Candi Sukuh

Sukuh is a Hindu temple complex located in Karanganyar district, the former residency of Surakarta, Central Java. The temple is classified as a Hindu temple because of the discovery of the object of worship linga and yoni. The temple is classified as controversial because of its less common and because of the many objects that symbolize the phallus and yoni sexuality. Sukuh been proposed to UNESCO to be one of the World Heritage Site since 1995.
Brief history of the discovery
Sukuh temple site was first reported in the British government in Java in 1815 by Johnson, the resident of Surakarta. Johnson was then tasked by Thomas Stanford Raffles to collect data in order to write his book The History of Java. After the British government passed, in 1842, Van der Vlis, Dutch archaeologist, conducted the study. The first restoration was started in 1928. 


Temple site
Sukuh temple site is located at the foot of Mount Lawu slopes at an altitude of approximately 1186 meters above sea level at coordinates 07o37, 38 '85'' south latitude and 111o07,. 52'65'' West Longitude. The temple is located in Hamlet Berjo, Sukuh village, district Ngargoyoso, Karanganyar regency, Central Java. This temple is approximately 20 kilometers from the town of Karanganyar and 36 kilometers from Surakarta.
The structure of the temple
Sukuh the temple gives the impression of a striking simplicity to the visitors. The impression gained from this temple is quite different from those obtained from the major temples in Central Java, the other is the Borobudur and Prambanan Temple. Sukuh temple forms tend to be similar to the Maya in Mexico's cultural heritage or cultural heritage of the Incas in Peru. This structure will also remind visitors of the forms of pyramid in Egypt. 


This impression of simplicity attracted the attention of renowned Dutch archaeologist, WF Stutterheim, in 1930. He tried to explain it by giving three arguments. First, the possibility sculptor Sukuh but not a bricklayer carpenter from the village and not from the palace. Both temples made with a little less haste so neat. Third, the political situation ahead of time that the collapse of Majapahit, making it impossible to create a large and magnificent temples.
The visitors who enter the main door and enter the biggest gate will see the typical architectural form that is not arranged perpendicular but somewhat oblique, trapezoidal in shape with a roof on it.
The stones in this temple is slightly reddish in color, because the stones used is the type of andesite. 


sumber: WiKi 


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Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia