Utkarsh Rai

Yogyakarta is a thriving city located on the Java Island and is scattered with historical remains from empires long gone. We all know that the Hindu religion was once spread all over South East Asia, Indonesia included. Though the religion is no longer dominant in the Java Island, its traces are still as prevalent as ever. For example, the city’s name is derived from Ayodhya, the Sultan’s name is preceded by ‘Sri’ and the people of Yogyakarta are well versed with the mythological tales of Hindus and Buddhists.

Thousands of years ago, two neighbouring kingdoms- one Hindu and one Buddhist decided to pit their architectural skills against each other. This competition resulted in Yogyakarta’s most stunning tourist attractions. The Buddhist Borobudur Temple and the Hindu Prambanan Temple.

The Borobudur Temple, a Mahayan Buddhist Temple, is built on nine stacked platforms. The lower platforms were square in shape while the higher ones were circular. The monument is topped with a grand, circular dome. The temple is home to thousands of panels depicting the life of Buddha and scenes from the Jataka Tales in excruciating and captivating detail. Around the central dome about 70 Buddha statues were seated; each covered by a perforated stupa.

Overlooking the two temples is Mount Merapi which translates to “Fire Mountain” since it’s an active volcano and its past eruptions have damaged both the temples. Thus, several of these perforated stupas was broken and tourists could reach in and touch the Buddha statue. This is considered to be good luck. If you close your eyes, touch the statues and make a wish it’s likely to come true.

The Prambanan Temple was not as lucky as the Borubudur.due to paucity of funds.  It is now a large set of ruins with a few intact temples, but with a little bit of imagination you can picture its magnificence in your mind’s eye. At least, that’s what I did.

We left Yogyakarta after that and head off to Bali. Bali is one of the most popular tourist spots in Indonesia. Interestingly, right outside Bali airport was a huge tapestry depicting a scene from the Mahabharat. The island is inhabited by Hindus who ran away from Java to escape religious conversion. Incidentally, the day we landed was the day some terrorists decided to bomb a restaurant in Bali. A restaurant we were planning to go to until we cancelled last minute. Fate? Probably.

Luckily for us, we visited Bali during Dussehra and natives there were celebrating a festival where they worshipped their ancestors. Its similarity to the “Pitr Paksha” festival in India was uncanny. Bali was lit up with decorated temples and the sweet smell of incense was wafting through the air. Bali is a Hindu island, when the Islam was getting spread in Java, some of Hindus came to Bali to preserve the religion. There are many temples, beautiful sight seeing spots, beaches and many more. A visit to Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, is a must.

The second Bali bombing happened during our stay and that day we planned to have dinner at Kuta. Thanks to my daughter who was very tired and forced us to have dinner in our hotel at Nusa Dua. We were unaware of the bombing and early morning we went to island for snorkelling. My parents and friends were trying to reach us and became very worried. Only after our return to hotel we could make contact with them.

You cannot visit Bali and not experience one of their cultural shows. Cultural shows are my absolute favourite thing. I make it a point to attend a cultural show in every country I visit. In Bali I was treated to a spectacular performance of a Ramayan ballet performed by dancers clothed in the traditional garb.

We ended the trip with a visit to an underground cave in another one of Indonesia’s islands. This underground cave was built by a man who wished to experience the life the Pandavs led during their period of exile.