Deepam - Lighting the lamp

Deepam:

Deepam is to remove the darkness from the mind and heart. Light is the symbol of glittering the mind. We have to be purified. We should spread happiness everywhere. The oil deepam signifies the light of knowledge, which dispels the darkness of ignorance. It shines itself and causes the objects around to shine due to its reflection. The fire which is at the middle of the five elements-Earth,Water,Fire,Air,Space-and gives them power and heat is the splendor that is at the middle of the body of all living beings. There are three Sandhyas or the juncture-one at dawn, another in the midday and one at dusk. Since the sun shines brilliantly in the midday, no additional lamp is required. But, at the other two sandhyas, an additional lamp is required.

What do the deepam, Wick, Oil and Light mean?

Deepam is full of symbolism. It means that if you have faith, you'll see God. Here's one of many pointed out by Sathguru Venkataraman: deepam(lamp) = body, wick = Sathguru, oil = faith, light = God.

Cultural Beliefs:

Burning some oil deepam in temple, some may light ghee deepam, some gingerly oil deepam and such, burning those deepam’s actually will generate some positive energy up and touches your body, it gives good vibes and such. More than what it should benefits your prayers, its more beneficial for your own self, and body.

Ghee lamp has more capacity to attract the sattvik vibrations present in the surrounding atmosphere as compared to oil lamp.

The oil lamp can attract the sattvik vibrations spread over a maximum distance of 1 meter while the ghee lamp can attract sattvik vibrations spread over till Swarga Lok (heaven)

The best oil to light up lamp before god is cow ghee. Next comes ordinary oil. “Mahua flower oil” or “ippa oil” might be extraordinary. The benefits of lighting up the deepam  with ghee oil are ultimate. We get ‘ashta aishwarya’ and ‘ashta bhoga’ (great wealth and health)

If we light the lamp with ‘amudham oil’ (in Telugu), castor oil we get fruitful marriage life, and would be able to maintain good relations between wife and husband. 

NOTE: It is said we should never light the lamp with ground nut oil before god. 

Before starting our daily prayers, we light the Oil deepam by chanting a shloka:

Subham Karoti Kalyanam, Arogyam Dhana Sampadah, 
Shatru Buddhi Vinashaya Deepa Jyotir Namostute.

‘ I salute the One who is the lamplight that brings auspiciousness; prosperity, good health, abundance of wealth, and the destruction of the intellect’s enemy (6 enemies - Kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and matsarya)’.

After lighting the deepam we chant the following shloka or prayer:

Deepajyothi Parabrahma, Deepajyothi Janardhana, 

Deepo me hara tu paapam, Deepa Jyothir Namostute

I salute the Brahman, the sustainer of the creation, in the form of this light. I salute the Lord, may He destroy afflictions resulting from my omissions and commissions.

Oils to Use:

Deities  and their favorite Oil deepam’s:

• Shree Mahalakshmi - Cow's Ghee
• Subramanya/Shreemannarayana - Sesame Oil
• Ganesha - Coconut Oil
• Devi Parashakti - Mixture of Ghee, Castor oil, Coconut oil,Ippanune (Oil extracted from a fruit resembling dried grapes),Vepanune (Oil extracted from the Neem Leaves)
• All the gods  - Sesame Oil

Rahu Ketu's Kalam Deepam:

Every planet in every day has its ruling time. Ravi, Chandra, Kuja, Budha, Guru, Sukra and Sani planets will have its Hoar timings. During the particular planet rules at a particular time. It is otherwise called a 'Hora Time'.

Likewise Rahu’s ruling time is called a Rahukalam. Likewise Ketu also has its own time but it is not in light. No one starts any ventures, or travels or any other matters during this period as Rahu Kalam as it will give negative effects. To nullify the negative effects of Rahu, antecedents quote if lighting a deepam at the point of Rahu Kalam in a Goddess deity temple, the negative effects will be nullified. By lighting a deepa in Rahu kalam, the native will get the blessings of Goddess Kanakadurga.

