Discovering the cultural heritages in Yogyakarta is always never enough to be done especially for the cultural heritage tour like temples where we can find a lot. Each temple has its own unique and historical value that makes it even more captivating. One of the temples that you have to visit is Sari Temple or called Bendan Temple. Sari Temple is located in Bendan Village, Tirtomartani, Kalasan, Sleman, Yogyakarta. The location of this temple is not far from city center of Yogyakarta, it takes only about 1 km to the east. This Buddhist-style temple can be seen from the shape of the stupa that we can find it on the top of the temple.
Sari Temple that faces the west side is a temple of approximately 17.30 x 10 x 17 meters. This temple is square and has a window on each side. It’s quite different from ordinary temple which has 1 room and 1 level, in Sari Temple we will find 3 rooms lined up and they are connected by a door and a window. The existence of several windows in this temple is used to maintain the air circulation. It is believed that this temple was used as monk’s dwelling so that that’s why we discover several levels in this temple. On temple exterior we can see pieces of the lord of the Boddhisatva statue and the goddess Tara. In front of this temple door there are two statues. There are about 36 pieces of statues that we can discover 8 pieces in the east, north, and in the south side and 12 pieces on the west side.
Generally the pieces of those statues are found in the graceful position of Tribangga holding red or blue lotuses and displaying peaceful and serene facial expression. Other than those statue pieces, on the walls of the temple we can see sculptures of creature with an upper human shaped and lower bird shaped part or commonly called Kinara Kinari, Kumuda or flowers and tendrils leaves, and Kalamakara temples. We all know that this temple was discovered in 1929 in damaged condition so it was restored in 1930. But we don’t know exactly when this Sari temple was built. Observing from the location that is not far away from Kalasan temple, we estimated that this temple was built in 8th Century. Most of people said that the construction of the Sari Temple was initiated by Syailendra Dynasty.
If you are on vacation in Yogyakarta, you shouldn’t miss this historical tourist destination offered. The entrance ticket of this temple is affordable, it is only IDR 5,000, – for adults. Sari Temple is open every day starting at 09.00 until 17.00 WIB. But the best time to visit this temple is in the morning. In the morning, we can find fresh atmosphere of Sari temple because mostly there are not yet many visitors who come to this place. So that we will feel having more space to go around and to hunt nice pictures.
