JAVANESE -BEAUTIFUL CULTURE- JARRINGS : PRECIS HONOURS

This beautiful Indonesian city is home to some important Hindu and Buddhist temples.

I ate fried noodles [ bakmi goreng ] at this warung, fried free-range chicken [ ayam goreng kampong ] with sweet-hot sambals at the next.

For one 7 a.m breakfast, I found that warung of Bu Sukardi, who makes wobbly-soft tofu in a fiery infusion of ginger and palm sugar [ wedang tabu ].

One reason I was back in Yogya for the first time since the 1980s was the designation in 2023 of a sliver of the city as a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Cosmological Axis 

The site was built in the 18th century by a sultanate that still governs the region politically and spiritually.

It comprises structures, details and symbols of a syncretic mix of animist, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim beliefs that put Yogya at the center of the universe.

The area, enfolded by the city, seems modest, even discreet. It includes a small monument, many gates, some fortifications, a low mosque, a lovely complex of now-disused baths and gardens called the  Taman Sari, or Walter Castle, and two pairs of sacred banyan trees.

At the heart is the Kraton, a multibuilding palace on grounds planted with trees, airy and elegant, part of which is occupied by the 10th sultan of Yogyakarta and his administration.

One building houses an animated display about cycles and results of Javanese life.

The World Students Society thanks Scott Mowbray.