Prambanan Temple

Internet wasn't working well recently so today's post is actually about Monday, even though it's Wednesday!

Copying and pasting from Word so excuse any tense screwups!

On our first full day here, and the day before Tari is to start work, our first step was to meet and greet some of the vice-deans and people Tari will be working with. Always embarrassing for me, firstly because you know how much I love meeting, greeting and new people. Mainly because they mostly talk to me for the first few minutes until they finally realise that I’m really just a hanger-on and don’t know most of the acronyms they’re using!


It’s always a shock for them that the person they’ve read the credentials of is a young, white, tall, pretty female. Some of them actually tell her that – very open and honest here apparently =) They’re always nice enough to include me in conversations, but I have very little to offer really, the parallels between astrophysics and health research are parallels in the sense of lines that never meet rather than that they’re heading in the same direction. Whoah, I just barely stopped myself from going into a lecture about parallel lines in non-flat space. I think I do miss teaching from time to time!

A privilege for me to see Tari in her environment, talking the talk with the powers that be. A very clever woman is my wife and it’s good to be reminded of that first hand. Because she's one of the leaders in her field she keeps getting offers from all sorts of places around the world. If I wasn't such a home-body I think we could probably travel forever! It’s clear right from the start that although they have really good researchers (quite literally world class from this university – Gadjah Mada) they have difficulty in getting publications because of a lack of English literacy. Fortunately Tari was able to assure them that back home there are plenty of people who are similarly in need of help in how to put together a proper publication.

We were treated to their DVD of promoting the uni. I managed to keep a straight face, but almost made Tari laugh because the music in the background of the DVD came from a hollywood movie soundtrack CD and I kept whispering the name of the movie to her. My favourite one was the Jurassic Park theme while showing the library. I just couldn’t help but see velociraptors hiding behind the shelves. And when the Indiana Jones theme (not the major theme, but one of the softer ones) was on I just expected to see a rolling boulder rushing towards the happy studying students in the park.

After a nice lunch, note to self, things that look like green beans are usually chillis over here, and plenty of water (from the mix up with beans and chilli) we were shepherded away by Shinta and Wulan who had asked us what we’d seen last time we were here and wanted to complete our Jogja experience. Today was Prambanan temple. The last time we were here (you can read about it in the other blog sections) we went to the big Buddhist temple. This one was Hindu.

Such an amazing place, again, like last time, I’m staggered by how little history we have in Oz. Especially in terms of actual buildings. It was about 41 degrees today, so quite a scorcher. It was suggested that we use umbrellas to keep off the worst of the sun. I think I might be quite red tomorrow, although it takes longer to burn here (must... resist... urge... to... teach...) it was a really sunny day and someone (*cough* Tari *cough*) seems to have a knack for breaking umbrellas in the wind (which was pretty gusty).

And now, because my two main goals here are to: 1. Support TJ and 2. Try to resist being bored to death. Number 2 dictates that I have lots of gratuitous tourist photos. The shot above is from out in front of the complex. You can see the leaves at the top of shot because I was standing under a tree in the shade. Immediately you notice lots of rubble, and the shape of the buildings are quite steep rather than Borobadur which was very wide. They are that shape for lots of reasons, I don’t really know what the true reason is because I couldn’t find anyone over 1,000 years old to tell me.


Some say it’s because the temples represent the shape of the Himalayas, others that they are phallic symbols (Charlotte and MacKenzie can ask their Daddy about that word). In any case, to me it’s so very impressive that such buildings exist. Especially given the lack of tools. It’s taking ages to restore earthquake damage and that’s with (relatively) modern technology. Originally there were 224 or 242 or something temples, mostly small one-priest affairs apart from the bigger ones in the middle that they're trying to restore and keep intact.

Speaking of Earthquake damage. After the most recent, 2006, quake there was some fairly extensive damage done. This poster had before and after shots:

Although it’s been in ruins for most of the modern era, they still keep fixing it back up, just in time for another quake. I had to take this pic of the "after" side quickly, before Shinta and Wulan realised that they were in the photo and ducked away.

In all of the shots you can see rubble. Some of this is due to quakes etc. Other is due to antiquity and people nearby taking stones for houses etc. There has been a push for people to return the stones, and some have come back, there’s a bit car parking lot section of stones that have been retrieved and are awaiting classification. Missy would love the challenge, it’s basically a massive jigsaw puzzle. You often see chalk markings to assist builders with what goes where.

Dad and Laurie, thought you might like the OH&S would go with this:

And yes, those guys are out working in 41 degree heat lifting stone blocks etc.

The original stonework was all engraved, but they’ve lost most of that over the years due to damage/theft etc. Our guide was showing us that you can easily tell what is new and what is original. Original has carvings, new does not. Each stone in the original building was carved, quite a bit of time and effort in that! Should take that up with BSBC building committee.

On some buildings you can plainly see the lower carvings have heads/bodies etc. Missing from them and the upper levels are more intact as they are harder to get to for would-be antique sellers.

Much of the Buddhist temple had to do with telling a progressive story. Much of this one had to do with the actual meanings of the figures. Some represented wisdom, others intelligence and learning, still others for emotions, peace, prosperity etc. Etc.

Many of the temples are still too dangerous to enter, but one is now open. Up until recently you couldn’t go near the actual buildings due to earthquake damaged and loosened rocks. One of them falling on you would very quickly let you determine the truth or falsehoods regarding reincarnation.

Most people recommend a visit in the early morning or late evening, but after finding out (at last) a little more precisely what she was meant to be doing tomorrow, Tari wanted to work this arvo/evening so we went a little after midday. Which made this shot very easy to take of the temple with the sun right overhead:

Inside one of the temples was a cow, I’m still not sure precisely whether it’s related to the ones in Singapore, perhaps originally it was very brightly coloured too! (After reading the blog comment on a previous post, I now expect the twins to be able to make the appropriate sound when they see this next picture:)

It is, in fact, a bullock (anatomically easy to spot from behind). And there are other statues and carvings that are a little too explicit to appear in this G-rated blog. On the way out, our guide took us behind the cyclone fence to a grassed area that you’re not supposed to walk on. “We were with him” was going to get us out of any trouble. He pointed out where cashews come from. From a tree where they grow as the stalk bit on an orangey-red fruit. One fruit – one cashew, hence the expense he told us.

The cost of them (which is relatively expensive over here) was nothing compared to what they cost back home!

I have many more photos (I think the guide expected every time he stopped that I should take a photo) so if you want more you can see them when we get back. The guide was great, he had a million stories to tell, he used to live on the temple grounds, but a while back the government bought the land back to make it a large park. They paid the princely sum of 50,000 rp per square meter. Sounds good? Not really, as Andrew saw, we have a few wads of 50,000 rp bills, each bill is about $7 Australian. He would often tell what we can only assume to be quite rude stories to the girls. He’d point at a carving that was clearly very “interesting”, say something in Bahasa Indonesian to them and they’d blush and giggle while he chuckled. He only shared a couple of them with us, a unique insight into a culture, and quite different to the Buddhist tradition to say the least =)


This last one...

That’s Shinta, Wulan, Tari and me. Hmm, actually it’s Me. Why should they get all the capitals?

And right now it’s about 5pm, Tari’s still working away and I’m done for now, must be time for a pre-dinner snack =)

Well, actually, now it's 10:30AM and only 32 degrees, so I'm gonna go do a run (slow mosey) to the local market for some mango =)

If the 'net is working properly later on I'll post again, otherwise until next time...