Sewu Temple

Listen first. Away from the crowds at the main Prambanan temples, the air here is quieter. You may hear birds in the trees, the crunch of gravel underfoot, and the soft tick of grey stone warming in the sun. Before you rises a field of dark, weathered shrines. Some are whole and some are only piles of carved blocks. At the centre stands one larger temple. Welcome to Sewu, a Buddhist sanctuary in Klaten, on the plains of Central Java.

The name Sewu comes from Javanese, and it means one thousand. There are not really a thousand temples here, but there are a great many. The complex is usually counted at 249 structures. That makes it one of the largest Buddhist temple complexes in Indonesia, second only to Borobudur. Many visitors walk past it on their way to somewhere else. That is their loss, and your gain.

The number in the name comes from a famous Javanese legend. Locals tell the story of a powerful man named Bandung Bondowoso, who wanted to marry a princess called Roro Jonggrang. She did not want him. So she set a condition — he must build a thousand temples in a single night. According to the tale, he called on spirits to help him, and the work went fast. The princess grew afraid he would succeed.

So, the legend continues, she woke the village women to pound rice and lit fires in the east. The roosters thought dawn had come and began to crow. The spirits fled, and the last temple was never finished. In his anger, the story says, Bandung Bondowoso turned the princess herself into stone. This is folklore, not history... but it is still told across this region, and it gave the complex its name.

The real history is older and quieter. Sewu was built in the eighth century, during the time of Buddhist royal patronage in Central Java. An inscription found here in the 1960s carries a date of 792. It names a sanctuary called Manjusrigrha, which means the house of Manjusri. Manjusri is a bodhisattva of wisdom — in Buddhism, a being who delays final enlightenment to help others. Many scholars believe this was the temple's original name.

Now look at the layout around you. The plan is a careful geometry. The main temple sits at the centre. Around it, the smaller shrines stand in rows that form rectangles, one inside another. These smaller buildings are often called guardian or companion temples. They seem to surround the main shrine like an assembly of followers. From the ground, this pattern is hard to see. From above, it looks like a mandala, a sacred diagram of the Buddhist universe.

Walk toward one of the gateways. Here is the first surprise for many visitors. Pairs of huge stone guardians sit at the entrances. They are called dvarapala, which means gate guardians. Each one kneels on one knee, holding a heavy club, with round eyes and curly hair. Their faces look fierce, but there is also some humour in them. Children often stand beside them for photographs. Notice how the stone of their bodies is smooth in some places, worn by centuries of weather and hands.

The main temple is built from andesite, a dark volcanic stone. Volcanoes shaped this whole landscape. On a clear day you may see Mount Merapi to the north, one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. The same volcanic soil made these plains fertile, and that wealth helped kings build temples like this one. The stone was cut into blocks and fitted together without mortar. Look closely at the joints, and you can see how the blocks lock into each other.

The main shrine has a cross-shaped plan, with a large central chamber and smaller chambers on each side. Step inside if access is open. The air is cool, and the light comes in from the doorways. The chambers are mostly empty today. Their statues are gone. Some scholars think the central chamber once held a large bronze image, perhaps of Manjusri. Notice the empty pedestals and niches. They show you where sacred images once stood.

Here is a second surprise. Sewu sits very close to Prambanan, the great Hindu temple complex just to the south. These two sanctuaries, one Buddhist and one Hindu, stood near each other in the same period. This suggests that the two faiths lived side by side in this part of Java. Both are part of the Prambanan Temple Compounds, which UNESCO named a World Heritage Site in 1991.

As you walk among the smaller shrines, you will see that many are still in ruins. Over the centuries, the temples were abandoned, covered by volcanic ash, and damaged by earthquakes. A strong earthquake in 2006 shook this whole region and harmed many of these buildings. Restoration is slow and careful work. Archaeologists try to put each original block back in its correct place, like a giant stone puzzle. Some blocks are numbered for this reason.

Pause for a moment between the rows. This is a good place to notice small details. Look for carved floral patterns, small niches, and the rounded stupa shapes on the roofs. A stupa is a Buddhist monument that holds relics or represents the Buddha's mind. The roofs of the shrines carry many of these bell-like forms. In the late afternoon, the low sun throws long shadows between them, and the grey stone turns warm and golden.

Before you leave, stand still near the central temple and look out across the field of shrines. Hear the wind in the grass, and maybe a distant voice from the Prambanan park. Around you are stones that were cut and carried more than twelve centuries ago. Some still stand, and some wait to be lifted back into place. As you walk away, look back once at the guardians by the gate. They are still keeping watch.