“Yogyakarta is a historic city noted for its traditional culture and intellectual heritage. Yogyakarta is a semi-autonomous sultanate, contrasting old and new”
Yogyakarta, together with its twin city Surakarta (Solo), is the cradle of civilization on Java. This city was the seat of power that presents the magnificent temples of Borobudur and Prambanan in the 8th and 9th century and the new powerful Mataram kingdom of the 16th and 17th century. Until today this city continues to produce philosophers, thinkers, master painters and master craftsmen.
Moreover, Yogyakarta commonly described as friendly city. This is the place to come to shop, to travel and you can buy anything here. You can get wide range of handicrafts and wide choices of the famous exotic Batik. For suggest, visit Kotagedhe to find many beautiful handmade jewelry. This area is the famous area of those handmade products.
Visit the ancient Hindu temple of Prambanan which is 19 km (12 mi) from Yogya. The majestic Buddhist temple Borobudur can be reached by car from Yogya within one hour.
A historic city noted for its traditional culture and intellectual heritage, Yogyakarta is a semi-autonomous sultanate, contrasting old and new. In the walled Kraton city district are sightseeing highlights such as the Sultan’s palace, Taman Sari ‘water palace’, Mesjid Besar mosque and several museums, one in an old Dutch fort.
Worth visiting are the colourful bird market and workshops for batik and silver crafts – the latter make Yogyakarta a shopper’s paradise especially for garments and artwork. Two of Java’s greatest monumental treasures are usually visited as side trips from Yogyakarta. The huge temple mount of Borobodur was build 1,200 years ago and restored by UNESCO in 1973-83.
Symbolising the Buddhist cosmos, the massive multi-tiered monument contains many stone carved Buddha images, some within latticed shrines, looking out over the surrounding countryside. Especially interesting are the thousands of sculptured panels showing Buddhist religious themes and scenes from the lives of those ancient people. In contrast to Buddhist Borobodur, the ornate temples of Prambanan are the largest and finest examples of Hindu architecture in Indonesia.
Devoted mostly to Shiva, Brahma or Vishnu, there are several hundred temples, in ruins or restored, dating from the 8-10th centuries. Both of these monuments are UNESCO World Heritage sites.