01Abode of the gods
Dieng is usually explained as Di Hyang, the place of the gods. It is a high, cold caldera of sulphur springs, coloured lakes and steaming vents, the kind of place the builders of early Java chose for Shiva. The temples are small, square, single-cell shrines on raised bases, with a doorway and a linga-yoni inside. They are the earliest surviving stone temples on the island, older than Borobudur and Prambanan, and they show Javanese masons learning the forms of the shrine they would later build on a vast scale.
02Arjuna, Bima and Srikandi
The original names of the shrines are lost. Centuries later Javanese villagers, raised on the wayang shadow plays of the Mahabharata, called them after its heroes, and the names stuck: Candi Arjuna, Candi Puntadewa (Yudhishthira), Candi Srikandi, Candi Sembadra (Subhadra), Candi Semar after the wayang clown-servant, and further off Candi Bima and Candi Gatotkaca. Eight shrines survive of what was once a much larger group, and every year the Dieng Culture Festival holds a ceremony at Candi Arjuna.
About 3 hours by road from Yogyakarta via Wonosobo. Nights are cold at this height; mornings are clearest.