To guard the negative effects of Rahu kalam, the only one who could effectively nullify the negative effects of Rahu is Lord Maha Ganapati. If we light a deepam at the foot of Lord Maha Ganapati, all negative effects will be nullified. Progress can be seen and things will be fulfilled. The natives who are under the evil influence of Rahu can do so to wipe off the negative effects of Rahu.

Those natives who are suffering with more difficulties due to the effect of evil effects of other plants, the only solution available is to light a lamp at the foot of Maha Ganapati on Sunday and Wednesday. The pratima should be placed on dharba for more positive results.

Directions for Deepam:

North - For success in all ventures undertaken. Most preferable direction to place and light a lamp.
East – For good health and peace of mind.
West – For freedom from debts and victory over enemies
South - Never light a lamp in the south direction. It is considered inauspicious.

Wicks for lighting Deepam:

Cotton Wicks (vottu in Telugu) are used. We must light a minimum of two wicks in the deepam, one to represent the woman and the other to represent the man, thus symbolizing the family unit which is fundamental in spirituality. The Significance of Wicks:

• Single wick (Eka Mukha Deepam) for normal benefit.
• Two wicks (Dwimukha deepam) brings harmony and peace in the family and relatives.
• Three wicks (Trimukha Deepam) Blesses with progeny.
• Four wicks (Chathurmukha deepam) brings allround prosperity and sumptuous food.
• Five wicks (Panchamkukha deepam) showers akhanda aishwaryam or Wealth. 
• Six wicks (Shanmukha deepam) blesses with Akhanda Gyana (Knowledge) & Vairagyam (Renunciation).

When to put deepam:

Simply light a deepam in pure ghee; preferably of cow’s milk; or in mustard oil ; and say whatever your prayers are; before it’s burning flame; every morning before you go out and every evening after you return home.

Benefits:

Deepam can be lighted with different oils:  

• Cow's ghee - Ensures radiance and Heavenly bliss 
• Ghee - Wealth, Health and Happiness
• Gingely oil/Sesame oil - Removes unforeseen dangers, Inauspicious events
• Castor oil - Fame, Happy family life, and to gain Spiritual intellect 
• A lamp lit with til oil it is believed will keep the snakes away by it smell.

See the difference in your own behavior; after a couple of days; for every time you stand before the lamp and burn it; all the negative elements of negative energies which have surrounded you during the night and day time; are attracted and gravitated by the flame towards itself; for burning; and they get burned up; thereby rendering the whole atmosphere within and outside the body; pure and clear once again.

If this exercise is continued regularly for long; by all in the family; it will have such a miraculous effect; that not only the monthly bill on medicine and junk food shall come down to a very large extent; but also tensions in the minds of all shall be eased; and a sense and feel of free pure and natural happiness shall become to be realized by the self.

Scientific Reasons:

The light rays produces magnetic forces and change the atmosphere of the room and the air content in the room changes a lot, which penetrates through the skin of the human, activate the nerves penetrates thro the nerves and directly curing the blood. saligramas which will split the light in to several parts as Ultra violet, ultra red, Ultra blue, and produces ultra sound which takes the light rays in to the body. Turmeric, near those saligramas which will act as a preservative. The electromagnetic force that settles on the skin still works for three hours so that it penetrates in the body and encourages the blood cells. It also chases away the diseases.

The science of the modern day is doing a wonderful job; but it does not care to show ways of nature itself to mankind; for helping itself with; especially by giving knowledge, wisdom and intelligence of the full, complete and whole powers, strength and abilities of them.

Also Visit Deepam for more Information.

Samsung Galaxy Note v/s HTC One X

A Battle to dominate in Market

Today I m here to compare about two great devices of the decade the first charming phone is HTC One X  and second one is Samsung Galaxy Note, both devices has strong hardware construction made for extremely high performance. Both phones almost have the same feature.

Some key feature which makes both phones really differs from others.

