Cetho Temple: The Mystical Majapahit Temple on Lawu Mount

When I saw the pyramid structure of the temple, I thought about Mayan or Aztec civilization in halfway around the globe. But this is in Indonesia, in the heart of Java Island of Lawu Mountain. This temple called Sukuh temple, and this temple cannot be seperated from her brother's temple of Cetho Temple. They have a secret, a secret of the fall of Majapahit Empire.

These temples, like no other temple in Nusantara Archipelago, the structure, the story, and the element of erotic graphics. These two temples were two soul mates that can't be separated, the Cetho symbolize the male aspect of the world while the Sukuh symbolize the female aspect of the world.

The world of lingga, the male reproductive organ of Shiva and the world of Yoni, the female reproductive organ of Parviti the wife of Shiva are sacred to the Hinduism as the meeting of those two created this world and universe. The images of those temples ware struck on my head ever since I knew about them, and last month finally there was the meeting between us.

The Morning on the Lawu Sloop

The Tea Farmer

Cetho Temple

Taking the night train from Bandung to Solo with Temi I was arriving very early in the morning at 4 O'clock. Pandu my friend was waiting for us and we were continuing our journey to the Cetho Temple. Cetho temple located in the foot of Lawu Mountain, the sacred mountain of Javanese. Driving along from Solo to Cetho area was very refreshing, the wonderful colour of orange and blue, the green lush of paddy fields and the energetic people who bike to the mountain. I just loved it.

Cetho village, is one of the last surviving Hindu religion in Java, driving through here I saw the house of Balinese style in the middle of tea plantation. Arrived at 7 AM in the morning, the temple was all by ourselves. The roof of the temple , came together beautifully with the back drop of the mount Lawu and the sunrise. While the mist from the mountain gave a mystical scene. 

The structure of this temple followed the style of "Punden Berundak", this structure resembles the shape of the mountain, the stone structure going upwards and smaller to the top.  This temple total count of 14 stages and the reconstruction built in 11 stages. The first gate we take resembles the Balinese temple, which more precise that this temple is one of the earliest Balinese temple inspirations are.

This is the Garuda Structure

From upper stage, we can see the whole mandala of Garuda, Tortoise and the Linggam

Once walk in, we were greeted by the male statue. The feature of this statue unlike the other statue that we found in Java, it has the feature of Middle Eastern people. The eyes were round and big, he has curly beard and curly hair, and he used an earring with Majapahit sun symbol. On the second stage of the temple, there are a pair of male and female statue. They were not looking to each other instead they were on the back. The male used a kind of helmet  and a bracelet, which were rather unusual for the Javanese. To the local people they are Nyai Agni and Nyai Gemang Arum.

This Male Statue called Nyai Gemang Arum

This male full shower of light is Nyai Agni

Once I stepped the third floor, we found the shocking structure of the temple. It was placed on the floor of the temple, it was a big phallus mandala of Shiva. It's also known as Kalachakra, this phallus was intact with the big tortoise and the bird of garuda. This symbolizes the God of Wisnu, he manifest as a tortoise to sustain the earth. Inside the tortoise there was an ocean which contains the holy water.

The story continued to Garuda, this mythical animal was the vessel was flown to the ocean to gain the holy water. The holy water was used to save her mother, this story called Sudamala and it symbolized the cleansing ritual called "ruwatan". Even today, the Javanese still practise Ruwatan to repel misfortune and bad luck.

The fourth until the seventh has no particular statue or intresting structure. The upward structure has historical figure statue. The first is Sabdapalon, a loyal priest of King Brawijaya V. According to the story, he cursed the king, when the later converted to Islam in the 1478. He foretold that the Hindu kingdom would return in 500 years, but not before widespread devastation on Java. The second statue is of the advisor Naya Genggong.

The top of Cetho Temple

Here is the sacred prayer for Indonesia peace and glory

The top of structure was a room with two metre high of big rock. This was also the phallus of Shiva. On this Shiva, it was clothed with the flag of Indonesia. In this site, spirituaist was prayed for the peaceful of our country. Upward was the mountain of Lawu, the local people still practise of meditation on this sacred mountain.