Welcome to the great Sewu Temple, also known as Candi Sewu.
This temple is the second largest Buddhist temple in Central Java after Borobudur.
What many people do not know is that this temple is closely associated with the locally
famous legend of "Loro Jonggrang".
The legend tells the story about two ancient and neighboring kingdoms in Java, Pengging
and Boko.
The two kingdoms raged war against each other and after a series of devastating battles,
Pengging came out victorious.
In the last battle, the Pengging Prince, filled with supernatural powers, defeated the enemy
king.
After his victory, the Prince requested a marriage between himself and the dead king's
daughter, whose beauty was unmatched.
The princess, known as Loro Jonggrang, refused to marry the man who killed her father.
She was finally forced to give in, but presented the Prince two impossible conditions in order
for the marriage to take place; first the prince must build a well named Jalatunda and
second, he must construct a thousand temples in only one night.
The love struck prince agreed on the conditions and immediately started working on the well.
Using his supernatural powers once again, the prince swiftly finished construction of
the well in no time.
To fulfill the second condition, the prince entered into meditation and conjured a multitude
of demon spirits from the earth.
With their help he built the first 999 temples and started working on the final one.
To force a stop to his efforts, the princess and her maidens lit a fire in the east and
begin pounding rice; a traditional Javanese dawn activity.
Fooled into thinking the sun is about to rise, the spirits fled back into the earth leaving
the last temple unfinished.
The prince became furious when he learned of the deception and placed a curse on Loro
Jonggrang which turned her into a stone statue.
In this way, she herself became a feature of the final temple thus completing its construction
and fulfilling the conditions for their marriage.
This legend is a local popular folklore which is said to explain the origin of Central Java's
famous archaeological sites; such as of the Kraton Ratu Boko palace, the Durga statue
in northern chamber of the main Prambanan temple aswell as the temple complex you are
visiting right now.
The name "Candi Sewu" actually means "A thousand temples" -- referring to the 1000 temples
the prince was forced to build.
The Sewu temple was likely built somewhere during the 8th century.
The fact that this temple was built near the Prambanan Temple Compound, which is a Hindu
Temple, indicated that the Hindus and Buddhist lived in harmony during this time.
The grand scale of this temple complex suggests that Candi Sewu was a Royal Buddhist Temple
and one of the most important religious centers in ancient Java.
Even though this temple complex doesn't include 1000 temples, as the legend says, it is absolutely
huge.
There are a total of 257 buildings in the complex, arranged in rows surrounding the
main temple.
This arrangement is known as a "Mandala pattern" - an expression of how Mahayana Buddhism views
the universe.
The temple was severely damaged during the earthquake in Java in 2006.
The structural damage was significant and central temple suffered the worst.
Large pieces of debris were scattered over the ground and cracks between stone blocks
were detected.
To prevent the central temple from collapse, the metal frame structures were erected on
four corners and attached to support the main temple.
Today, the temple is somewhat overshadowed by the nearby Prambanan, but Candi Sewu is
definitely one of the most interesting Javanese temples around.