CANDI MENDUT, WITH THREE GREATEST IMAGES OF BUDDHA
Candi Mendut was built about the same time as Borobudur, but
it is not a stupa.It resembles most Central Javanese temples with its broad
base, a high central body and a steep pyramidal roof once crowned by a large
dagob and a series of smaller ones. The superbly carbed panels on the outer
walls depict various boodhisattvas and Buddhist goddesses and are the largest
in Indonesia. One the outside of the staircase balustrade small panels relates
charming folktales, many of which, in the manner of Aesops fables are about
animals.
The walls of the passageway to the antechamber and the
interior of the temple are also decorated with fine reliefs of the tree of
heaven surrounded by pots of money and kinnaras (half bird, half man) and with
2 beautiful panels of a man and a woman amidst swarms of playful children. It
is thought that these represent a yaksa and a yaksin, child eating orgres who
converted to Buddishm and became protectors instead of devoourers.
The Mendut panels are delightful in their artistry and
detail, but they hardly prepare you or the stunning impact of the temple
interior and 3 of the finest statues to be found in the Buddhist word: a
magnificent 3 m high figure of Buddha as Sakyamuni flanked on the left and
right (of the viewer) by the Bodhisattvas Lokesvara and Vajrapani. This is, as
Bernet Kempers says,” one of the greatest manifestations of Buddhist spiritual
thought and art.For many visitors to Mendut silent sojourn in the interior must
(be) one of their most impressive contacts with a higher world.
No comments:
Post a Comment