Samsung Galaxy Note v/s HTC One X a overview

• Both phones are slim having 9.7mm and 8.9mm thick
• Camera 8MP
• Screen 5.3 inches where as HTC one X has slight less i.e. 4.7 inches.
• Screen Pixel HTC One X (720X1200) has a bit less pixel than Samsung galaxy note (800X1200).
• Both phone is running on the android platform, HTC comes with android 4.0 and whereas Samsung Galaxy Note comes with older and successful version of an android OS i.e. 2.3 Gingerbread.
• HTC One X has no card slot its already coming 32 GB inbuilt memory whereas Samsung galaxy note comes with an internal storage of 16 GB expanded to 32 GB.
• Both phones have 1 GB of RAM and having a 1.5 GHz processor Samsung offer dual core whereas HTC has Quad Core.

Last Saturday, I went to Chroma shop to get examine about these two rocking phones both were amazing in view. But as far as mine perceive about phone is that i delight to used Samsung galaxy note rather than HTC One V, but the thing is that HTC sense makes all the HTC phones really differ and quietly brilliant as the company  promised. I didn't used headphones so I can’t say about its sound quality. But the thing which attracts me it was clear crystal display of Samsung Galaxy Note has the best display of which I ever used gadgets.

Price

Samsung Galaxy Note: 32,700INR (Mobile Store)

HTC One X: 36,094INR (Mobile Store)

Dhoopam - The Holy Fragrant

Dhoopam:

Dhoopam is a form of smoke produced from a perfumed incense stick. As per Ayurveda, certain virus and bacteria gets removed from our body due to inhalation of smoke produced from certain herbs burning. It is very good for health.

 

 

Cultural Beliefs:

Deepam is offered to God with a saying.

  

It pleasures our senses with its perfumed smoke which vanishes quickly. Our sensory pleasures are taken in control by recognizing this offering to God. Dhoopam purifies the atmosphere by its fragrance properties of samidha –Wood and samagri –powder of fragrant wood. Its mixed with the herbs and ghee. According to brahmaprakash, the term Dhoop originated from Dhoop tree in eastern India this tree’s chip when burnt gives us good fragrance. Black colored putty, popular Dhoop is a mixture of ghee herbs and wood chips.

In ancient days people use to offer dhoopam by spreading Gugilam or dasangam on the burnt coal.Dasangam is made out from ten herb dust like sandalwood, Eagle wood, Aloe wood, Himalayan cedar, Indian Olibanum, Indian frankincense, white pall, etc..

Guggilam is made from resins of Guggul or Mukul myrrh tree. Burning these for releasing smoke is considered as a sacrificial offering to a god or deity.

 

Interesting Facts:

Dhoopam is one of the steps in shodasopachara Puja (16 steps of worship). Dhoopam is the next step after offering flowers. While offering dhoopam below mantra need to enchant.

  

 In this sixteen fold worship, offering sacred water in conch represents Jalam (water), offering sandalwood paste (Gandham) represents earth, offering flowers ( Pushpam) represents the sky (Akash) are offered first. Then, fragrant fumes (Dhoopam) represent air and the lighted lamp (Deepam) represents light or Thejas are offered next to them, followed by ringing of the bell.

Now a day’s people offering incense sticks (Agarbattis) which are waved around god three times in a clock wise direction and kept vertically in a stand.

Scientific Reasons:

• Dhoopam power removes negative forces and it solves all spiritual problems by ensuring a peaceful and spiritual atmosphere and the humans benefit from its spiritual properties this is mainly used for purification of the environment.
• Dhoopam which is scented cleans the environment and makes us divine. In part of this human treats even he is purified. He treats the basical and physical purification as a spiritual psychologically and transfers himself into a different world of meditation
• . According to Ayurveda inhaling herbal smoke from burning certain resins and herbs will boost the health and gives a certain type of good sensation of mind and soul. It is a holy method of purifying surroundings.

Bali Peetam- Pedestal of sacrificial offerings

Bali Peetam:

Bali means sacrificing an animal and offering it to god. Bali peetam is a place where we offer the slaughtered animals to the deity .Bali symbolizes the destruction. Usually, we don’t kill animals in a temple but a research into our scriptures and by interacting with people gave the reason why we do this bali in temple and specially there is a place for this offering which is called bali peetam. now a days, devotees are offering rice and certain dishes to God on this sacrificial pedestrail as the custom continued.
 

