Sukuh is a Hindu temple complex located in Karanganyar district, Central Java. This temple is categorized as a Hindu temple since the discovery of commemorative objects and yoni idol. This temple was classified as controversial because of the less common and because of the many objects that symbolize the phallus and yoni sexuality. A brief history of the discovery
Sukuh site was first reported in the British reign in the land of Java in 1815 by Johnson, Resident of Surakarta. Johnson was then assigned by Thomas Stanford Raffles to collect data in order to write his book The History of Java. After the reign of Great Britain passed in 1842, Van der Vlis, Dutch archaeologist, doing research. The first restoration was started in 1928.
Temple site
Location Sukuh 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. This temple is located in Hamlet Berjo, Sukuh village, district Ngargoyoso, Karanganyar regency, Central Java. This temple is located approximately 20 kilometers from the town of Karanganyar and 36 kilometers from Surakarta.
Building Structure
Sukuh buildings give the impression of simplicity is striking at the visitors. Impression gained from this temple is quite different to that obtained from the large temples in Central Java Another Borobudur and Prambanan temples. Sukuh building form tends to resemble the cultural heritage of the Maya in Mexico or the Inca heritage in Peru. This structure also reminded the guests will be the forms of pyramids in Egypt.
This impression of simplicity attracted famous Dutch archaeologist, WF Stutterheim, in 1930. He tried to explain it by giving three arguments. First, the possibility sculptor Sukuh Temple is not a mason but a carpenter from the village and not from among the palace. Both temples made with a little less haste so neat. Third, the political situation at that time with the approaching collapse of Majapahit, which was not possible to create a large and magnificent temple. The visitors who enter the main door and into the biggest gate will see a distinctive form of architecture that is not arranged perpendicular but slightly oblique, with a trapezoid-shaped roof on top. Rocks in this temple somewhat reddish in color, because the stones used is the type of andesite.
Source: Excerpted from some reading and information
