Many would miss out and even ignore the existence of this small buddhist temple called Mendut that was built around 8 to 9th century. But, they are missing out on a piece of interesting historical building and also cheap fresh coconut in front of the temple.
This building is estimated to be older and/or built during the same era as the famous and the biggest buddhist temple in the world, Borobudur. There are many small architectural details in this temple ranging from its design, philosophical meaning, its history, and also debate of its origin. For example according to the Borobudur conservation agency, some of the reliefs in this temple contain fable stories that teach moral values from Buddhism. To put it simply, think of it like the Indonesian version of AESOP.
As written by the Borobudur conservation agency, in the past this was the religious site for the Buddhist to do their pilgrimage but it was ignored as the fall of Ancient Mataram, a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. After that, as reported by the conservation agency, the stones were missing as people were using it. Since this is a historical building, I can only cite from resources that I read. As I don’t want to tell you any historical inaccuracies. From my experience visiting temples, if you want to write about its detail, there has to be a written permission from the ministry of culture. So, I can only leave you the links attached above to some historical facts around it.
This temple can also be linked to the idea and example of genius loci, in which 
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Genius Loci offers justice to aged buildings that are considered lifeless because of the passage of time but have contributed immense cultural and social value during their lifespan.
This building is an example of it. I could tell one so much about it yet it can be a serious offense if I made any historical inaccuracies of its relief and the building surrounding it. But from these pictures below, you can witness the magnet of this dignified temple.
Even today, some parts of its original stones are still missing as you can see below:
From that picture as well, you can see the surroundings is decorated with a stupa which marks a typical Buddhist temple and a way to distinguish between a Hindu temple. The picture you see above is an entrance to the Buddha statue that lies on the center of the room. In the past, I have entered the complex and it felt so calm, serene, and peaceful.
From this picture below you can see some carvings, in which case it's called Reliefs, that surrounds the building. Each of temples in this area tells different tales from Buddhism. As I mentioned at the beginning it tells about fable stories.
My way to this temple wasn’t easy. I got lost twice trying to find this temple that actually was located just 10 minutes drive from where I stayed. But thank you google map, I circled the market twice before I finally arrived at the complex of this temple.
As I reached the place, I parked my motorbike in front of the temple. The view was really nice from where I parked the motorbike. Then around the area, there are some coconut water sellers. They are fresh as it is from fresh coconut water, served with/without sugar with ice cubes. The fresh coconut water is very cheap in this place. They cost me 10.000IDR which is something cheaper than what I normally had in Bali and other places.
While having the coconut water, I had a bit of chit chat with the seller. I asked him about the situation during the pandemic and he mentioned that the place is closed for visitors until an unforeseeable time. The only thing that visitors can do is take a picture in front of it but can’t get closer to the temple and even inside it. When I stayed around in this place, I spotted some people coming here and there and just checking out around the area. Some enjoyed the coconut water at this place like I do. Then, only after drinking the fresh coconut, I started exploring the area around this place.
On the way to the entrance, there will be the buddhist monastery on the left side. It is closed for visitors too but from the outside, we can see the sleeping buddha and some ornaments, a mixture between the Javanese culture and Buddhist ancient culture.
Many people should really look into following the procedures as they are entering ancient and also sacred buildings. There are many cases where people carved their name on the stones which isn’t really cool. This should have not happened and they gave almost no respect to the building.
One of the most interesting piece of statue in this place is this lounging buddha that is located in the monastery. This buddha is similar to something I visited recently on February. Only this one is smaller.
Before I left the place, I took a picture of the short summary of the temple's description of history.
And one more picture of the temple from a few distance away where the coconut sellers are. It still amazing to me that this place remains to be interesting after a few centuries. Not many know the stories and only the curious ones would be able to uncover this piece of history from the ancient kingdom of Mataram. This is another piece that almost completed all of my visits to the temple in pursuits of tracing all the ancient mataram empire ruins that remains in the country and some located outside the countries. Here's the brief generic information history of Medang Kingdom if you're curious about it. This empire built many notable and magnificent temples that stood still until today. Its architectural design,the materials, the philosophical meanings behind it are unmatched to the current civilization.
The picture above summarized the end of my trip to that temple. Stay tuned if you like to follow another piece of timeless architecture in my next post.
 | Mac is a jack of all trades. A typical introvert in love with literature, books, technology and philosophy. She is also so into nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than that, she is passionate about cooking and traveling. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. If you like her content, don't hesitate to upvote, leave a comment or a feedback. A re-blog is also appreciated. |