in the bars with live music

After hiring a bike for the next 3 days (Honda automatic and very popular in SE Asia), I set out for a nearby drive to the hills at the special region of Yohakarta and near the town of Imogiri. The roads were pleasantly good, marked well, with no honking and it was a pleasure going all the way up to the pine forests.

Prambanan Temple Complex

The next day, I set out for the world heritage site of Prambanan temple complex which was a 45 minute drive from the hostel. The site has an impressive complex of both Hindu temples (Prambanan is dedicated to Shiva and has Vishnu and Brahma temples as well). Nearby are the slightly older Buddhist temples of Lumbung, Candi and Sewu. All of them were built in the 8th and 9th Centuries.

Some historians suggest that the construction of Prambanan probably was meant as the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty's answer to the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty's Borobudur and Sewu temples nearby, and was meant to mark the return of the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty to power in Central Java after almost a century of Buddhist Sailendra dynasty domination (dual dynasty theory). Nevertheless, the construction of this massive Hindu temple signified a shift of the Mataram court's patronage, from Mahayana Buddhism to Shaivite Hinduism.

While exiting, I saw that there is a Ramayana ballet which is held on the Prambanan grounds. Unfortunately, the tickets were not available, also it would have been too late in the night for me to drive back, so I decided to instead go for another performance, Ramayana Ballet Purawisata which was in Yogya near my hotel which was a day later.

Borobodur

The next day after Prambanan is another highlight of Yogya which is the world famous buddhist site of Borobodur. The temple along with two other important sites - the Mendut Buddhist monastery and the Pawon temple is located in the North West of Yogya near the hills alongside the Progo river. Starting early in the morning, reached Borodur by 9 am. My Borobodur tour was at 0130 PM, so had a lot of time to explore the nearby areas. 

Umar and Yasumi

Near the Pawan temple is the Limanjawi art house. There is a decent art collection of local artists and antiques. The curator Umar took me around and I decided to buy a painting there. Umar is an artist from nearby and he married a Japanese, a lovely lady called Yasumi. While they packed up the paining, I sent and spent time having lunch at a delightful location by the river, Eloprogo Art House, owned by another artist friend of Umar called Sony.

Sony

Sony turned out to be an interesting person. He was from Sumatra and spent his artist days in Jakarta and Nice in France before deciding to buy a place and settle down to a life of contemplation in Borobodur. He runs a cafe and a homestay and for now, has stopped painting. Interestingly So is actual name is Santosh which he changed to Son and then added a Y. He wasn't aware of what Santosh meant and it all seemed wonderful to me how history moves on integrating the past with the future.

Sony talked about Atisa, a Buddhist philosopher from Bengal who had a major influence on Buddhism in Indonesia. I made a mental note to study more about him. Atisa spent time in Sumatra during the Srivijaya empire in the 9th century before going back to India and becoming the abbot at Vikramshila Monastery. He then went to Tibet and laid out the Buddhist path of the 3 vehicles- Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. He was one of the major figures to spread Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra.

Looking at Borobodur as I approached it initially wasn't that impressive, somehow I thought it would have been bigger but once you start climbing the different levels and you reach the top, you realize the scale of the vision and construction. There are thousands of statues and relief panels exposed to the rains and elements over the centuries and it is a wonder that it still stands. The largest Buddhist temple complex in the world, it was built in the 8th century. It is shaped as a 3 dimensional Mandala and represents Buddhist cosmology, combining the square as earth and circle as Heaven. There are 3 levels - Kamadhatu (world of Desire), Rupadhatu (World of Forms) and Arupadhatu (world of formlessness).  As you climb up the levels, at the top there are no images as you contemplate the act of reaching Nirvana and it is topped by a stupa. 

Ramayana

After finishing the tour, I picked up my painting from Umar and he pointed me to a scenic route along the river which I took as I came back to Yogya. In the evening, I had scheduled to attend the local Ramayana Ballet which was at 0730 PM. The performance was in Javanese style dance and song which had great pyrotechniques with fire and crackers and Hanuman running around burning Lanka all of which I enjoyed thoroughly. The performance was mainly for tourists but I also saw locals with their Hijabs enjoying the performance without any religious connotations. Indeed Ramayana has such an influence across South East Asian culture, whether it is in Thailand, Laos or Indonesia.

In the evening at the nearby Warung Heru, Ardi had told me that there would be live music and I saw a live band playing English and Indonesian Music and I enjoyed the next 2 hours listening to them as Singers and musicians alternated.It was mainly a local crowd of music affecinados with Indonesian women and men having their beers and cigarettes.

Leaving Yogyakarta

On the last day, decided to explore more of the city. I went to the Kraton which is the Royal palace of the Sultan. The current Sultan and his family stays there. On arriving there was a shadow puppet show (Wayang) which had started complete with musicians and story tellers. After the tour of the palace, I stopped by a Gudek shop which is a dish made from jackfruit. I had a Fried chicken, cow skin (Krecek) and Gudek (Jackfruit boiled with palm sugar and coconut milk over hours).

In the evening, I thought of going to a museum where it turned out there was a Javanese dance performance. I was joined from the hostel by an Londoner who turned out to be a 2nd generation Muslim from Bangladesh. She was an English teacher and was travelling solo across Indonesia during the summer break. The performance was for over 1 1/2 hours and we struggled to understand the story till we hit on the right brochure. 

Videos

Train - Jakarta to Yogya	Borobodur	Prambanan Temple