After starting our day very early with the pre-dawn climb up the Buddhist temple of Borobudur, U and I relaxed for the rest of the morning before heading out to the Hindu temples of Prambanan on our way back to Yogyakarta. The temples have been badly damaged numerous times by earthquakes and other disasters, and the pile of orderly rubble around the temples shows just how much still is left to be done despite their beauty.
U and I wandered around the temples and the park, only to catch sight of something that was so odd and out of place, and yet so perfect, given where U used to live...
Only these deer were behind a fence and thus didn't try to eat our map - unlike their cousins in Nara!
You know, there were supposedly deer in that park around MONAS (Soekarno's Last Erection) in Jakarta. Most of the deer freaked out, with the traffic noises, but the ones that remain are supposedly very randy, constantly ravenous, and unfortunately highly fertile. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteWow, they're amazing! Is it bad that I kind of like them in their damaged state? Although I agree that it's very important to preserve such important cultural assets I'm also a big fan of ruins...
ReplyDeleteAnne - deer at MOMAS? ahhh, would have been fun to see them!
ReplyDeleteUmebossy - one of my favourite pics of Prambanan has a pile of "rubble" in the foreground with the temples in the back. I love that they are reparing such important historical buildings but I love ruins too! I remember LOVING the ruined castle in the town where my grandfather lived in Wales!