Place of this sacrifical pedestrail

Every temple will have a seat of offerings which is placed in between flag pole (dwajastambam) and royal temple tower(Raja Gopuram) . After all the worship is finished, finally the offerings to god will be placed here.

Cultural Beliefs:

When we enter into a temple, first sight will be flag pole and second sight will be sacrificial pedestrail in front of dieties.All the preists will offer rice after performing worship. According Agama Vidhi Sastra this process id followed. Devotees leaving their ego and ill feelings, enter with a pure mind leaving all their bad thoughts offer at the Sacrificial pedestrail .They Completely surrender themselves to the Almighty with their minds filled of Lord’s pure thoughts. Sacrificial pedestrail is the symbol of dharma where priests offer food and devotees pray with humility and true devotion.

Sacrificial pedestrail is mainly for the Kshtrapalakas(Gaurding dieties of main god)protecting the temple. The offerings at the Sacrificial pedestrail is not for the main deities in the temple. For example, we do have Nandi or nandikeswar(Ox god) in shiva temple and we offer the food Sacrificial pedestrail to nandi but not to Lord Shiva.

Usually Sacrificial pedestrail will have lotus or foot prints sculptures of the diety. usually devotees offer red colored rice or food red in color. for example, At the time of dasara on the 9th day , we have a fest called kumba where we offer blood rice(vermillion powder mixed with rice treated as blood rice) to goddess.

Scientific reason:

Every human has got six qualities namely Kama(Lust),Krodha(Anger),Lobha(selfishness),Moha(love),Madha(Prestige),Matsarya and because of this qualities humans behave like animals. As mind is polluted because of these things, the entry to the temple is forbidden in order to cultivate an open mind reducing all these six qualities the temple authorities had taken major responsibility to preserve the sanctity of the temple by harming another creation of god like plants or animals and so they introduced this Sacrificial pedestrail in temples by enlightening devotees and asked them to refrain the animal sacrifice practices.

 

 

Yogyakarta Trip Day 1 - Prambanan

We took a 4-day-3 night trip to Yogya (pronounce as Djog-ja, or Jog-ja). Our brief itinerary- first day, we reached Adisutjipto Airport at 9:30 am, settled and took our early lunch at our hotel, followed by a 3-hour tour around Prambanan. We took our first dinner at Malioboro night market. The second day, we departed early to Borobudur and spent a whole morning there. Then, Kraton Palace and Tamansari Water Palace in the afternoon. We went to Malioboro Mall at night. On the third day, we went shopping at Malioboro in the morning, then we went back to Tamansari Water Palace to catch some of the interesting parts that we missed on our second day's visit. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon time at Ambarrukmo Mall, the largest shopping complex in Yogya. We had our very wonderful dinner on the top floor of our hotel. Fourth day, we took our early flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

Yogyakarta is a city built on the old kingdom of Sailendra and Mataram. Beside the city are two prominent religious edifices. Borobudur, 40 km north west, and Prambanan, 17 km east, are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Overall, the trip to Yogya was more leisure than our previous trip to Siem Reap, with more time to spare and to rest. The weather in the month of April during our visit was hot and humid, which we had no problem to get along with it, as we enjoy the same weather condition in Malaysia whole year round. Hot weather is a blessing in the sense that, we could take beautiful photos with clear blue sky.

So, let's start with our trip to Candi Prambanan (Temple of Prambanan). 17 km east of Yogya, the temple is in fact located in the province of Central Jawa (not in Yogya). We took a taxi from our All Season Hotel, with RP 70,000 (approx. RM 24 or USD 8) and extra RP 5000 for the entrance to the parking area. The journey took us 25 minutes. The taxi driver refused to wait for us at Prambanan. He gave his company's business card to us and instructed us to call for another taxi to return to the hotel. We paid RP 125,000 per person for the entrance ticket of Prambanan National Archaeological Park (approx. RM 42 or USD 14). The local name for the park is "Taman Wisata Prambanan", which means "Prambanan Tourism Park".

Candi Prambanan is believed to be built by Rakai Pikatan and other Kings of Mataram at 850 AD, 300 years earlier than Angkor Wat. As a counteract to the great Borobudur and Candi Sewu of Buddhism, the purpose of building the temple itself made it had to be huge, majestic, and a wonder of architecture. With the highest point of 47 m, it is considered one of the largest Hindu temple outside of India.

