Candi Sojiwan is located in Kebondalem Kidul Village, Prambanan Sub-District, Klaten District, Central Java Province.
Candi Sojiwan lies within the Siva Plateau area, which is an ancient Prambanan site where there was a rich distribution of Hindu and Buddhist temples with their unique architectures, which is a testament to the high respect and tolerance towards each other’s religion at the time.
According to Jacques Dumarcay (2007) in his book about the architectural history of the temples in Central Java, he classified the periods during which the temples were built into two major groups, which are before and after 830 Common Era (C.E.). Candi Sojiwan is included in the group of temples which was built before 830 C.E., along with Candi Prambanan, Banyunibo, Borobudur, Bubrah, Dieng, Gebang, Ngawen, Gedong Songo, Kalasan, Lumbung, Mendut, Merak, Pawon, Ratu Boko, Sari, Selogriuo and Sewu.
Candi Sojiwan is the fifth largest Buddhist temple in Central Java. The research and restoration of Candi Sojiwan has started since the occupation of Dutch East Indies in Indonesia, and to date, Candi Sojiwan has undergone a lengthy restoration process of approximately 200 years, involving numerous parties.
The research started in the year 1813 by Mackenzie during the Dutch occupation, the main entrance was repaired in 1897, the cleaning of the temple grounds and the unveiling of 18 Jataka reliefs happened in 1898.
Candi Sojiwan is commonly linked to Rakryan Sanjiwana, which is mentioned in the Ruka inscription dating back to 829 Saka (approximately 907 C.E.). This inscription establishes that the Rukam Village is required to become an education centre for Rakryan Sanjiwana.
The complex of Candi Sojiwan consists of two clusters: the northern and southern clusters. The southern temple cluster has been lost and is now a residential area. What is left now is the northern temple cluster, which houses a main temple and the surrounding ancillary temples.
A short inscription has been found inside Candi Sojiwan, which has now become a part of collection in the National Museum of Jakarta. The type of the short script titled Sri Maharaja shares the same type with the script found on the Plaosan and Karangtengah inscriptions, which date back to 824 C.E.
There are 20 narrative reliefs of Jataka on the base of Candi Plaosan, which tell stories of animals following moral teachings.
The stories behind the Jataka reliefs:
Relief 1 : A soldier & a merchant
This relief was based on solidarity about a king’s courtier who has 2 friends, a soldier and a merchant. Their symbiotic mutualism relationship was seen as the soldier never failed to protect the merchant and likewise, the merchant was always ready to lend a hand to the soldier.
The king’s courtier wanted to put their friendship into a loyalty test, in which he positioned himself in the midst of a crucial problem involving the king punishing him mercilessly.
As expected, the soldier as well as the merchant was ready to help the king’s courtier getting out of the problem.
Relief 2: A goose and a talkative turtle
There once lived 3 good friends, a turtle and 2 geese. During a long-held dry season, they thought of migrating to a better area. With the help of the geese, the talkative turtle was able to migrate using a tree branch under one condition of not moving his lips during the trip. The geese bit the 2 sides of the branch, carrying the turtle who used his strong jaws to hold the middle part of the branch. Finally, they were able to fly across the sky.
People were looking up to the geese and complimented them for their intelligence. Feeling ignored as he was not noticed and praised, the talkative turtle could not help himself but open his mouth widely. His grip to the branch detached. At that moment, he fell to the ground and died.
Relief 3 : A race between an eagle and a tortoise
Intelligence overpowering strength is illustrated clearly in this relief. The strong eagle always preys on the tortoise, until one day, the tortoise king challenges the eagle king to a match. It was a running match; should the eagle win, then he can prey on the tortoise and his descendants. However, should the tortoise win, the eagle will have to stop preying on the tortoise.
Prior to the match, the tortoise king ordered all tortoises to bury themselves in sand along the beach. Every time the eagle king calls the tortoise king out, there was always a tortoise in front of the eagle responding to the eagle’s calls. Thus, at the end, the tortoise king was perceived to arrive earlier than the eagle.
The match was won by the tortoise king.
Relief 4 : A clever monkey and a crocodile
This story was taken from Jataka. Long ago, a couple of crocodiles lived opposite to a group of monkeys by the edge of the Gangga River.
The crocodile’s wife fell sick and wanted to consume a monkey’s heart so badly. The crocodile then crossed the river to visit the monkey and said, “all your life, you have only tried the fruits on this side of the river, while the fruits on the opposite side where I live are much nicer”. The monkey then replied that he is unable to cross the river.
