Singhasari Temple or ''Candi Singhasari'' is a 13th-century syncretic

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

located in

Singosari Singosari is a district in Malang Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 118.51 km2 and had a population of 165,357 at the 2010 Census and 180,050 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. the official est ...

district,

Malang Regency Malang Regency (Javanese script, Javanese: ꦏꦧꦸꦥꦠꦼꦤ꧀ꦩꦭꦁ; Pegon script, Pegon: كابوڤاتين مالاڠ; Osob Kiwalan: ''ngalaM'') is the second largest Regency (Indonesia), regency in East Java, Indonesia, with a total a ...

, East

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Location

The temple is located on Jalan Kertanegara, Candirenggo village, Singosari district, about 10 kilometres north from

Malang Malang (; , ), historically known as Tumapel, is an inland List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of the Singhasari, Singhasari K ...

city, on the valley between two mountain ranges, the Tengger- Bromo in the east and Arjuno-Welirang in the west, with elevation 512 metres above sea level. The temple orientation is facing northwest towards Mount Arjuno. It is linked to the historical

Singhasari Singhasari ( or , ), also known as Tumapel, was a Javanese people, Javanese Hindu-Buddist empires, Hindu-Buddhist Monarchy, kingdom located in east Java (island), Java between 1222 and 1292. The kingdom succeeded the Kingdom of Kediri as th ...

kingdom of East Java, as the site around the temple is believed to be the center of Javanese court of Singhasari.

History

The temple was mentioned in the Javanese poem

Nagarakretagama The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known in Bali as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a ''kakawin'' by ...

canto 37:7 and 38:3 and also in Gajah Mada inscription dated 1351 and discovered in the temple's yard. According to these sources, the temple is the funerary temple of King Kertanagara (ruled 1268 — 1292), the last king of the

dynasty, whose assassination in 1292 by Jayakatwang of Gelang-gelang finally led to the establishment of

Majapahit Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island o ...

rule. The temple's unfinished state can be seen in the incomplete kala head over its lower entrance. The temple faces northwest. Its lower level is

Shaiva Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the supreme being. It is the second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million Hindus, found widely across South Asia (predominantly in ...

, but the temple has a second

cella In Classical architecture, a or naos () is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings: of a hermit's or monk's cell, and (since the 17th century) of a biological cell ...

on the upper level, that was a

dedication. Alternate spellings: Kertanagara for Kertanegara, and Singosari for Singhasari. Significant features of the temple include: * A pair of colossal Dvarapalas--giant monolith statues as the guardians of Singhasari royal cemeteries * A well-carved Kala on the west upper face * A large original statue of

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

Batara Guru Batara Guru (also called Bhattara Guru, Debata Batara Guru and Batara Siwa) is the name of a supreme god in Indonesian Hinduism. His name is derived from Sanskrit ''Bhattaraka'' which means “noble lord".R. Ghose (1966), Saivism in Indonesia du ...

(or, perhaps, Shiva as

Agastya Agastya was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He is regarded in some traditions to be a Chiranjivi. He and his wife ...

) in the lower southern

Gallery

File:Candi Singosari, Shiva 1336.jpg, Shiva as Batara Guru or Rsi

, Singhasari File:Candi Singosari, Kala 1335.jpg, Kala's head above the portal of Singhasari temple File:Candi Singosari, Dvarapala 1326.jpg, One of a pair of

dvarapala A Dvarapala or Dvarapalaka (Sanskrit, "door guard"; IAST: ' ) is a door or gate guardian often portrayed as a warrior or fearsome giant, usually armed with a weapon - the most common being the Gada (mace), ''gada'' (mace). The dvarapala statue i ...

References

{{Hindudharma

Cultural Properties of Indonesia in East Java Singhasari 1336 establishments in Asia 13th-century Buddhist temples 13th-century Hindu temples

Location

History

Gallery

See also

References