The temple faces east- a sign of the dominancy of Shivaism. So, it's not a surprise for us to know that the tallest tower at the middle of the temple is dedicated to Shiva. Flanking the Shiva's tower are two lesser towers dedicated to Brahma and Vishnu respectively. These three huge towers are called the Three Trimurti. In front of the Three Trimurti are three small towers dedicated to the Vahanas- Nandi the bull for Shiva, Hamsa the goose for Brahma, and Garuda the eagle for Vishnu. The tower dedicated to Shiva was closed to visitors during our trip. The main temple complex is surrounded by 224 small pervara towers (the guardian towers). However, by far, only two of the pervara towers have been restored.

We can see all six major towers from the main entrance of Candi Prambanan (facing east).

Our photo with Candi Prambanan a hundred meters away.

The towers of Vahanas, dedicated to the Nandi (right) and Garuda (left). The photo taken from the tower of Brahma.

Story of Ramayana starts at the Shiva's tower and continues to Brahma's tower, depicted by the bas-relief at the inner side of the balustrades, starting from left to right. So, the correct order to read the story is to follow the bas-relief in clockwise direction. Story of Krisnayana is depicted at the bas-relief at the Vishnu tower. As we didn't hire a guide, what we could only try our best to figure the story behind the aging stone works, by ourselves. Anyway, the bas-relief somehow brought our memory of Angkor Wat and Bayon back to us- same stonework, but at different period of time, at different places, by different civilization.

The staircase is not as steep as the temples at Angkor. We had no problem climbing to the upper levels of the tower of Brahma. The first level of the tower of Brahma with panels of bas-reliefs depict the stories from Ramayana (upper right). The lower row shows two of the panels available at Brahma's tower.

A part of the Shiva's tower with great detailed artworks.

There is a legend that connects Candi Sewu (Temple of a thousand towers) to the statue of Durga in the tallest tower of Candi Prambanan. The legend tells that there was once Prince Bandung falled in love with Princess Lara Jonggrang of Boko,  and pressing for a forced marriage. The princess succumbed with a term- the prince had to build a temple with a thousand towers in one single night. The task was not too hard for the prince as he summoned spirits from the earth to help him. At the very blink in completing 999 towers, the princess deceived the spirits by faking the sunrise- pounding rice and setting fire at the east of the temple, which lured the cocks to crow, and drove all the spirits back to the ground. Mission failed, and the prince drove mad. He cursed the princess and turned her into a stone statue. Well, the story ended sad, the unfinished temple turned to be Candi Sewu, while Lara Jonggrang, turned to be Durga statue in Candi Prambanan.

We spent more than one hour at Candi Prambanan, admiring to architectural wonder and the wisdom of the past. We were lucky to have the chance to witness the greatness of Candi Prambanan with our very own eyes. One of our friends went to Prambanan a year earlier in 2011, with the construction of recovery was undergoing. He couldn't see much as the protective curtains had blocked many parts of the temple. Well, our advice to all our readers, go and visit the temple as soon as possible before next quake hits it (touch wood).

Towers of Prambanan from the west- backside of the temple.

A closer look on the temple.

Most of the guardian towers are still lay in ruin. Many years are required to restore the temple to its former glory.

This is how Prambanan looks like from the northern side of the temple. This photo is taken at the opposite side with the previous photo.

There are other three temples in Prambanan National Archaeological Park- Candi Lumbung, Candi Bubrah, and Candi Sewu. Lumbung and Bubrah were literally lay in ruins. The restoration was still ongoing during our visit, but we could anticipate that the full restoration is still a long way to go. These two temples could be seen along the way from Candi Prambanan to Candi Sewu. We took around 20 minutes to walk from Prambanan to Sewu. Shading trees and the resting areas had made our journey by foot bearable (we were indeed quite tired after staying for more than one hour at Prambanan).

This is how Candi Lumbung looked like during our visit.

