Gedong Songo, a Mystical Temple

I always love to see an old temple with its own story behind of hundred years history. So do with Gedong Songo, a Hindi temple built by Syailendra Dynasty.  Locate in a height of 1.200 asl in Ungaran Mountain, Gedong Songo had a fantastic view. An old temples, fog, and mountains made Gedong Songo sprouded its mystical aurora. The felt like I were in heaven where the immortal gods stayed.

Snack and Drink Seller.

Gedong Songo come from two words, Gedong which means building and Songo means nine. So, basically it means ‘nine bulding’. When in the first time found by Raffles its only seven, so the name was ‘Gedong Pitoe’, pitoe means seven. Later, the two broken temple found and the name changed like it’s today.

Prepare Your Stamina

To explore all temples in Gedong Songo, we must prepare an extra energy because the location from one temple to the next one quit far and uphill. But it was damn worthed because along the way you’ll see fantastic panorama of the temples and Ungaran Mountain in the background. Very relaxing and pleasant to walk from the first temple to the seventh.
 

Local Traditional Art.

Kid from Local Village.

For you who didn’t want to spend walking, there plenty of people offered horse to be rided to explore this great temples.The horse were tame and all the way, the owner will guide you. To visit all the temples it took two hours walking.

Beside temples, in here you would see hot sulfuric water from the ground. It believed could heal any skin deases. You could also take a bath in man made pools with two options, indoor and outdoor. I never took a bath in there, but maybe someday I’ll enjoy the hot water. And for you who loved adventure, you could spend a night or two in the camping ground and maybe try the wall climbing or enjoy the flying fox provided.

In weekend, usually the Gedong Songo authority held traditional attraction to attract more people to visit. Even some times held dangdut show, the most favorite music in Indonesia. So if you wanna enjoy the mystic of Gedong Songo, you better visit in weekday.
 

Visitor and The Horse.

Part of the Ramayana Great Epic

The story was told that Ungaran mountain was the mountain which Hanoman used to burry Rahwana when the battle of Rama and Rahwana. The battle happened because Rahwana kidnapped Dewi Sinta from Rama, her husband. Angry about it, Rama attack Rahwana. In the battle to take back Sinta, Rama were helped by Hanoman, a monkey king and his army.

Gedong Songo Temple.

Temple Fifth.

Shortly, Rama won the battle but Rahwana couldn’t be killed by Rama although he used all his power and weapons. Because of that, Hanoman buried Rahwana with a gigantic rock that be Ungaran Mountain like we see today. And believed the hot water in Gedong Songo was the eyedrop of Rahwana and the hot sulfuric gas was the breath of Great Rahwana.

Gedong Songo located in Candi village, Bandungan, Semarang Regency. It’s about 45 km from Semarang. To go there we could use local transportation from Semarang to Ambarawa and continue with ‘angkot’ to Bandungan. The price to enter this temple was quite cheap and the facility provided was good enough.
 

Temple Seventh.

The sun had almost sunk, emitting its golden tinge. Fog which was originally entrenched in the top of the mountain felt it was time to get down blanketed the temples of the gods from the dark of the night. Not wanting to disturb his composure, I directed my footsteps to go back, leaving Gedong Songo in eternity. (dm 080913)