A spectacular sunset at Prambanan Temple

Wow. Prambanan Temple. This astounding temple was built in the same year as Borobudur by a rival kingdom. The Buddhist dynasty was called Sailendra and the Hindu dynasty was called Sanjaya. The two temples (one Buddhist and one Hindu) were thought to be part of a competition--both ended up as the biggest temples of their dynasties.

The Prambanan temple was mainly devoted to Shiva, although it has other temples for Vishnu and Brahma that flank the main temple for Shiva which is in the middle and is the largest. In front of each of these main temples, what was very interesting was that there was smaller temples devoted to their vehicles: Garuda (a bird) for Vishnu, Nandi (a bull) for Shiva, and a swan for Brahma. In total, there were originally more than 200 temples, but many were destroyed by earthquakes. Luckily the main temples have not been destroyed.

Below are the carvings of the 3 main figures in the temples. The first Shiva. The second is Vishnu and the 3rd is Brahma. It was amazing how well preserved these carvings are.

Below is Nandi, the bull which is the "vehicle" for the mighty Shiva. Unfortunately, in the smaller temples the garuda (the bird) and the swan were not there. I am not sure if they are destroyed or placed somewhere else.

In the 3 main temples, there were elaborate carvings on all the walls. Most of these told the stories of the Ramayana, which is one of Hinduism's holiest stories. My dad is reading a version of the Ramayana right now. The stories tell of a mortal named Rama who went into the forest for 14 years in honor of his father and faced a lot of struggles, especially with demon named Ravana who had 10 heads and was very evil. The first carving below, we think is of Rama and his brothers. The second is of Ravana--you can see the many heads. The 3rd is of a priest who guided Rama in his early years. Each carving told a part of the story and when we walked around the temples clockwise, we were able to figure some of the stories out based on what we knew of the Ramayana. It was amazing how well preserved the carvings were from the 8th century!!!

This is us sitting in front of the temple honoring garuda. Garuda is Vishnu's bird-like "vehicle" and is a very important symbol/figure for Indonesia. We went to an art museum in Bali and many of the paintings and statues were of Garuda.

This day was so special to us. We saw the sunrise and sunset at 2 very important temples; sunrise at Borobudur and sunset at Prambanan!