After visited Hotel Tugu, we went for a city tour around Malang.
Hey, there is a bird market here. Let's take a look.
Shops selling many different types of bird and some other small animals like rabbits and puppies along this road which stretches about 300m long.
A red headed one. Well, I know nothing about birds.
Orange beak in grey suit.
Oh.... these are for the birds.
Then we passed by a mosque.
Ah, a Chinese temple. After seeing so many Hindu Candis, this is the first Chinese temple we came across. 永安宫
A stage was put up for puppet show tonight. There must be some occasion or celebration going on here.
哇，今晚酬神？还有木偶戏呢。
Puppet show is for the god. So the stage is facing the main entrance to the temple.
I noticed something very unique about this temple compared to all those in Malaysia, ie: this one worships Taoism, Buddhism as well as Confucius, all three under one roof. Amazing !
佛，道，儒，同处一庙，罕见。或者这是印尼华裔庙的特色？
Then we travelled out of Malang town to Candi Singasari, which is situated 10 km away. It is a large Siwa Monastery built around 1300AD and is an offerring to King Kertanegara. The foot of the temple differs from that of the others by the cellars in each of its sides. The west gate is flanked by small niches and on each of its foot are niches with statues and a roof over it, separated from the temple body.A Kala's head decorates the entrance of each niches.
A Kala's head which is unique to this temple.
A closer look.
This photo is one of my favorites ..... " The Marvel Trio " ! Don't you think they look cool?
This is one of the cellas for meditation.
With children around, you can play with anything under the sun, including climbing up and down for no obvious reason, just for the fun of it. Hmmm... The youngest one was scratching his head : " Is she going to climb faster than me? "
All statues supposed to be inside the temple are now being kept in museums.
Do, Re, Mi, Fa..... All smiles.
Pomelo? Looks like, saved for the smooth skin.
Our next destination is Candi Sumberawan, which is situated 6 km in the Northwest of Candi Singasari, on our way from Malang to Surabaya. Initially, we wanted to drop this itinerary in view of shortage of time, but we were so glad we didn't because the journey to this temple proved to be most different from others.
Firstly, unlike all other temples where our car can drive up to the door step, this one we have to take a walk passed a village and paddy field before we could reach there. It said here on the sign board about 400m to the temple, but we actually walked for about 1 km.
Scenery along the way was picturesquely beautiful.
Walking along the path next to a small stream, we saw this old lady. She was carrying some thing in a banana leaf. We wanted to stop and see what she was going to do here but felt too rude to just stand there and watch. So we left with lots of question marks with us. Never did we expect that on our way back, we found the answer.
Hmm... What are these for? To feed cows? I didn't have a chance to ask. Not sure if I could understand even if he explained.
After a nice cooling walk, here we are at Candi Sumberawan. It has a shape of a stupa and is the only Buddhist stupa building in East Java. It is built at the foot of Mount Arjurna, 650m above sea level, surrounded by a thick ring of trees. Around it is a pond flowing from a spring.
This stupa was built in the 14th century. Based on the fact that there are no steps, nor any decoration at all, it can be assumed that this stupa is a Syaitya building, used to celebrate important events. It has square base, the foot and the body which has the shape of a stupa, but the peak has lost.
In the Negarakertagama book, Empu Prapanca named this place Kasurangganan, meaning the Garden of Angels.
She wore the best color today, making her really stands out from the backdrop.
The villagers often come here for the ' Holy Water'. According to these men, they use the spring water for medication purposes.
This spring water never run dry, we were told.
On our way back, we saw villagers bathing and doing their washing in this stream which flows out from the holy spring. The water is crystal clear here. And we also saw the old lady whom we met on our way here. She was bathing, naked. In fact, we saw a few of them, both men and women, bathing naked here. Out of respect, no such photo was taken.
A very simple way of living we witnessed here today. This is a journey truly beyond our expectation !
Paddy field.
We are on our way to Surabaya now. And this is the notoriously jam seen on the other side of the road.
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