Carved Stone

Compared to the temples at Angkor, the ones in Indonesia are practically undiscovered. It was surprising more people weren't exploring them, especially because the temples are so well preserved - again unlike Angkor which, lovely as the temples there are, are mostly ruins. The most amazingly striking thing at Borobudur, Prambanan and the other surrounding temples and shrines were the brilliant carvings that decorated the monuments. The carvings - the stories from the life of Buddha, from the Ramayana and of the Trimurti - Bramha, Vishnu, Mahesh - seemed almost as if someone had chiseled them in yesterday. It is truly amazing that these temples had survived the attacks of nature in Java - earthquakes, volcanoes, what have you - to still be standing and completely awe inspiring at that.