“Candi Mendut is a reflection of the sublime and stupendous “Indrajal” of the Javanese people when they attained unprecedented heights of power, when literary genius blossomed in their language of Javanese, when they enriched their lovely island with monumental structures that evoke wonder after twelve centuries, even in their ruined state.”
“Even now it is still a mystery why the three temples are connected in a straight line? It is very possible that this has a purpose, for example associated with astrology or others. Another question is how to determine the location of the temples in the past? What technology was used at that time? The positions of Candi Borobudur, Candi Pawon and Candi Mendut are in this line following the constellation Orion Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka (Orion Belt)….How did they in the past understand the relationship between the three temples and the constellation Orion? Why do the three temples stand in the same slanted line as the constellation Orion?.” — Uday Dokras (2023)
“Chandi Mendut and Pawon belong to the system of carya-tantras. The prevalence of the carya-tantras in Indonesia is proved by the San Hyan Kamahayanan Mantranaya (SHKM), which is a tantric text from Indonesia including 42 Sanskrit verses, each verse followed by an Old Javanese commentary. The main deity is Abhisambodhi Vairocana, who is termed Garbhadhatu Vairocana in Japan. In the Japanese mandala he is sitting in the vajra-paryanka posture with hishands in dhyana mudra, as opposed to the Vajradhatu Vairocana, whose hands are in the bodhyagrī mudrā.”
” The distances between Mendut and Pawon vis–vis Pawon and Borobudur suggest that the entire complex was planned to the last detail to reflect the scriptural norms of the carya and yoga tantras. The numerical cosmology coded into the design and measurement of the Borobudur complex has yet to be worked out…the distance of 1750 m between Pawon and Borobudur is one and a half times the distance of 1150 metres between Pawon and Mendut. ”
“We have provided decisive evidence to show that the Borobudur is a Vajradhātu mandala, while the Mendut represents the Garbhadhātu mandala. The Garbhadhatu leads to the Vajradhātu mandala. The Garbhadhātu represents the caryā-tantras, which later on developed into the yoga-tantras. As the caryā-tantras lead to the yoga-tantras, so does Mendut lead to the Borobudur.” –Lokesh Chandra (1980)
INTRODUCTION
Today, as part of the Indonesia 2026 trip, am re-sharing my 2024 research and pilgrimage article and photos on the stunning 9th Century Mendut temple in Borobudur, Java Indonesia, with new information and photos and information about its spatial and tantric relation with another 9th Century temple, Pawon. It was originally published when I first visited Java in 2024 as part of the 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche programme there. During my second visit to Borobudur this month, January 2026 for the 12th Khentin Tai Situpa programme, I visited Pawon temple in my own time, and share below some new photos, research and observations about it.
The 2024 article gives information about the ancient Mendut temple, next to which is the stunning (and more recently built) Mendut Buddhist monastery. Mendut, Borobudur, and Pawon temples are located in one straight line in the Borobudur area. There is a mutual religious relationship between the three temples, although the exact ritual process is unknown. I first give some historical background on the Mendut temple, its name and origin, followed by some personal observations and photos of my visit there.
Considered to be a jewel of Javanese Buddhist culture, the temple is easy to get to by car (or even on foot) from Borobudur temple, around 3.5km east. Although, it may look insignificant compared with its famous and bigger neighbour, it is said to be older and has stunning art wall murals, but also houses three of the most outstanding original Buddhist statues, Buddha Vairocana, Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani in their original setting of any temple in Java.
Dokras (2023) considers the astrological import of the three temples’ location and the stellar constellation of Orion. Although Dokras does not refer to these in his paper, in China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansions Sieu (Xiù) (宿). It is known as Shen (參), literally meaning “three”, for the stars of Orion’s Belt. In India, The Rigveda refers to the Orion Constellation as Mriga (The Deer). In medieval Muslim astronomy, Orion was known as al-jabbar, “the giant”. Orion’s sixth brightest star, Saiph, is named from the Arabic, saif al-jabbar, meaning “sword of the giant”.
According to Dr. Lokesh Chandra (1980), the distances between the three temples of Mendut, Pawon and Borobudur were planned to the last detail to reflect the norms of the caryā and yoga tantras.
For full article and photos on Mendut temple see here.
The name Pawon and worship of Vajranāla
In his 1980 paper on the Mendut and Pawon temples, scholar Dr. Lokesh Chandra points out that the word Pawon means “kitchen” but it is also called Brajanalan and:
And that the temple seems to have been dedicated to the worship of Vajrānala:
The Pawon temple is another 9th Century temple located near Borobudur and Mendut temple, less well-known and visited than those temples, and smaller, without any statues inside. Nonetheless it is an exquisitely built Buddhist heritage site with profound tantric meaning. On the outer walls of the temple one can find carved relief sculptures of Bodhisattvas, Taras, Kinnara and Kinnari (celestial beings) standing beside the Kalpataru tree (tree of life).
There are no statues present anymore inside the temple itself though, see photos I took inside below:
Local scenes and kind shelter from the rain
Getting to Pawon temple from Central Borobudur is easy. It is about three minutes on a motorbike, or 15 minutes walk. It is located next to quite a modern Mosque, showing how times and religion has changed significantly in many areas of Indonesia from its indigenous religion and culture of Hinduism and Buddhism.
There are several small stalls surrounding the temple, run by kind, friendly and helpful local people. One woman there kindly took these photos of me, and let me sit at her stall for shelter when it started raining. It is the rainy season in Java now.
The local children were playing in the mud and rain and chickens and crows were running around. One thing I noted was how friendly and kind the locals were. Even though I stood out like a sore thumb, there were no other tourists around, they smiled and were jovial. Clearly, they wanted me to look at their stalls, but they were not pushy about it either.
After visiting the temple, I bought a Buddhist souvenir from the stall of the woman who had kindly taken these lovely photos. It was a miniature replica of one of the famous Borobodur coves that contain Buddhas. Perfectly portable to accompany some of my other travelling Buddhist shrine objects. The woman smiled at me, happy that a sale had been made that day, and I smiled back thanking her for the photos and kindness showed giving shelter from the rain.
It was like the Buddhist temple of Pawon’s energy permeated the area and the stunning electric pink flower shrub tree next to it, added to its rare beauty. When the rain stopped and the sun started shining through the dew drops, the temple itself seemed to shine as a magnificent, yet small “jewel” preserved in all its former glory, offering locals, tourists and pilgrims some temporary happiness and inspiration even now.
Here are some more photos I took of the temple grounds, as well as more of myself taken by the local woman.
