Even when they are often located within plains and valleys, Javanese Hindu Buddh

ist temples and shrines are not always built on flat ground. Actually, there is
a whole set of shrines that are clearly associated with topographical markers na
mely hills and mountains: temples built on small, isolated hilltops and temples
located in high, remote areas.
Within and around the Province of Yogyakarta, 16 temples are built up high. Buil
t at the top of a hill, they convey a different impression than temples built in
the shadow of high volcanoes. They fuse with the hill and form a summit to be r
eached by visitors.
They organize the natural landscape and re-shape the hill, so that it fits with
cosmological principles.
The presence of a temple at its top transforms the hill into a replica of Mt. Me
ru, the axis of the universe. Although the temple may itself represent Meru, loc
ating it on a hilltop makes the association even more obvious. In Hindu and Budd
hist thought, the symbolism of Meru is inextricably linked with royal power.
Meru is not only the pivot of the universe, it is the abode of Indra, who presi
des over the gods and is presented as a model of the Hindu/Buddhist king. It is
thus not surprising that, given their cosmological and royal implications, hillt
ops were considered appropriate building sites for Hindu-Buddhist shrines.
Temples like Candi Ijo consist of shrines built outside the wet-rice cultivatio
n areas, away from communication routes, in relatively high and remote areas. Wh
y was that the intention of the builders?
Architectural and epigraphic data suggest that at least some of the sites locate
d on the Pegat-Ijo hills were related to ascetic and tantric practices. This is
obviously the case with Candi Ijo and the nearby religious complex of Ratu Boko.

The presence of meditation caves in the northern part of the Boko compound alrea
dy suggested that the place was used by hermits or ascetics. There are therefore
good reasons to believe that Ratu Boko was the dwelling of Buddhist hermits.
Other references to ascetic practices from the gunung Pejat-Ijo hills are for ex
ample inscriptions found near a large Ganesha statue which deal with the worship
of the god by sadhu, indicating that the hilly area was also used by Hindu asce
tics. Similarly, the inscribed golden plate found within the temple pit of Candi
Ijo refers to Jatila (Siwa the Ascetic). Figures of ascetics are also part of t
he decoration of the lowermost building of the Ijo temple complex
Why is it facing west?
It goes without saying that the main orientations towards west and east of the J
avanese temples in general are associated to the movement of the sun and the moo
n near the equator.
Ritualistically this movement was highly important in Hindu and Buddhist philoso
phy and is still to this day a core concept of the Kejawen cosmological thinking
.
Whereas the sun was associated usually with concepts of material birth and growt
h, the moon was related to concepts of spiritual awakening and death.
Conceptions of space defined in pairs of complementary elements are well known i
n present day Indonesia, and are still found all over the archipelago. Two perce
ptions of space were challenging one another among the elite of central Javanese
society.
One was the imported Indian pradaksina concept, which relates space, time and s
un. The other was of Javanese origin, probably ancient, and conceived a dualisti
c world. For Candi Ijo it is probable that the high level spiritual approach to
death (sunset) by local ascetics played a role in its facing west.
West is usually associated with funerary rites and ancestor worship rather than
deity worship. Auspicious signs like the full moon moving westward and the sett
ing of the sun would have had an influence in turn for the devotees during their
meditation rituals. Candi Ijo follows a Hindu conceptual orientation of the Axi
s Mundi or central Axis of the universe and within which the center is grounded
by the mythical Meru.
What about contemporary mystical
aspect of the four direction
It is clear for present day Javanese spiritual adepts that a monument like Candi
Ijo is a symbol of high religious symbolism linked to still current cosmologica
l values found in Kejawen. The meanings encapsulated in the spatial orientation
of the monument, the reliefs and its auspicious location at a hilltop are best i
nterpreted through the teaching or ilmu called Manunggaling Kiblat Papat, limo P
ancer.
This aspect of Javanese culture portrays the obsession of the people to organize
their world according to an ancient template of the Hindu-Buddhist Mandala orna
ment.
The mandala figure will always represent a core source of wisdom which radiates
its beneficial power and receives enlightening input to and from the four cardin
al points of East, West, North and South.
The system of four directions and a fifth center is applied in all sorts of imp
ortant aspects of social and spiritual life by the Javanese, because it offers t
hem an ordered template of correspondences between apparently distinct variables
in the material and visible world. Most commonly it is visible in the architect
ure of older buildings (the Sultan Kraton i.e.), in agricultural practices (mang
sa) and in harmonizing initiation rituals (slametan).
In pure mystical and spiritual practices of meditation, inner power or rituals
the system if Sadulur Kiblat Papat, Kalimo Pancer is an essential prerogative fo
r success and mental achievements. Esoteric books on the subject are named Primb
on and are still hugely read by adults seeking a bit of harmony in their life.