CANDI PRAMBANAN

Candi Prambanan

This temple has one of a kind legend about a Beautiful Princess, an enamored knight and spirits who build these temples in one night.

So here goes the story:

Once upon a time there was a Beautiful Princess named Roro Jonggrang from the kingdom of Prambanan. Her beauty got a powerful knight from Pengging Kingdom named Bondowoso fell so deep in love with her. He wanted to make her his wife and he proposed. Roro Jonggrang agreed with one condition: Bondowoso had to make her a thousand temples and two wells in one night.

Now, this might sounds impossible, but Bondowoso had an army of spirits who helped him. Halfway through the night, Bondowoso and the spirit army almost finished the temples and the wells. Roro Jonggrang got worried since she actually did not want to marry Bondowoso. So she asked her maids to burn straws and pound the rice to make it feels like dawn has come.

The sky turned red and upon hearing the sound of pounded rice, the rooster start to crow as if the dawn has broken. The spirit army went back to their world as they thought the morning has come even though the temples has yet to be finished. Bondowoso asked them to returned and finish one last temple, but the spirits ignored his wish and left the site with the rocks laying on the ground unfinished. He tried to finish the last temple on his own but before it finish, the dawn really came.

He got really mad upon learning that Roro Jonggrang made him failed. He was so angry that he cursed Roro Jonggrang to turn into a statue to complete the 1000 temples he built. And up until now the statue remains in one of the temple called Roro Jonggrang temple.

Candi Prambanan - almost sunset from the exit route

I am not sure about now, but I supposed every kids in Indonesia knows about the Roro Jonggrang legend as well as they know about Disney Princess story. We had to learn about this legend as a part of Indonesian culture history at school when I was younger.

Some of the temples were still on restoration when we visited them so we could not go inside of some of the temple. But the Ramayana Ballet show is still held there on some evening every month. The performance will give you chills with lots of dancers and musician with Candi Prambanan lit up as a backdrop.

us!

Go check the schedule before visiting to see the performance here!


Tips:
1. To avoid the heat, go in the afternoon around sunset or early in the morning so you can visit other temples!
2. The exit route is quite long. Prepare to walk for a bit.