Lomography

Ratu Boko
written by monoflow on September 17th, 2009 , 3 comments (4 votes)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

Ratu Boko (King Boko Palace) was a glorious building that was constructed during the reign of Rakai Panangkaran, descendant of Sailendra dynasty. The palace that initially was named Abhayagiri Vihara (that means a monastery on a peaceful hill) was built for seclusion purpose and to focus on spiritual life. From this palace, you will feel peace and will be able to see Yogyakarta city and Prambanan temple with Merapi Mountain on the background.

This palace is located 196 meters above the sea level. The area of the palace as wide as 250,000 m2 is divided into four sections; center, west, southeast, and east parts. The center part consists of the main gateway, square, Combustion Temple, pond, square terrace and assembly hall. Meanwhile, the southeast part includes hall, platform, three temples, pond, and a complex for princess. The caves, and a pond are in east part while the west part consists of hills only.

As a heritage building, King Boko Palace is different from other inheritances. Most of other buildings are in the forms of temple or shrine, while this place – as the name implies – shows characteristics of a dwelling place. This can be known from the wooden poles and roofs, even though we can only see remains of stone building. Investigate the palace in more details and you will know more. One of them is the beautiful scenery when the sun is setting in the west.