Sukuh and Cetho Temples

Two Fifteenth Century Temples On A Volcano'S Slope From The Last Years Of Majapahit, Built As A Flat Topped Pyramid And A Stair Of Terraces, And Looking Like Nothing Else In Java · Karanganyar, Central Java

These two do not look Javanese, and that is the point. SUKUH IS A TRUNCATED STEPPED PYRAMID - a flat-topped block you climb by a stair through its centre - which people compare to Mesoamerican building, and the comparison is superficial and the strangeness is real. It carries EXPLICIT FERTILITY CARVING at its entrance and a relief of a smith at his forge. CETHO, HIGHER UP THE MOUNTAIN, is a run of terraces climbing the slope one above another to a shrine in the mist. Both were built in the FOURTEEN HUNDREDS, IN THE LAST YEARS OF MAJAPAHIT, as Java was turning toward Islam, and they represent a late, syncretic, deliberately archaic Hinduism with older Javanese mountain worship pushing back up through it. CETHO IS STILL IN USE - offerings are left daily and the terraces climb into cloud most afternoons - and it is genuinely cold at this altitude, which visitors coming up from Solo never expect.

Western slope of Mount Lawu, Karanganyar, Central Java, Karanganyar, Central Java, Indonesia

BOTH OPEN IN DAYLIGHT with small separate entry fees; THEY ARE ABOUT FORTY MINUTES APART on a steep mountain road and are always visited together. A SARONG IS REQUIRED AT CETHO and is provided - it is an active place of worship with daily offerings, not a ruin. SUKUH'S CARVINGS ARE EXPLICIT and are not screened or apologised for; that is worth knowing if you are travelling with children. THEY SIT AT AROUND ONE THOUSAND METRES AND HIGHER ON MOUNT LAWU and are genuinely cold and frequently in cloud - mornings are clearer and afternoons close in. IT IS ABOUT NINETY MINUTES FROM SOLO by car on a road that climbs steeply at the end. Tea plantations line the upper road.

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