Java

We wanted to visit some amazing temples which are world heritage sites in central Java. Unfortunately, Java isn’t the place where one can leave a boat unattended overnight (and expect to find it in tact the next day) so we found a safe place on Bali to moor it and then flew to Yogyakarta (More about Bali later).

Borobudur is a Buddhist Temple built in 740 AD out of 2 million blocks of stone. There are thousands of carved panels depicting Buddhist doctrines as well as aspects of Javanese life 1000 years ago and over 500 statues of Buddha. It is impressive for it’s sheer size.

The second temple, Prambanan, is a massive Hindu temple erected in the 9th century and is also decorated with carved panels of beautiful Hindu art. It is very difficult to capture the essence of these temples in words or even photos. It was a very humbling experience to stand within the temple and try to imagine the amount of manpower required to construct the temples and what it must have meant to the local people.

Both temples were destroyed by earthquakes and bombings over the years and the stones were scattered across Java when the local people took the stones to have as ornaments in their homes. Some of the stones were never recovered so they had to be replaced with new stone. It has been a monumental project costing millions of dollars to reconstruct the temples and the work will not be completed any time soon.