Prambanan

While the Yogyakarta area is now overwhelmingly Muslim, traditionally it was a mix of Buddhist and Hindu. Two of the largest tourists sites in the Jogja area are the Buddhist temples at Borobudur and the Hindu temples at Prambanan. Today we visited Prambanan with fellow MCCers from Jogja.

Pramabanan, which was built around 900 A.D., is comprised of three large temples to the Hindu gods Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma, surrounded by several hundred smaller temples. All these smaller temples have collapsed while the larger temples were damaged by the earthquake in 2006. Because of the damage, the buildings are structurally unsafe and therefore people are not allowed in or around them. The buildings are very impressive and we were disappointed we couldn't get closer.

We arrived at Prambanan around 10:00am, which was too late, so it was hot and the kids were not happy with the tour part of the visit. However, there was a play and picnic area, which the kids did enjoy.

One of the things that has become increasingly annoying for us in Indonesia is the attention our two youngest kids receive. This attention includes strangers blocking our way so that they can take pictures of the kids with their cellphones or asking us to stop so that other people can take their picture with us. This was a problem at Prambanan and I took a picture of the crowd of people following Lori and the kids.

We have had a stream of people staying at our house the past few days. First, Katie and her friend from school had a sleepover. Then friends of ours from Salatiga have been here for the weekend. She is Malaysian and works with MCC while he is from New Zealand and is working on a Ph.D. in Anthropolgy. It has been a lot of fun.

See the pictures for more.

Phil