Prambanan, the Hindu temple compound in central Java, Indonesia, was inaugurated in 856 CE under King Lokapala as the Sanjaya dynasty reasserted power over the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, builders of Borobudur and Sewu. Its 47 meter Shiva temple marked a shift in court patronage back to Shaivite Hinduism. The Shivagrha inscription of 856 records that the builders, fearing lahars from Mount Merapi, rerouted the Opak River along a north to south axis by hand and backfilled the old bed to support the complex. The layout of 240 temples follows Vastu Shastra, modeling Mount Meru and leading visitors inward through Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka, and Svarloka, with Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana reliefs read while walking clockwise.

The site was maintained for only about 80 years before the Javanese court moved east in the 10th century, possibly after a Merapi eruption in 1006 or a power struggle. A 16th century earthquake snapped the towers, and villagers who had lost the history explained the ruins with the legend of Rara Jonggrang. A Dutch VOC employee rediscovered the site in 1733, the British surveyed it in 1811, and Dutch residents took sculptures as garden ornaments. Reconstruction since the 1930s has followed strict anastylosis rules, and in 2019 Indonesian Hindus held the Grand Abhisheka, the first such purification there in 1,163 years.

• How Prince Bandung Bondowoso’s demons built 999 temples in one night before the princess faked dawn with rice pounding and fires
• Why the Durga statue in the north cell of the Shiva temple is said to be the cursed Rara Jonggrang
• The anastylosis rule that a shrine can be rebuilt only if 75 percent of its original stone is found
• Each of the 224 smaller perwara temples takes 8 to 12 months to rebuild, putting completion at least 200 years away
• A stone casket found in a well beneath the Shiva temple held 12 gold leaves cut as a turtle, a serpent, a lotus altar, and an egg