Sunset at Ratu Boko

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Sunset at Ratu Boko

December 14, 2017 by davidvblack

Yogyakarta Day 3: Friday, August 4, 2017

Stairway at Ratu Boko, a palace or monastery on a hill overlooking the area of Prambanan near Yogyakarta.

We had some time before nightfall and the start of the Ramayana Ballet, so our ticket purchase also included a tour of the hilltop palace of Ratu Boko. Haru and I drove away from Prambanan through rice fields and wound our way up on to a hill nearby as the afternoon was shading toward evening.

A rice field in late evening as we drove to the hillside palace of Ratu Boko.

Haru waited in the parking lot while I climbed the stairs on to a plateau overlooking the plains around Yogyakarta and Prambanan. The rice paddies below made for excellent photos. There was a grassy area with bougainvillea and chickens as I walked toward the main stairway and gate.

Rice fields as seen from the hilltop at Ratu Boko.

This complex was built sometime in the 9^th Century CE based on inscriptions found here. There are also artifacts showing it included both Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram influences. No one knows exactly what it was used for – was it a palace? A monastery? A vacation spa? A fort? Maybe all of these at one time or another.

Stairways and paths lead through gates and a large grassy hilltop dotted with the ruins of temples and palaces at Ratu Boko.

Local legend say this was the palace of King Boko of the popular tale of Loro Janggrang. According to the story, Prince Bandung Bondowoso was a powerful man who fell in love with the daughter of King Boko. She did not love him, especially since he had killed her father in battle before falling in love with her. But he insisted, and she finally agreed on one condition: that he would build 1000 temples in one night. He agreed, and enlisted the aid of demons and giants to build 999 temples (which is the legend of how Pramabanan came to be). Fearing that he would succeed in her impossible request, she woke up her servants and told them to start pounding rice. The noise woke up the roosters, who started to crow. Fearing that morning was coming, the demons and giants fled back to the underworld and the final temple was never built. In a rage, the Prince Bandung cursed the princess and she was turned into stone, the actual statue of Durga in the Shiva temple at Prambanan. Loro Janggrang literally means “slender maiden,” the maiden of stone.

Ruined walls of stone at Ratu Boko.

There is a main double gateway at the top of the stairway that leads to an upper plateau with the ruins of temples, pools, and crematoriums. I wandered around the site and took photos, then walked back on a pathway to some ancient stairs and artificial caves used for meditation. It was peaceful there as the sun moved behind clouds on the horizon to the west. I captured some airplanes taking off from the Yogyakarta airport against the sunset.

The sun setting behind the western mountains beyond Yogyakarta, as seen from the hilltop of Ratu Boko.

I took more photos of the rice paddies below the hill on my way back to the car. It was almost dark as we drove back down the hill and returned to Prambanan for the Ramayana Ballet.