Monday, February 22, 2016

Yogyakarta Trip - Prambanam Hindu Temple

We visited the ancient Buddhism complex of Borobudur in the morning.
That evening, we visited the Prambanam which is an ancient 
Hindusim Temple after a bumpy ride up the 
Mount Merapi Volcano.

If you have visited Angkor Wat, you might find Prambanam a bit small
but its profound existence in Indonesia since the 9th century is indeed
a great eye opener about their religious cultivation and way of life
since the ancient times.




 1. Candi Prambanam is an ancient Hindu complex of temples
located in Central Java, some 17km Northeast of Yogyakarta.



2. It was opened in 856AD during the 9th Century.
The earthquakes had destroyed them several times
but they were partially rebuilt again, as seen above.




 3. Hide and Seek time!
SPOT ME???





 4. I only climbed and walked a lot when I went overseas.
The gym preparations often geared my leg muscles to
get ready for all the coming trips otherwise I would
be dead meat.



5. AHOY! Here I took a good look at the whole area.




 6. I was often amazed how the folks built their temples by carving
the granite rocks and carried them up without machinery!
They were very strong and determined with good willpower
to build anything.




 7. Their ancient carvings on granite rocks are impressive and
illustrates the beautiful stories of history.




8. My wifey always challenged me to jump and climb mountains
across China. Being kiasu, I had to show my own competence!





 9. Lord Ganesha is the Deity with elephant head, is the most loved
and well recognized Hindu God of Success outside India.





 10. The statue of the Hinduism Mother Goddess Durga.





 11. My Jubilant Jump after my mission accomplished to visit another
world's famous temple of UNESCO's World Heritage List.




 12. The tallest temple here stands at 47 metres in height.




 13. Come and visit this place when you are in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.




I thank my wifey for all the lovely photographs
for my blog sharing.



****



Friday, February 19, 2016

Yogyakarta Trip - Borobudur

This place is the most visited and popular site in the whole of Indonesia
besides the resort of Bali. It took us so long to gather our plans to visit this
ancient site where the Buddha was believed to have made his last cultivation
in Tibetan Buddhism inside the ancient complex.




 1. We got a tour guide driver to drive us to visit 3 places in
one day - Borobudur, Mount Merapi Volcano & Prambanan.




 2. I was excited like a child.
This place is very unique and nice!





 3. The whole layout of the Borobudur was
like the Tibetan Holy Mandala.
It has 4 entrances to enter & exit.



4. This ancient complex has been rebuilt many times after being
abandoned and further damaged by the earthquakes & volcanic
tremors.




 5. It has many layers of walking paths all the way up.
Oh boy, it was very sunny & hot that day. I was soaked in
my sweat and suffered from sun burns.




 6. This Buddhism complex was built too long ago and no one has records
on the historical date and persons who initiated. However, some other 
records believed that the Sakaymuni Buddha visited this place and built it.
It was interesting to note that Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles discovered
it under some thick undergrowth after being abandoned.




 7. Now listed under UNESCO as The World Heritage and 
it draws millions of visitors annually from all over the world.
It was so crowded on the 1st Day of CNY as we were not aware
that Indonesia also declared 2 days Public Holidays!




  8. Many visitors took less than 1 hour to cover the whole site but
we took almost 2.5 hours because my wifey followed the advice
from the bulletin board that we should walk 3 rounds in clockwise
for every level. She made it but I was half past six!
Muahahahaha





  9. It was very interesting to see all the stone carvings and statues
on every level.





10. Clear karma! Clear Karma!





 11. There were extensive damages caused by looters and fanatics
of the olden days.




 12. Can you spot me? I used my self timer camera phone.




 13. There are many beautiful stupas on this level.






14. Close of of the Stupa inside.





 15. A damaged Stupa which remains exposed till today.






 16. My wifey took great trouble to snap these photos with lesser
crowd. It was really packed like a supermarket having a sale.




 17. The highest peak! We arrived! Yay!





 18. Elsewhere, they stored all the ancient rubbles of stones & slabs
from the dismantled complex.




 19. On the way out, they cleverly lined over 1000 stalls
of souvenir shops to lure me to buy stuffs.
You cannot get out of their well barricaded paths
to reach the main entrance. Sounds like KLIA2.




20. They have mascots walking outside for free shots.
This Doraemon was looking for SK.



****



Unforgettable Day

😓 Yesterday was the weakest day of my whole entire life. I had to crawl my way to stay at my sister's place. At her Mont Kiara condo...