The condition of Candi Bubrah was even worse. We couldn't even see any gathering stones that resemble a temple. However, we could see the restoration work was ongoing (upper right).

Candi Sewu (Temple of Thousand Towers) is around 800 m away from Candi Prambanan. It is the second largest Buddist temple complex in the area (which the biggest is Borobudur). The temple is believed to be built 100 years before Candi Prambanan. Although named a thousand, the actual number of towers are 249, with the main tower building errects about 30 m above the ground. Candi Sewu is a temple that worth a visit. We stayed and roamed around the temple for 20 minutes.

This is how the second largest Buddist Temple looked like from the main entrance during our visit. The main tower complex have been restored. 

A close look on the main tower complex. The highest point of the tower reaches 30 m high.

We climbed to the top level of the main tower complex, turned around, and this is what we saw.

Photos taken inside (left) and outside (right) of the main tower complex.

Most of the small towers surrounding the main temple complex were still in ruin.

Candi Sewu is badly damaged over time. But not all of them by nature. The missing head of the Buddha is believed had been taken by somebody as a private collection (upper left). Many of the missing pieces of the puzzling temple has been found in the villages nearby. On the same type of the towers, the photo on the lower left shows the one with many of the original stones found, while the lower right shows the one with the replacement stones.

On our way back to the entrance (park operator office), we visited the park archaeological museum and audio visual presentation. The archaeological museum was quite attractive (free entrance), which many of the statues and pieces of the ruins discovered were displayed. The audio visual presentation, on the other hand, was not in good quality. However, with RP 5000, the presentation was proven a bit helpful for us to understand more about the background of the temples. The air condition helped to cool us down after a long walk.

The park was quite densed with trees, so travel by foot is not a problem, even under the blazing sun (upper right). Many artifacts were displayed in the museum (lower left), which includes many stones and sculptures which their origin are yet to be identified. A part of the museum has the photos on display, showing how Candi Prambanan been discovered and restored. The photo on lower right shows the condition of Candi Prambanan in 1923.

The entrance to the parking area of Prambanan Archaeological Park (upper left). We need to pay RP 5000 to enter the parking area. The ticket counter is around 100 m from the entrance (upper right). Food stalls and souvenir shops are available only at the exit of the park.

After we left the park, we call the hotline number writen on the business card, which was given by our taxi driver. The operator requested our location and handphone number. Our experience was, we have to understand a little bit of Indonesian Language (which thank God, is quite similar to Malay Language) in order to communicate with the operator, and we had to tell the operator that we are the tourists with oversea handphone numbers, or else, the operator will keep on asking and confirming our handphone number. Our taxi reached within 15 minutes.

Our advice to all of our readers, if you can endure the hot and humid (like us), a visit in the afternoon can be a good idea. We arrived at Prambanan around 1 pm and went out around 4:30 pm. There were less visitors during that period of time and we had a lot of opportunities to take good photos with all the temples. Bring along a foldable umbrella or a hat is a good idea. A pair of comfortable shoes or sandals is a must. Bringing a bottle of mineral water is really essential, as the one-and-the-only-one canteen in the park is the only place that we can buy drinks and food. Tram service is available from time to time, but walking around might offers different experience to us. Last but not least, if you can't understand any of Indonesian Language, rent a car might be the safest way for you to visit Prambanan. Or, get a taxi, deal with the driver to get him wait for you at Prambanan. Most of the taxi drivers that we encountered were not good in English. Try to use simple language when you deal with them.

Trip to Prambanan was a great experience to us. We would like to recommend that your trip should start with Prambanan first, before you step your foot on Borobudur. Borobudur is much more "monumental" than Prambanan. So, if we start with Borobudur, we might get so called "anti-climax" experience. 

Second day in Yogya, our trip to Borobudur started early in the morning. Please follow us to Borobudur now.

