Yogyakarta Tourist Destination
Sultan's Palace (Kraton Yogyakarta Hadiningrat)
The sultan's palace or kraton, with its grand
and elegant Javanese architectures, lay in the center
of municipality. It was built in 1790 by Sri Sultan
Hamengku Buwono I. Kraton is a model of traditional
palace architecture style of Javanese. Up to now, kraton
become sultan’s living place. It is open daily from
08.00 am to 1.00 pm except Friday from 08.00 am to 12.00
only.
Pakualaman Palace
Along with kraton, Yogya has another palace called Pakualaman,
the residence of Sri Pakualaman. On the eastern wing
of the front part of the palace is the Puro Pakualaman
museum, which highlights the royal heritage of the family
of Pakualaman. Today, the palace function is as a venue
to host official state guests visiting Yogya. Opens
on Saturday, Thursday and Sunday at 09.30am to 01.30pm.
The Grand Mosque (Mesjid Agung)
Masjid Agung (Agung Mosque) can be found on the west
side on the north square of Sultan palace. It is a place
for praying or holding Islamic Religious ceremonies.
Ceremonies like Sekaten and Gerebeg are held annually
to celebrate some of the Islamic Commemoration days.
The mosque provides the kraton room for religious activities.
The grand mosque is designed with traditional architecture.
The building has a special roof called “Tajug”. This
roof especially used for religious buildings. This traditional
mosque is one of the most interesting buildings for
its architecture.
Taman Sari Water Castle
One of the most intriguing parts of the tour living
in Kraton is the Taman Sari which means beautiful park,
literally 'fragrant garden'. Once this was a most secret
part of Kraton as it was formed a pleasure garden of
pools and waterways planted with hundreds of flowering
trees. The Sultan would choose his companion for the
evening. It was built in 1975 by Sultan Hamengkubuwono
I. He created a new style that was a combination and
a mixture of Javanese and Portuguese architecture. It
can be visited daily from 08.00 am to 02.00 pm.
Prambanan Temple
Prambanan temple is located 17 km from Yogyakarta. Tourists
should not miss the temple because it is only a hundred
meters off the main street. The Sanjaya Dynasty built
this 47 meters high Hindu Temple in the 9th century.
It consists of three courtyards. The main temple is
located in the inner courtyard and surrounded by several
small temples called “perwara” temples. Local chieftains
as token of their acquiescense to the king contributed
some of these.
As a Hindu temple, the main temple has three shrines,
dedicated to the Hindu trinity Ciwa, Vishnu, and Brahma.
Each of these shrines is facing a smaller shrine for
the vehicles. The cow Nandi is the vehicle of Ciwa,
the destroyer God. The eagle Garuda is the vehicle of
Vishnu the guardian God. And the swan Angsa is the vehicle
of Brahma the creator God.
Borobudur Temple
Fame as one on the Seven Wonders of the World, Borobudur
is in fact the biggest stupa ever created on earth.
It was built in the most glorious time of the Cailendra
dynasty. It is situated on about 42 km from Yogya, its
only one-hour driving by car. The whole structure of
Borobudur reflect the hard work, perseverance, and high
dedication of thousand people who were sweating on their
attempt to make their way up to hill dragging heat of
the tropical climate.
Kraton Yogyakarta Museum
Kraton also has some museum that are popular in the
name of Kraton Yogyakarta Museum. It is located in Kraton
areas. It keeps several heritage of Sri Sultan Hamengku
Buwono's, includes his photograph equipments. There
is also cart museum located in western side of Kraton
at Jl. Rotowijayan. This museum has all kinds of Kraton’s
carts collections, their names are Kyai Garuda Yeksa,
Kyai Jaladara, and Kyai Kanjeng Jimat etc. It was built
on 14.000 m2 area in Javanese architecture design.
Puppet's Museum
This museum aimed to keep all kinds of Javanese tradition
puppets shadow play called 'wayang'.
Wayang can be classified to 40 kinds of shadow play.
It shows some of the type of wayang, mainly: Wayang
Klithik, Wayang Kulit, Wayang Thengul, Wayang Krucil,
and Wayang Golek.
Kasongan Village
It is located in Bantul regency about 7 km from Yogyakarta.
Kasongan villagers produce handicrafts such as decorative
things and kitchen utensils in various sizes that are
very famous in Indonesia.
Kotagede
Kotagede which has been famous since the 1930's as the
center of Yogya's silver industry, was in fact the first
capital of the Mataram Kingdom founded by Panembahan
Senopati in 1552. The streets in Kotagede are lined
with busy silver workshops where visitors are welcome
to watch silver being transformed into beautiful works
of art and watch the skill of the silversmiths at work.
There are also excellent bargains to be found in these
outlets. Kotagede is within easy distance of central
Yogya as it lies only 5 km to the southeast. The workshops
and outlets are open 7 days a week.
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