May 17, 2011 -- Yogyakarta

DATE: Tuesday, May 17, 2011

LOCATION: Yogyakarta

AUTHOR: Marcia Howard

TEMPERATURE: Sweltering

Today was free time with our host family until 3:00 PM when the group was to meet to go to Prambanan Temple.

Our hosts have an eight year old boy who attends a private school. Because today was a Buddhist holiday, the school, which is Moslem, had a school fair. The adorable children participated in music, dance and skits. Parents and friends were there. The children were selling food, toys, fish, etc. and we were encourage to buy so that the students could get practice buying and selling.  They kept records of their transactions. The classrooms have bamboo walls and ceilings.

Our hosts then took us (Elaine and I) to a neighbor who was a carriage maker. One carriage was commissioned by a very wealthy man and was very elegant in silver color and brass.

We went to another neighbor’s house and this neighbor had goats. We had a demonstration of milking the goats. Our hosts, who are professors at the local university, have 11 goats, 7 sheep, several cats and a monkey. Our host slaughters his sheep for religious ceremonies.

We then went to a wedding – 1,250 guest were invited! The bride and groom had to stand for hours while their guests greeted them and there was a food buffet for all.

Yogyakarta’s main market is Malioboro. Since we had heard you had to do “hard bargaining” and pickpockets were abundant, Elaine and I decided to have our hosts drive us down the street and shopped with our eyes.



Prambanan Temple





 Our group gathered together at 3:00 PM to go to the Prambanan Temple complex. This temple is of Hindu origin, built in the middle of the 9^th century. It laid in ruins for years, until 1937 when re-construction was first attempted. Today, the major temples have been restored, although scores remain to be excavated. It is very impressive. After a boxed dinner, we were treated to the famous Ramayana Ballet at the open air theater with three of the floodlit Shiva Temples in the background, plus a full moon. This spectacular dance/drama told the story of Rama and Shinta. Fantastically costumed dancers and gamelan musicians presented a spectacle of monkey armies, clashing battles, acrobats and fire burning.



Night view of Prambanan Temple as seen from the theatre
where we watched the Ramayana Ballet performance. 



We returned to our hosts families at 10:30 PM.