Panataran: Majapahit's State Temple

I remember clambering alone over the empty ruins of Panataran, East Java's largest and most imposing complex of Hindu ruins, when it was completely surrounded by ricefields in the early 1980s, in the days before Indonesian's mass adoption of the motorcycle. I had to take a clippity-clop dokar horse-cart for the 10-minute ride out into the countryside, seeking shade from the heat in the quiet corridors of friezes.

Now the site, 15 kilometers north of Blitar and 80 kilometers southwest of Malang, is enclosed on three sides by kampungs. The adjoining villagealso called Panataranis still small enough that you can walk everywhere and people are friendly and very approachable in the tourist off-season. We had driven the whole day from Central Java in order to reach the out-of-the way temple group before nightfall. After a series of left and right turns in Blitareveryone had a different opinion on how to get therewe reached the northern outskirts of the city, then climbed straight up the southern slope of Mount Kelod.