Prambanan

Following our pilgrimage to Borobudur, and with a lunch stop at a wonderful restaurant, we drove on to the Hindu temple complex at Prambanan. While massive Borobudur amazes, the mountain-temples here are striking in their beauty, the finest examples, we are told, of Indo-Javanese architecture. Finished in 856, Prambanan was damaged in a 16th century earthquake, restored, damaged by Merapi eruptions, and then in 2006 by a massive earthquake. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is being restored again.

Rising in the center of the complex, surrounded by the jumbled remains of 214 other small temples, are three much larger temples dedicated to Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. The architecture combines delicate grace with a sense of solidity without the massiveness of the great Buddhist shrine we visited earlier. The interiors contained images of the gods. Somewhat smaller temples stand with them, all of them tall and steep, inspired by the peaks of the Himalayas. We wandered with our guide and wondered at the sheer beauty and spiritual power of these shrines. They invite admiration for the mystical and spiritual aura of this ancient site of Javanese Hindu religion.

As we descended from the interior of Vishnu's temple our guide pointed out Mt. Merapi, and we could see steam rising from vents near the cloud-shrouded peak. Three hours later, the volcano erupted.