The crocodile offered to help the monkey cross the river to his home, and the monkey agreed to sit on the crocodile’s back.
In the middle of the journey, the crocodile confessed his true intentions: his wife wanted to consume the monkey’s heart. The monkey was shocked and felt betrayed.
The monkey then turned to his wits, and told the crocodile, “Dear crocodile, it is a shame that monkeys always leave their heart back in their home. Let us return and grab it for your wife”.
The crocodile believed him and rushed to return back to the monkey’s home. Upon reaching the tree where the monkey’s home is, the monkey immediately climbed the tree to avoid the crocodile. The crocodile soon realised that he was tricked by the monkey.
Relief 5 : A fight between an ox and a lion
This story was taken from Panchatatra Jataka (Malyalam), which talks about the efforts to separate a brotherhood. An ox by the name of Sytrabah initially befriended a lion, but due to defamation efforts, they became suspicious of one another and a fight ensued, whereby the two of them eventually died.
Relief 6 : An elephant and a wooden sprig
A gigantic elephant had a big fuss and unintentionally pulled a few branches from a Tamala tree where a parrot had her nest and eggs. These eggs fell and broke. Saddened by this, the parrot broke the news to her friends, the birds and turtles.
Hearing this, the parrot’s friends were furious and they decided to unite and fight the elephant. In the end, the elephant died. This story showed us that unity of many small and weak animals is beyond important to defeat a massive irresponsible animal.
Relief 7 : A man and a lion
This relief tells us about a minister called Bhimaparakrama who was almost attacked by a lion. Bhimaparakrama stood up for himself and although he was only armed with his bravery and weapons, he was ready to fight the lion. The lion called for defeat in the end.
Relief 8 : A woman and a wolf
There was a farmer whose wife was not satisfied with her life despite the fact of being wealthy and beautiful. When she was walking around, she met a cunning robber who continuously complimented the lady’s beauty. Unfortunately, she fell for his praise and being tricked by him. He ordered her to carry all her husband’s wealth to the side of a river.
The robber arranged all the stolen possession to be sent across the river first and then promised the farmer’s wife that he would be back to fetch her. However, it was an empty promise and she was being fooled by the cunning robber.
Near the river, there was a wolf grasping a piece of meat. However, the wolf was distracted by the number of fish swimming on the river and tempted to feast on them. He accidentally threw away his meat when trying to catch these fish.
At last, a crow suddenly appeared to catch the wolf’s fallen meat and flew away. The unlucky wolf did not manage to catch any fish from the river too.
This story taught us not to forsake what we have whilst trying to catch for things beyond our reach.
Relief 9 : A hunter and a wolf
There once lived a hunter, Bhairawa. He went for hunting and got himself a deer. While he was walking home, he came across a threatening-looking boar. He quickly arrowed the boar but did not manage to kill it. The hunter then single-handedly fought with it in order to kill the boar. However, they both died in the match.
Following the death of them, a hungry wolf was walking around scavenging for food found the corpse of the deer, boar and the hunter. As the wolf was too hungry, he devoured the boar without realising the arrow piercing on the boar. As a result, he was indirectly killed by the arrow.
Relief 10 : A crab repaying a favour to a man
This story was based on Panchatrantra, Brahmadatta.
During a prolong summer, a monk helped a hermit from dying. He then returned the hermit back to the side of a river and took a long rest under a big tree. After a speedy recovery, the hermit swam to the middle of the river and met a goose and a snake. The goose and snake had plotted to kill the monk but the hermit successfully stopped their plan by lying that they had to elongate their necks in order to gorge on the monk. By disguising as their friends, the hermit managed to fool them. He then clamped both their necks and left them to die.
Relief 11 : A two-headed bird
A two- headed bird named Bharanda had his upper head feasting all the delicious meals while giving his lower head the leftover from the ground. There was a conflict between the upper and lower heads as the former was not willing to share his food to the latter, saying that it would be useless as the all the food eaten by them would end up in the same stomach.
This conflict left the lower head with a deep grudge that he decided to eat poisonous food found on the ground. He did not care about the consequence of killing himself. In the end, he died.
Relief 12 : Telling a story
Relief 13 : A goat and an elephant
This relief showed us a tight friendship between a goat and an elephant. The goat lost his family and asked the elephant for help. In the middle of the search, the goat was extremely exhausted that the elephant had to carry him on his shoulder.
Relief 14 : A man with the face of a monkey
Relief 15 : A bull and a wolf