[Yogyakarta Trip Day 1- Prambanan] [Yogyakarta Trip Day 2-Borobudur]

[Yogygakarta Trip Day 2-Kraton Palace and Taman Sari Water Castle]

[Yogyakarta-Food, Shopping, and Accomodation] [All Our Destinations]

Yogyakarta Trip Day 2 - Borobudur

Day 2 in Yogyakarta, 7:15 am, we set out from our hotel, going to Candi Borobudur by car. We rent the car with driver with RP 350,000 for 5 hours from Nusantara Tour and Travel (email: ticdom-jogja@nusatovel.com). Borobudur is located in the middle of Jawa Province, 42 km north west of Jogya. The whole journey to Borobudur took around one hour. The English speaking driver, Febri was very informative. We gained many valuable information from him (contact him by email at febri.transporter@yahoo.com). Through Febri, we enter the park with RP 125,000, instead of normal RP135,000, the discount given by the park to travel agencies.

We hired a park tour guide, Jamel, with RP 75,000 for one hour and a half. He is a very experienced tour guide with fantastic English. He brought us through strategic photographing locations, told us the legends of the park, the history of the Borobudur, even the restoration process of the temple, which includes the weakness and the improvement of the restoration process. According to Jamel, his father and elder brother were involved in the restoration of the temple many years ago.

The sign of Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur or "Borobudur Temple Tourism Park" marks the destination of our one hour travel by car (upper left). The tickets for the park were bought from the park office (upper right). In the international visitors' office, free coffee, tea, and mineral water were served (lower left). Our English speaking tour guide, Jamal, is very informative. His excellent communication delighted our trip as well.

Borobudur is huge. We were astonished by its size even with extensive mental expectation. The colossal Borobudur is a square building, with the base of 120 square meter. It has 9 levels (6 lower square levels and 3 top circular levels), with the uppermost stone raises 35 m above the ground (approx. height of 11-storey building). UNESCO estimated a sum of 60,000 cube meter of stones had been used to build this temple, and no doubt, it is the biggest built-in-one-piece religious monument in the world. Completed around 750-850 AD by the kings of Sailendra Dynasty, Borobudur was built 300 years earlier than Angkor Wat. 

Candi Borobudur shows its prominency to us, even we were still hundreds of meters away from it (lower). When we turned back, the active Mount Merapi which lays distance away can clearly be seen (these two photos were taken from a same location).

Our group photo at the small stone signage stating that this is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

After helping us with our group photo at the UNESCO's sign, Jamal brought us to the far left off the main route. The reason he said, "This is a good location to take photo...". We agreed.

Stairs... the journey to the world heritage always start with climbing something...

We reached at the foot of Candi Borobudur at around 9:15 am. There were not many visitors there yet.

What amazed us the most, the whole temple in fact tells the story of Buddha. The whole built-in-one-piece temple alludes a gigantic stupa and represents the Buddism cosmology and nature of mind. The 9 levels of the temple are catagorized into three different divisions- the first base level represents Kamadhatu (the world of desire), followed by 5 levels of Rupadhatu (the world of forms), and on the top of Rupadhatu, 3 levels of Arupadhatu (the formless world). The stories of these three worlds are depicted on the bas-relief on each of the levels. To read these stories in right direction, we need to enter the temple through the east gate (the main gate), and start from left to right (clockwise direction).

First level of the temple with Kamadhatu, depicting the consequences of having few children and having many children (upper left). The family with few children lives in peace, while the family with many children suffers. The gossips and talking bad things about the good people is another feature in Kamadhatu (lower left). The photo on the upper right shows the traditional treatment of massage. All the bas-relief of the lowest level are covered by the additional basement of bricks, which is believed to be the way to stabilize the temple. 

Second level of the temple is decorated with the bas-relief of Rupadhatu- the journey of Siddhartha Gautama to become a Buddha is extensively told (upper row). Besides, the Buddha in the form of animals can be found at the second level of the temple.

Buddha statues with different poses have their distinct symbollic meanings. The one at the upper left shows Dhyana mudra, a symbolic of concentration and meditation. The galleries along the walkway of the temple tell us many stories about Buddha (upper right). The cannon-like structure at lower left used to be the drainage system of the temple. The whole Candi Borobudur was built without using any nails. The interlocking bricks hold the integrity of the temple.

Finally, we reached the level of Arupadhatu- the world of formless (haha). The spade stupas represent the unstability, the square stupas represent the stability, while the big stupa at the centre of the temple represents the wholeness or the perfectness in Arupadhatu.

