The Flying Helminskis: I believe it's called Jogja or Yogya...it's supposed to be wild

Yes, we are way behind on our bloggity blogging, but all good things are worth the wait, aren't they? Or at the very least all things mediocre might as well be seen at some point in life...or whatever. On to stop #2 on the SE Asia tour for Gloria's parents: Yogya!

Yogyakarta (also known as Jogjakarta) was once the flourishing capital of Indonesia. It's history is rich and filled with culture, religion, and once the most powerful royal family in Java. Remember our friend good ol' Raffles of Singapore? Well it is not widely known, but the British spent a few years here in Indonesia as well. Raffles spent 5 years on the island of Java kinda screwing a lot of stuff up, but a few good things happened. Re-Discovering Borobudor was one of them. Whilst reigning terror on the kind people of Java, some of the locals alerted him to Borobudor's existence so he got one of his minions to explore and lo and behold, through the thick of a jungle, they found the ruins of Borobudor. To put that into perspective, think of this: although the specific dates aren't known, Borobudur was basically abandoned for about 800 years. So there was 800 years of jungle growth, volcanic ash, monkey warriors (ok maybe I made that last part up), etc. covering and hiding this place. Imagine being the person who came upon this and reporting back that, yes there is a monument here, and holy crap it's freaking huge! Hard to wrap your mind around.

Over the next 100 plus years, the entire of Borobudor was excavated and restored back to it's current glory and is now a Unesco heritage site.

The view as we walked up to Borobudur

So, what is this Borobudur? Glad you asked:

Borobudor is a Buddhist temple constructed way back when India had a heavy influence on Indonesia (also known as the 9th century). Borrowing again from our friends at Wiki:

The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the monument and ascends to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology: Kāmadhātu (the world of desire),Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). The monument guides pilgrims through an extensive system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades.

So basically, the temple is an educational and spiritual journey from the ground up.

About to begin our journey into Borobudur

Looking up at the multiple levels

One of the thousands of intricate relief panels on Borobudur

There are also 504 Buddha statues on the monument, with 72 of them being seated inside perforated stupas.

Every one of the stupas has one of these guys inside.

Doing our Buddha impressions

The scale of the monument is hard to show in pictures. It's huge and really impressive. It's something like 380+ feet on each side, and rises to a height of 115 ft. It's definitely a sight to see.

It's location is pretty boss too. Not only was it built in a jungle, but also it is surrounded by Volcanos, most notably Mt. Merapi, which erupted in 2010.

After our tour of the monument

After leaving Borobudur, we headed toward the other huge temple/monument in the area: Candi Prambanan. But first, a stop off at Candi Mendut.

Candi Mendut is another 9th century Buddhist temple, and is located about 3 km from Borobudur. There is reportedly some religious relationship between Mendut, Borobudur, and Pawon (another Buddhist temple in the area), although the specifics are not known. Regardless, it is a really pretty temple and we enjoyed visiting it.

Inside there is a huge Buddha statue, and people leave offerings, light incense, etc.

Gloria lighting some incense in honor of her ancestors

Little Buddhas

When we walked out of the temple, we noticed some kids playing in the tree next to it. Check them out, swinging on the vines.

Looks like fun!

Also next to Mendut is a really peaceful and serene buddhist shrine.

Yes, keep out your shoes. With an exclamation point!

After Candi Medut, it was on to UNESCO World Heritage Site #2: Prambanan. From Wiki: Prambanan is a 9th century Hindu temple, dedicated to the Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). Although the main temples dominate the scene today, at it's hayday there were over 240 temples on the complex. However almost all of them have been destroyed by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and general other the-earth-is-mad-at-us mayhem. The main destruction occurred in the 16th century, however the temples had already been abandoned in the 930s. They stayed this way until our friend Mr. Raffles intervened. One of his surveyors came upon the temples by accident in 1811. But, as with most of the other stuff Raffles did in Indonesia, it got a little messy after rediscovery. The ruins were largely neglected for the next hundred years, and many residents of the area looted the temple (Dutch residents are noted to have used stones from the temples in their gardens, and native villagers used the stones in construction). Reconstruction didn't begin until about 100 years later, and continues today.

Panorama of the temples

Safety first!

About to head into the Shiva temple

All of the temples have intricate relief panels, large statues inside of them, and all sorts of intricate stonework. It's a really cool site.

After a day of exploring UNESCO World Heritage Sites, we spent some time in Yogya itself. Specifically, we went to the Kraton, which is the palace where the Sultan of Yogya still lives today. Back when Yogya was the capital of Indonesia, this was a much busier place. Today it is mostly a tourist attraction, and it is definitely worth checking out. Also, another interesting fact about the Kraton is that it served as a pit stop during season 19 of the TV show The Amazing Race. So there's that.

When we walked in, the first thing we saw was a traditional Indonesian dance.