Out of quarantine and out into the wild volcanic Highlands of Central Java. The 7thC temples of Gedong Songo are strung up the ridge of an eerie volcano, where plumes of sulphurous steam belch out of the ground and mingle with thick cloudbanks scudding up bamboo slopes.
The temples themselves look sometimes Gupta, sometimes Pallava, with a hint of Kashmir- all topped with curving Chinese-style flying eves- a mixture you'd see nowhere in India and yet are contemporary with the earliest Indian stone mandirs in MP and coastal Tamil Nadu.
The guards, all Muslims, all reported regular night time sightings of Hindu queens and their spirit courts.
One told me how a princess had appeared in a dream and directed him to a place where he found a 7thC Sanjaya gold necklace, which he handed in "because stealing treasure brings bad luck on a family." It is now on display in the National Museum in Jakarta.
Candi Gedong Songo on Mount Ugaran.  “It is at Gedog Songo rather than Dieng that the model for the Javanese temple was established.”
Gedong Songo means ‘nine buildings’ in Javanese, though many more have been found. These are considered to be the 2nd-oldest extant Javanese temples, contemporary with later Dieng constructions, though dating is more a matter of interpretation than reference to any inscription.
"Each of the Gedong Songo temples is square in plan, with a tiered superstructure of three false storeys which varies from temple to temple in proportion of height to width rather than compositionally"

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More from @DalrympleWill

19 Nov
Borobudur, begun around 825, is the quite simply the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It is decorated with around 500 statues of Lord Buddha, arranged in terraces of decreasing size, as if on the sacred slopes of Mount Meru. Image
It was built possibly by the Sangramadha Nanjaya Sailendra dynasty of Mataram, Central Java, or maybe “charismatic religious leaders rather than kings.” For surprisingly there is no great temple or palace complex associated with it. Image
The only inscription associated with Borobudur dates from 842 and is from a woman who gave land to sustain it. For all the mystery, this is the climax of the ninth century golden age of Java, when so many remarkable monuments were built here, both Hindu and Buddhist. Image
Read 12 tweets
18 Nov
Java’s earliest Hindu temple complex, built between 675 and 725, lies high on the Dieng Plateau, some three hours drive from Borobodur in the Highlands of Central Java. Image
Here, up amid the sulphur springs and occluded by plumes of sulphurous steam belching out of geysers within the rim of a still active volcano, is the sacred space known as '‘The Place of the Gods.” Image
The temples are all Shaivite, though on the Trimurti temple, Brahma and Vishnu are also depicted in some of the very earliest Hindu figure sculpture to survive from SE Asia. Image
Read 9 tweets
15 Nov
I am completely thrilled that our beloved @JaipurLitFest is returning to Jaipur after a spell online due to the pandemic. We are coming back with a truly spectacular line up of literary superstars from across the world

JLF 2022 to be held on the ground
indiatoday.in/education-toda…
In fiction we have this year’s Booker winner, the great Damon Galgut, his predecessors Monica Ali & DBC Pierre, Pullizer winner Jonathan Franzen and Turkish superstar and Booker shortkisteen @Elif_Safak
indianexpress.com/article/books-…
We have Charlotte Higgins talking about Greek Myths, Benjamin Brose on Xuanzang, Rob Macfarlane on nature writing and the underworld, Rupert Everett on Hollywood, Vidya Dehejia on Chola bronzes, Lisa Taddeo on Women & Colin Thubron on the Amur River.
zeenews.india.com/india/jaipur-l…
Read 8 tweets
10 Nov
My beautiful great-grandmother Sophia Pattle Dalrymple by Watts, painted in 1852 in Little Holland House
In January 1851, the Victorian painter G. F Watts, then regarded as the country’s greatest artist- ‘England’s Michaelangelo’- came to stay at Little Holland House. This was a rambling dower house backing onto Holland Park & looking onto farmland that would soon become Kensington
Watts, according to his Franco-Bengali hostess, Sarah Prinsep, had been invited for “three days[ but]  stayed for thirty years”. He lived in the house, built  his studio there & frescoed the walls with allegories
Read 13 tweets
7 Nov
Here is a piece I wrote on some of my favourite early Buddhist monastic sites

India’s ancient cave monasteries
To the north of Pune lie rock-cut complexes as startling as Petra but completely overlooked by tourists
ft.com/content/e0ce28…
"Open at one end, and entered by a magnificent 9m-tall horseshoe-arch, it still miraculously preserves its ancient wooden roof beams, like the wrecked keel of a prehistoric ark. These wooden shards crown one of the oldest rooms in the world..."
"Carved window frames, blind arches and tiers of fretwork mouldings give way to bamboo railings and balconies out of which half-naked Satavahana men and women peer, as if gazing out arm in arm from the terrace of their apartment block, surveying the valley below..."
Read 6 tweets
4 Nov
Head of Shiva
Phnom Bok (Siem Reap)
Angkor Period, 10thC

Love the details here- the sharp line of the eyebrows, the finely incised iris in the eyes, the hint of beard at the chin, the metallic perfection of the skin & the otherworldly distance of the smile Image
Head of Brahma
Phnom Bok (Siem Reap)
Angkor Period
1st quarter of the 10thC Image
Head of Vishnu
Phnom Bok (Siem Reap)
Angkor Period
1st quarter of the 10thC Image
Read 4 tweets

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