A Gish Out of Water: Almost the Seventh Wonder

Last week I was able to take a spontaneous weekend trip to go see friends and fellow fellows Julianne and Michaela in Jogjakarta, Central Java. Jogja (really spelled "Yogjakarta"), was evacuated during Mt. Merapi's eruption back in November - stranding Julianne in Jakarta for three weeks. Merapi has since settled down, and the local population is picking itself up and dusting itself off...literally. They are still cleaning up mounds of ash that devastated their villages (see below), but life seems to be getting back to normal, and the three of us set out to explore all that Jogja had to offer. It didn't disappoint.

Volcanic ash from Merapi

Notice the collapsed roofs and palms that were crushed under the weight of the ash

There are two World Heritage sites just outside of Jogja. The first is a Buddhist temple called "Borobudor." Most in Indonesia argue that this should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World and for good reason. This massive temple depicts Buddha's ascent to heaven with its ten levels - each telling stories of Buddha's life in their intricate stone carvings. The thing took 200 years to complete, and the workers actually had to stop working on it because the sheer weight of the volcanic-stones were making the entire structure collapse and sink into the ground.

The top three layers contained these "bells." Each one contains a statue of Buddha in a different pose. The bells were filled with ash when Merapi erupted, so they must be taken apart stone-by-stone to clean them out. The temple has been rebuilt several times, in fact, because of the numerous earthquakes and eruptions that hit the area. Our tour guide explained that they are only allowed to reconstruct if they have at least 70% of the original stones.


All original carvings

Next stop was an equally amazing World Heritage site; this time it was a Hindu temple called Prambanan. Each of these structures was devoted to either a god or their transportation system (bull, swan, and eagle). The biggest temple in the center was for Siva, the Destroy of the World. (Eeeee). Once inside, you could see the original stone statues of the gods or their animals in the cool shadows. Only priests (and camera-wielding tourists) can enter these temples to worship and collect holy water which they would pour on the statues of the gods and collect as it ran off.