Yogyakarta and Central Java, 11-15 June 2014

[jeezuinn]

Tamansari
Tamansari, or water castle is actually a really huge place. The place where you need to pay an entrance fee to enter, is actually just the bathing area of the Sultan. The whole neighbourhood where hundreds of residents now reside in, is actually built upon the remains of the Sultan palace after the earthquake. I would highly recommend that anyone who visits Tamansari, seek out a local guide for him to bring you about. There are many passages and tunnels that I would never find without my guide's help, and even if I did, I would not understand the story behind it. People who choose to stay here, pay a very very low sum for the land, and in return, they and their families need to volunteer(for free)in shifts at the Sultan palace. As such, they look to other jobs to supplement their income, and being a guide is 1 of them.

The whole Tamansari used to be a beautiful palace with passages of water, but all that is left now are mainly ruins. The government has plans to relocate the locals here in an effort to restore Tamansari back to its former glory.

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This is one of the tunnels that we went. There are many tunnels like this and partially hidden walkways which you may not notice since they are part of the neighbourhood now.

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This stone sculpture is a symbol of the King and it dropped during one of the earthquakes. It was originally supposed to have fangs on both sides and a tongue sticking out.

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Just a random notice I chanced upon, but the carving on the picture is how the above sculpture is originally supposed to look like

 

[jeezuinn]

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As the village was built upon the ruins of the palace, we were pretty much exploring the village too. One of the interesting sights was this chicken. The guide explained that its a unique breed where its feather grew in the opposite direction. There were two of them there.

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Halfway through the tour, our guide showed us his house. It was then that I realised how talented he was. Another source of his supplementary income comes from his batik painting. All those drawings are painted by him and his friend, and this is just 1 out of many walls full of these paintings. I could tell that he was hoping we would buy, but I'm not one who appreciates paintings.

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There are others that make homemade batik to sell. I was lucky enough to chance upon this lady who happened to be in the process of making it. She uses the tool in her hand to drip melted wax unto the batik. They will use the wax to cover the areas which they do not wish to dye, and the wax forms a 'seal' when hardened (the brown parts). The whole cloth is then immersed in a dye solution, and the wax protects the covered area. After that, they will soak the batik in hot water to melt the wax off.

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This is the pot of melted wax.

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Other villagers will do the painting for the Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) and sell them

 

[richiemccaw1]

Nice series bro! I esp love the owl picture. This place definitely looks like it is worth a visit.

Hope you dont mind if I PM-ed you for more info in the near future.. Thanks.

 

[jeezuinn]

Nice series bro! I esp love the owl picture. This place definitely looks like it is worth a visit.

Hope you dont mind if I PM-ed you for more info in the near future.. Thanks.

Thanks bro! My gf and I love owls too, she went hysterical when she saw them lol. Sure feel free to pm me, i'll help out if i can!

 

[jeezuinn]

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This is the Tamansari that many would be more familiar with, the bathing area. There are two pools in this area, the other being behind where I stand. The guide explained that 40 women will get changed into their sarongs, and 20 would bathe in each pool. The king will enjoy the view from the highest floor through the window, and pick his choice for the day. He will then give a flower ring to the woman of his choice, to head to his private pool behind the building and bathe together.

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This room is none other than the 'suana' room, located on the first floor of that building. The servants will help to heat up the bed by putting logs to fuel the fire beneath the bed.

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This is the king's private pool, located behind the building. It looks pretty much the same, but the main difference is that the pool here is made up of 50% well water, and 50% spring water, which is channeled from Mt Merapi. The other pools are just filled with well water.

 

[jeezuinn]

Ratu Boko
Ratu Boko is palace of the royal family that ordered the construction of Prambanan, Borobudur, Plaosan and others. The transition from one religion to another resulted in temples of both Buddhism and Hinduism being built. This transition could be seen in Ratu Boko too, as people found Buddhism stupas, as well as Hinduism shrines in this compound. During my research prior to the trip, I often only got images of the usual gate, and thus wondered whether it would be worth it to visit Ratu Boko. I decided to take a leap of faith to come to have a look, and I was pleasantly surprised that there was much more than just the gate. If you hire an attraction guide there, he can bring you around the whole area which is quite big, and explain the stories behind it. The whole area is pretty big, and may look like its covered with grass, but underneath the grass the whole area is filled with volcanic rocks that are washed down from Mt Merapi. The workers in the past had to transport these stones from a river 2km away to lay across the whole area.

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Being a palace, there were many structures around. Earthquakes in past centuries have laid waste to them, but the country is trying to restore as much as they can. This is however a very arduous and tedious process, as the rocks were shaped like a jigsaw puzzle. Each stone have a certain protrusion or indentation, and they have to find the right stone within the rubble to put it back together, in an effort to maintain the integrity of the ancient marvel. This shrine roof is one of the many partially completed structures lying around.

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I came across this interesting sight on 1 of the completed gates. After piecing the pieces together, the people would make markings such as these so that they can identify the matching pieces should they ever come apart in another earthquake.

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These are the Hindu shines they found, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. The Idols within are being kept elsewhere for now, dur to fear of theft during restoration.

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In Ratu Boko, big holes are usually filled with water, be it a bathing pool, or a pool of holy water for sacred processions. The water pools are usually deceptively deep, as deep as 8m. This hole is one of the few that are not filled with water, because this is actually their crematorium. It has been fenced up because people have fell into the hole before.

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A quick final shot before leaving this place

 

[LifeInMacro]

Hi there. Nice photos. Appreciate your effort in putting descriptions that go along with the photos.

What airline did you fly to Yogja? Was it direct or via Jakarta? I know that there's limited flights to Yogja and timing's quite weird.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jeezuinn]

Hi there. Nice photos. Appreciate your effort in putting descriptions that go along with the photos.

What airline did you fly to Yogja? Was it direct or via Jakarta? I know that there's limited flights to Yogja and timing's quite weird.

Thanks in advance.

Hey, thanks a bunch! I actually enjoy doing it too. The only airlines i know of that flies to Yogya are Tiger, and Airasia. However I read on a newspaper report that Tiger was doing sooooo badly, that they have decided to cease all flights to and from Yogya. My original plan was to fly Airasia there, and Tiger back, but i was affected by the ceasing of flights from Tiger too , and ended up flying Airasia two ways. They only have 1 timing per day per direction, so that may affect your itinerary in some ways.

The flight was direct to and from SG, about 2 hrs 5 mins only.

 

[jeezuinn]

Plaosan Temple
Plaosan Temple was the last stop of my trip. Among all the other temples I've been to, this temple had the most elaborate carvings IMO. It is actually pretty small compared to the others, but it is just as beautiful. There is no fixed entrance fee to enter this temple, simply drop any amount into the box as a form of goodwill.

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Somehow the stupa in the middle top of the building looks like some transformer to me

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