Malabar is a mountain area in the western part of Java with vast tea plantations established by Dutch planters in previous centuries. In the beginning the Dutch government forced them to grow coffee. Later they started growing tea which was a much more suitable and lucrative business. One of these planters was Johannes Bosscha, a progressive Dutchman, who intended not only to to expand his company but also to educate the local people. With his financial aid houses were built for the workers and a school for their children. He built a nearby observatory to promote science. The villa of Johannes Bosscha was not destroyed in the turmoil during the period of decolonisation. The workers' houses were also preserved for later generations. They are silent witnesses of a colonial period which many Indonesians try hard to forget.
Borobudur is an old temple complex in central Java near Yogyakarta. It was built in the 9th century. In origin it is a buddhist stupa: square basement, round body and slim top. The sanctuary is built around a hill and has no entrance. The basement has five square terraced stores receding from down under to up above. The walls of each terrace are fully covered with two horizontal rows of stone reliefs. Above the fifth square terrace there are three circular terraces in receding stores. Stupas on the border of each round terrace contain a meditating buddha. The central top is a giant stupa with a short peak. The walls of each rectangular terrace have niches at a regular distance with a meditating buddha in it. All buddhas on the same side of the monument have the same hand position or mudra. The upper reliefs on the inner side of the gallery walls depict various legends. The upper reliefs of the first gallery for example show the life of buddha up to the moment of his enlightenment when he starts to preach. The lower reliefs of the first gallery depict jataka's, educating stories about benefactions of buddha in his previous lives, and awadana's, educating stories about benefactions of other saints. The reliefs on the walls of other galleries relate of other buddhist legends.
The symbolism of the Borobudur is one of the religious pilgrim walking clockwise along the reliefs in the galleries. On the first stages his pilgrimage is still in the material world of transition. Enlightened by the buddhist legends the pilgrim reaches the higher circular levels where the material world makes way for the spiritual world of eternity. This is the heavenly world of concentration and meditation. The galleries are reached by climbing a steep stairway in the middle of each side of the Borobudur. At the end of each stairway one turns to the right and passes a small gate decorated with a kala or monster head.
Another famous temple complex not far from Yogyakarta is Lara Jonggrang or Prembanan after the name of a nearby village. The restoration of the monument is in an advanced stage and the main temple dedicated to Siwa is resurrected. Some other temples on both sides, dedicated to Wisnu and Brahma, are resurrected as well. On the inner side of the gallery near the temples of Siwa and Brahma realistic reliefs depict episodes from the famous hindu epic Ramayana. In the temple complex Siwa was worshipped as Batara Guru (highest teacher) accompanied by his spouse Durga with eight arms (the Javanese call her Lara Jonggrang ) and their son Ganesha with the head of an elephant. Other gods worshipped in the complex are Brahma with three heads, Wisnu and the bull Nandi, the carriage for Siwa.