World Report

ogyakarta is the cultural capital of Java and arguably of the country as a whole despite being the second-smallest province after Jakarta.

In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the seat of the mighty Javanese empire of Mataram. Modern day Yogya has inherited a special charm and a host of captivating traditions from that time. These cultural riches include gamelan music, classical and contemporary Javanese dances and the wayang kulit leather puppet theatre.

The treasures include some of the most impressive historical and sacred monuments in Indonesia. Just five miles from the city, visitors can find one of the world’s great Buddhist monuments, the Borobudur temple. It was built in the late 8th century, 300 years before Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and 400 years before work had begun on the great European cathedrals.

The temple is constructed on ten levels like the Hhumtcambharabudara – or mountain of the accumulation of virtue – to symbolise the ten stages of Bodhisattva wisdom. More than a millennium after its construction its dramatic ruins were revealed to the world again by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles.

The province also boasts three ancient masterpieces of Hindu architecture within the vast complex of 224 temples at Prambanan. The temples of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are remarkable for their wealth of sculptural detail depicting vital and engrossing episodes from the Ramayana epic.

However, the focal point of Yogya’s traditional cultural life is the Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat Palace founded by Prince Mangkubumi in 1755. The Prince also went by the name of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono, a name still carried by his direct descendent Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, Governor of the Special Province of Yogyakarta, who lives with his family in the palace of his ancestors.

The palace’s grand and elegant Javanese courtyards are aligned along a sacred axis that runs from the smoking volcanic peak of Mount Merapi in the south to a monumental obelisk, known as the Tugu, in the north.
According to the Sultan, the alun-alun Utara – or northern courtyard – leading towards the obelisk symbolises the vertical relationship between man and God. While the alun-alun Selatan – or southern courtyard – symbolises the horizontal relationship between fellow men. In past times, the sultan would meditate along this axis before making important decisions.