Cetho Temple, Central Java

 

Welcome

Several months ago, I and my friends visited the most fabulous temple in Mt. Lawu slope. It is called  Cetho Temple. I have visited this temple several times but I never feel bored. It is amazing as always. I did not visit this place to pray since I am not Hindu but I like the temple structure, the scenery, and the weather. I just feel it's like a hidden paradise. 

the way to the top of the temple terrace

Cetho Temple is a Hinduism Temple. Precisely it is located at the west slope of Mt. Lawu, Gumeng Village, Jenawi Subdistrict, Karanganyar Regency, Central Java. It is at 1496 metres above the sea level. It is large temple about 190x30 metres with 13 terrace. It was built in 1475. There is no public transportation to get there so if we want to visit you have to drive a car or ride a motorcyle. You could rent the car as well. It could be reached from Surakarta, Central Java or from Ngawi, East Java. It needs around two hours to get there but it's worth it. 

 

 the gates

This function of this temple is to free someone from curse. It is Hinduism believe. You will still find a ritual overthere and myrrh everywhere. There are many statues. Almost of them are off-headed. Here the first gate will lead you to the first terrace and so on. At the third terrace you will find some unique and great statues on ground. Turtles, garuda, and some other animals. These statues inform the year when the temple was built and some of them potray the story of Samudramanthana and Garudeya.

 

statues on ground

Samudramanthana is the story about two women bet about the color of the horse's tail that brings the water of life. These women are Winata and Kadru. Winata were cheating and she won. Kadru then became her slave. In Garudeya, Kadru is freed by his son. That's the story.

 

off-headed

Besides the history of this temple, it has a very fabulous scenery. Some people usually go to this place to enjoy it and it opens for tourists. They also go to this temple at the new year eve to enjoy the fireworks from distance. It's beautiful. the unique things of this temple is there are phallus and vagina statues. It considered to be taboo in eastern culture but it symbolize something. Tbe phallus and vagina symbolize a new born after someone frees from curse. Trust me, it is a marvelous temple you must visit.

 come and you will come and come again

National Press Museum, Surakarta

  

National Press Musem

 

It was the first time I visited Press Museum but I had passed it several times. My curiosity led me to visit this place while I was accompanying my younger brother who had a try out for university entrance. Lucky me, I had a motorcycle with me so I could go anywhere around Surakarta.

It was Sunday and I was a little afraid that the museum was closed. Unfortunately, it opened. The security welcomed me kindly. He asked me to park my motorcycle next to his office and showed me the way to enter the building. It is free.

 

Front door

Press Museum building has unique architecture. It is located right at the corner of a crossroad. There are two big newspapers place. Everybody who passes the road may read the newspaper. That’s for public. In from of the building, there are dragon statues. They are awesome. When you go inside at the main building, you will see some statues of press pioneers in Indonesia. You can also see some old or we could say very old newspapers and magazines displayed in a glass table. Even the papers are getting brown. 

 

The statues

 

Very old magazines 

 

 

 Very old magazines and newspapers

Besides the statues, old magazines and newspapers, there is an old machine. It is a historical machine since it helps Gusti Nurul, the Princess of Surakarta Palace, to dance in Netherland. The story is Gusti Nurul was invited to perform Javanese dance in Netherland Kingdom but it was impossible to bring all the gamelan with her. So, the machine was used to send the sound of gamelan which is played in Indonesia to Netherland. That’s cool.

  

The Machine

Next, I visited multimedia room. It is a room with internet connection. Unfortunately, some of the computers are out of order. Next room is library. It is in the second floor. The place is nice equipped with air conditioner. The collections are books in general. Then I went to the next room, it is a digital room. Some computers are provided with digital archives. Digital archives mean very old magazines and newspapers are scanned and saved in the computer. Almost all of them are in forms of pdf and jpg.

 Multimedia room

 

Library

 Digital room

Digitalized

 

One of old ads

I went upstairs accompanied by an officer. She showed me a room with many collections of new newspapers and magazines. The amazing one is that those newspapers and magazines come from all over Indonesia. The newspapers and magazines publisher send their product regularly. That’s awesome. You visit one place but you can get the news from all over Indonesia. 

  

All around Indonesia

 

It's here, in Surakarta