Remember the story of Roro Jonggrang and Bandung Bondowoso? A chronicle about
a beautiful princess was cursed into a statue used for the 1000th sculpture of
a temple.
According to the Javanese tradition, the tale is believed occurred in Prambanan
temple that was also called as Roro Jonggrang temple as the result.
Prambanan temple is situated around 17 kilometers east ward of the city
of Yogyakarta. It only takes about 15 minutes by car to reach Prambanan temple,
the most beautiful Hindu temple compound in the world. The temple lies on the
border of Sleman, Yogyakarta and Klaten, Central java.
As walking into the major temple compound from the north, one will find a sculpture
of a beautiful princess, Roro Jonggrang. According to the legend, Roro Jonggrang
was a lovely daughter of King Boko who became a complement statue to fulfill the
construction of the temple. The story stated that a young man named Bandung Bondowoso
wanted to marry Roro Jonggrang, but Roro Jonggrang did not love Bandung Bondowoso
and she refused him.
A scenario set to refuse the marriage. Roro Jonggrang then asked Bandung Bondowoso
to build a thousand temples in one night. For common people, it was impossible
thing for a man to build a temple with thousand statues only in one night.
By supernatural power, Bandung Bondowoso was almost successfully finishing the
task. It was a bad news for Roro Jonggrang to know that Bandung Bondowoso nearly
succeeded establishing the shrine. In order to stop the establishment, she asked
the maidens east of the village to burn the hay and pounds the rice, hence it
caused a dawn situation when the sun was about to rise. The action succeeded to
create the dawn situation as the cooks began to crow. Hearing the crowing cooks,
all the supernatural run away because they think that the dawn has come. Knowing
that he was fail establishing the temple due to Roro Jonggrang’s trick, Bandung
Bondowoso was unable to control his anger. He cursed Roro Jonggrang into a statue
that now is in the temple to complete the amount of the temple. She then became
the last and the most beautiful of the thousand statues at the temple.
Prambanan is the biggest Hindu temple in South East Asia located on Central Java
and Yogyakarta. It has a main temple looks like Gunungan (mount at leather puppet
shadow play). Prambanan temple has three main temples in the primary yard; those
are Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva temples. Those three temples are the symbols of
Trimurti in Hindu belief that all of them face to the east. Each main temple has
accompanying temple facing to the west, namely bull Nandini for Shiva, Angsa for
Brahma, and Garuda for Vishnu. Besides, there are 2 flank temples, 4 kelir temples
and 4 corner temples. In the second area, there are 224 temples.
Shiva temple, the biggest and the tallest temple located in the middle. The temple
is equipped
with four rooms. Its dimension is 34 m x 34 m with 47 meters height. The main
gate faces to the east and has four rooms on each side. One main room contains
Shiva statue (Shiva Mahadewa), while the other three rooms contain the statues
of Durga (Shiva's wife), Agastya (Shiva's teacher), and Ganesha (Shiva's son).
Durga statue is said to be the statue of Roro Jonggrang in the above legend.
Reliefs depicting the heavenly creatures were carved around the foot of the Shiva
temple symbolizing the cosmic system. Entering the temple from the south and walking
around the sub base of the temple with the main shrine on your right (Pradaksina),
we will see the whole relief of the Story of Ramayana. The story ends at the
relief carved on the balustrade of Brahma temple. The story of Kresnadwipayana
which tells the childhood of Prabu Kresna can be seen on the balustrade of Vishnu
temple.
Brahma temple, to the south of Shiva temple, is smaller than Shiva temple with
20 m x 20 m and 33 meters height. It only has one stair entrance on the east
side where the Brahma statue is located. On this area, there is relief Ramayana
that continues the story on the Shiva temple. The end of the story is Kusa and
Lawa to be promoted as Pangeran Pati.
Vishnu temple, to the north of Shiva temple, has the same size with Brahma temple
which is 20 m x 20 m and 33 meters height. It only has one stair entrance on
the east side where the Vishnu statue is located. On this temple, the relief
tells about the Kresnayana that describes about the life and the glory of the
Gods of Vishnu. In the relief, Kresna is described as the reincarnation of Vishnu.
In Vishnu temple, there is one temple named Garuda temple that is located close
to Vishnu temple. This temple keeps a story of half-bird human being named Garuda.
Garuda is a mystical bird in Hindu mythology. The figure is golden body, white
face, red wings, with the beak and wings similar to eagles. It is assumed that
the figure is Hindu adaptation of Bennu (means 'rises' or 'shines') that is associated
with the God of the Sun or Re in Old Egypt mythology or Phoenix in Old Greek mythology.
Garuda succeeded in saving his mother from the curse of Aruna (Garuda's handicapped
brother) by stealing Tirta Amerta (the sacred water of the gods).
The temple complex is surrounded by more than 250 individual temples of different
sizes, called Pewara. Pewara are believed to offered to the king as a sign of
submission.
The Pewara are arranged in four rows around the central temples, and people allowed
to enter them based on their rank. The central row was accessible
to the priests only, while the other three were reserved for the nobles, the knights
and the simple people respectively.
This Hindu temple was built by either Rakai Pikatan, king of the second Mataram
dynasty, or Balitung Maha Sambu, during the Sanjaya Dynasty in the 9th century
(around 850). According to the prasasti Ciwagrha in 856 by Rakai Pikatan, Prambanan
temple is constructed with one concept as a center of devotion for Shiva as the
main statue.
Prambanan temple was once again recognized by a Dutchman named C.A. Lons who
came to Java in 1733 and found the ruins of temple in grassland. The first effort
to preserve the temple was made by Ijzerman in 1885 by cleaning up the rooms from
the stone ruins. In 1902, led by Van Erp, the restoration was begun of Shiva
temple, Vishnu temple and Brahma temple. As the world attention began to grow
on the temple, in 1933 Vishnu temple and Brahma temple were successfully restored
in trial. On December 23 1953, Shiva temple was also restored. Brahma temple was
restored officially in 1978 and publicly finished in 1987. Vishnu temple was restored
officially in 1982 and publicly finished in 1991. The other restoration was made
for the three perwara temples which were located on Shiva temple, Vishnu temple
and Brahma
temple, the fourth kelir temples and the fourth corner temples.
Nowadays, Prambanan temple is still identical with the story of Ramayana, therefore
from May-October at full moon, the story of Ramayana (sendratari) is usually presented
in the evening at 19.30 - 21.30 WIB. Being a traditional dance, it is performed
on an open-air stage at the west of the temple.
