Gedong Songo Temple Indonesia
Gedong Songo is a hindu temple complex in central Java, Indonesia. Gedong Songo means nine buildings, but there are only seven temples left. This place is a real hidden gem.
Gedong Songo is a group of Hindu temples located near Bandungan, Semarang Regency, in north Central Java, Indonesia. It is variously dated between the 8th and 9th-century. Built around a 1,270 metres (4,170 ft) hill near Mount Ungaran, it consist of five Gedong (temple group) – two on the east side of the hill, two towards the north and one to the west. These total nine temples, all dedicated to Shiva and Parvati. The Gedong Songo complex is one of 110 sites in central Java with Hindu temple structures or remains, and one of 21 in Semarang area, states Veronique Degroot.
The site was originally built during the early period of the Mataram Kingdom of Central Java. Similar to the Dieng temples on the Dieng Plateau, Gedong Songo was erected out of volcanic stone and the two complexes represent some of the oldest Hindu structures in Java. According to Vogler – a scholar of Indonesian architecture and history, the Gedong Songo were built in the 9th century, about a hundred years after Phase III Javanese temples such as Candi Arjuna, Sewu, Semar, Lumbung and other temples.[1] In contrast, Soekmono dates these to the 8th century and places the Dieng temples to the 7th century. Williams, Dumarcay and others place the Gedong Songo temples closer to 780–830 CE. The Dieng and Gedong Songo temples are among the earliest phases of Hindu temples built on the Java island, they predate Borobudur and Prambanan, and show considerable influence from Indian Hindu temple architecture.
The temples of Gedong Songo reflect a similar architecture to those on the Dieng Plateau, though they have less variation in form than them. Gedong Songo displays more emphasis on plinth and cornice mouldings. At Gedong Songo 3, an entrance is outlined by a vestibule that is decorated by guardian figures. Gedong Songo III is also a Shiva temple, one paired with a facing Nandi shrine and a Parvati shrine next to the Shiva shrine. Gedong Songo I is the oldest, with a square plan – an architecture that is predominant in Hindu and Buddhist-Hindu sites of central Java. However, the Gedong Songo II through V temples are unusual and among the notable exceptions, as they have a square sanctum, but the plinth base has been extended for a porch, which gives it a rectangular shape. The architects of the later groups of Gedong Songo temples explored a design beyond those found in Dieng group, and others such as Sewu, Srikandi, Puntadewa, Sambisari, and Ngawen where a porch was added by building a larger base.
