40km
noth-east of Yogya is the biggest sacred place of Buddhists, the temple complex
Borobudur. It was built between 780 and 850 and is not only the biggest place
of Buddhist sacrament but it has also one the best builded structure of Buddhist
architecture. So the Borobudur shows a pyramid with six square and three circle
steps which was once all together 42m high. But because of the soft earth under
the construction the building starts to sink. That’s why specialists start
to make the construction more strong with a belt of beton between 1973 and 1982.
The temple is not sinking anymore and is 33,5m high. The architecture shows
the Buddhist picture of the world, the three cosmic spheres and a big mandala
as a motive of meditation. During the walk around the temple you can see every
single sphere itself. The sphere of the wish (kamadhatu), sphere of the form
(rupadhatu) and the sphere of informality (arupadhatu). There are everywhere
reliefs and 1300 of them show the life of Gautama Buddha from his birth to the
enlightenment until the entrance in the Nirvana.
On the way to Borobudur you can enjoy the good view to the volcano Merapi.
17
km north-east of Yogya are the temples of Prambanan. They are the best examples
of Java´s period of Hindu cultural development. They are the largest Hindu
temples in whole Java and present the largest example of Hindu art. All temples
of Prambanan were built between the 8th and 10th centuries in a time in which
Java was ruled by the Buddhist Sailendras in the south and the Hindu Sanjayas
of old Mataram in the north. The main temple from once 232 buildings is the
Lara Jonggrang, which has a length from 100m and is 47m high. This should be
the sacred place for the Hindu god Shiva. Next to the Shiva temple there are
still the temples for the Hindu gods Brahma and Vishnu. These main buildings
were destroyed by an earthquake in 1549. The reconstruction began in 1937 and
was nearly finished in 1953. To rebuild the structure of the temples next to
the main buildings the work is still not finished yet which should be no problem
to have a trip to this place to be impressed from the Hindu art.
The
Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes on Java. The 2911m high mountain
can be seen from many parts of the town if the weather is clear and there are
not too many clouds. The volcano which always has a smoke cloud hanging on the
top has already four major eruptions and dozens of minor ones in the last century.
In Kaliurang, 25km north of Yogya, is the best point from which visitors have
a good view of the volcano and of the city on a clearly day. There are some
travel agents in Yogya with which you can make a trip in the morning to climb
on the volcano and watch the wonderful scene of the sunrise.
The
nearest beach is Parangtritis with 27km south of Yogya. Here are black-sand
dunes and rough waves which make it sometimes dangerous to swim in this place.
But that’s not the only point. The legend tells the story that you shouldn’t
wear green cloth while swimming. Green is the favourite colour of the Goddess
of the South Seas and will never let you return from the water to the safety
beach.
Yogya has several other uninspiring beaches besides Parangtritis. The only ones
of minor interest are the isolated beaches to the southeast. Baron, 60km from
Yogya , has safe swimming inside a sheltered cove. Kukup is a white-sand beach
1km east of Baron. Krakal, 8km east of Baron, has a fine white-sand beach, but
the shallow reefs make the swimming not very comfortable.
Borobudur
Prambanan
Merapi
Beaches
