Prambanan Temple

Prambanan Temple is said to be the most beautiful Hindu temple in the world. It is the biggest temple complex in Java with three main temples dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities, Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, the symbols of Trimurti in Hindu belief.

According to the history, Rakai Pikatan, a Hindu prince from Sanjaya Dynasty, who had married into the ruling Buddhist Sailendra monarchy built all the temples in the Prambanan archaeological park in the 8^th century AD. In its original form, the temple complex contained over 250 large and small temples. The temple compound was expanded by successive Mataram kings with the addition of the hundreds of perwara temples around the central temples. It served as the royal temple of the Kingdom of Mataram for its religious ceremonies and sacrifices. However, in the 10^th century the temple was largely abandoned because the 

 Mataram dynasty moved to East Java. It then collapsed during a major earthquake in the 16^th century.

Also locally known as Roro Jonggrang, legend has it that the 1,000^th statue of the temple was the statue of a slender virgin lady named Roro Jonggrang, who turned into stone by a young and powerful man named Bandung Bondowoso after her attempt to thwart Bondowoso’s effort in building a thousand temples and two wells in one night for the lady failed. Bondowoso was in love with Roro Jonggrang and asked her to marry him. However, Roro Jonggrang was full of hatred because Bondowoso killed her father; hence she tried to refuse his proposal by asking him a seemingly impossible task. As a man who had unseen troop of spirits, it was easy for Bondowoso to finish the task. After nearly a thousand temples had been built, Roro Jonggrang asked the villagers to pound rice and to set a fire in order to look like the morning had broken. This way, the spirits had no choice but left before completing the last one temple. Bondowoso realised that the lady had cheated him so he turned Roro Jonggrang into the 1,000^th statue. This is a very interesting folklore that local people love to share.