If you are on vacation in Yogyakarta, you shouldn’t miss to visit the temple area. One of the temples that should be visited is Kalasan temple. This temple is not far from Sari temple, precisely in the area of Kalibening, Tirtomartani, Kalasan, Sleman, Yogyakarta. As a consequence, some people call this temple as Bening temple because it is located in Kalibening area. Supposedly Kalasan temple was built in the 8th century as Rakai Panangkaran command to honor the female Bodhisatya or God of Tara and Buddhist priests. The uniqueness of this temple is its location because it is located in the residential area, but this location doesn’t hide the charm of this temple.
Kalasan Temple is Buddhist temple that can be seeing from a stupa on the top of this temple. This is claimed as the oldest Buddhist temple in Yogyakarta. Here we can see a lot of stupas, there are approximately 52 stupas in Kalasan Temple. Being compared to other popular temples such as Borobudur and Prambanan Temples, Kalasan Temple is not yet as famous as those temples, but the beauty and historical value of the Kalasan Temple is no less than those other temples. One of the uniqueness of Kalasan Temple is the ancient cement used to create the reliefs that makes different from other temples. Usually, the cements which are funtioned as an adhesive uses chemical ingredients, but the ancient cement found in Kalasan Temple was made of unique natural material called Vajralepa. Other than being an adhesive, Vajralepa is also used to protect the temple from moss or fungus.
Kalasan Temple is a square building of about 45 x 34 meters that has four doors on the four sides of the temple where the east door becomes the main gate of this temple. This temple consists of 3 parts which are the crown of the temple, the body of the temple, and the foot of the temple. In the body of the temple there is 1 main room and 4 additional rooms. In the main room we will see a statue of about 6 meters high made of bronze. We don’t know yet what embodiment of the God created. We can also see a throne decorated by carved lions standing on the back of an elephant.
The top of the temple consists of two levels of eight square shapes. On the first level, we can see statues of Buddhist people and Dhayani Buddhas which is surrounded by several stupas on the secon level. The highest of Sari Temple are the form of 8-sided stupa with beautiful niches, tendrils and Buddhist statues. One of which becomes the attraction of this temple is the statue of Gana which is illustrated as a dwarf that has big belly and carry goods always.
At the bottom of the temple there is makara surrounded by unique decoration.
On the south side of Sari temple we will see a big Banaspati statue, with a perpendicular lane adorned with tendrils and makara which have extremely high artistic value. Actually there is a special room inside the temple, but the visitors are not allowed to enter it.
The location of this temple is not far from the city center of Yogykarta, you need only to go along Yogya-Solo street and you will find a temple that rise on the south side of the road, it is located exactly in front of the Bhayangkara Kalasan Hospital. The entrance fee costs only IDR 5,000. And the parking retribution costs IDR 5,000 for a motorbike and IDR 10,000 for a car.