According to our park tour guide, Jamal, the uniquess of the statues of Buddha in Borobudur is, all of them are in sitting of medidating position. None of them are in standing, or reclining position, like what we can see in other places in Asia. Besides, Borobudur contains no relics of Buddha. So, the builders put the statues of Buddha in the stupas with see-through holes. The central stupa contains no hole, and it is empty. The whole Candi Borobudur has no roof on top of it, showing the possibility that the temple is not built as a house of worship, but as an open-book for the Buddhists. The pilgrims and the monks will walk through the galleries of bas-reliefs to learn how to enter the world of Arupadhatu.

One of sitting Buddha statues in the uncovered stupa. The stupa was designed in such a way so that the believers can put in the candles or flowers. However, the candles and flowers are banned nowadays to preserve the temple.

This is one of the scene that we saw from the top level of Borobudur.

2010 Mount Merapi eruptions left a thick layer of highly corrosive volcano ashes on Borobudur, where the clean up work done by UNESCO later gulped USD 3 millions and the temple partially closed down for more than one year. We heard that the upper part of the temple was re-opened in November 2011, so, quickly, a tour to the temple arranged. Our advice, visit this World Heritage as soon as you can, while you have the chance to see it standing in one piece, before the next eruption occurs.

The active Merapi can be seen clearly from Borobudur (the right peak). On the left, is its sleeping brother, Mount Merbabu. In fact, there's another sleeping volcano on the western side of Borobudur- Mount Sumbing. We wonder why the rulers of Sailendra had chosen such a place to built their wonder. 

We went up to the temple from the east, and came down from the west. This is our photo with our tour guide, Jamal at the western side of Borobudur.

We made brief stops at Candi Pawon, Candi Mendut, and a silver factory on our way back from Borobudur to Yogya.

Candi Pawon and Candi Mendut are both small candi. These two temples form a straight line with Candi Borobudur to the East. Both of the temples are located just beside the main road between Borobudur and Yogyakarta. 

Borobudur is definitely a must visit site for all archaeology lovers. It is a sacred site for Buddhists as well. So, we need to wear sarung, or a batik cloth that wraps around the waist. The batik cloth is provided free of charge at the ticket counter. However, we need to return the sarung once we had completed our trip. There are many promoters selling poscards, handicrafts, and other souvenirs all around the site before the entrance to the international visitors office, on our way up to Borobudur, and on our way back to the office. The promoters were so call highly motivated (we hope you know what that means). However, they still knew when to leave us- when we rejected them politely, but firm.

The locals selling all sorts of products. We didn't buy any, as one of our drivers advised that we could in fact buy anything that we wish to get from Malioboro with fair price.

Lucky for us to reach the temple early around 8:30 am. There was less crowd at that time and we still managed to get some nice photos. After 10 am, the crowd make us almost impossible to take a good picture without any homo sapien in it. However, if you are patient enough to wait for the right moment under the hot sun, you will still get some nice photos. The photo with the sitting Buddha inside the stupa was taken with more than 5 minutes of waiting and trying.

The crowd on the temple. We need to line up in order to move from a level to another (right).

Be noted that Candi Borobudur is dark in colour, which absorb heat quickly. Our advice is, be early. Sufficient drinking water is important to keep us hydrated. We can get the mineral water from the international visitors office, free of charge. A hat or a small umbrella is helpful. Sport shoes or comfortable footwear is essential. A experienced tour guide is highly recommended (such as Jamal). The tour guide is proven to be helpful to us to learn much information about the temple- location, history, legends, facts, restoration, and destruction, and many more.

We stayed at Borobudur for nearly 3 hours. We returned to Yogya and our driver dropped us at Kraton Palace. Follow us to Kraton Palace and Taman Sari Water Castle now.

[Yogyakarta Trip Day 1-Prambanan] [Yogyakarta Trip Day 2-Borobudur] 

[Yogygakarta Trip Day 2-Kraton Palace and Taman Sari Water Castle]

[Yogyakarta-Food, Shopping, and Accomodation] [All Our Destinations]