Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 189

most visitors. Kraton means “royal
residence” and originally referred just to
the Sultan's Palace , but today it denotes
the whole of the walled city (plus Jalan
Malioboro), a town of some ten thousand
people. he Kraton has changed little in
two hundred years; both the palace, and
the 5km of crenellated icing-sugar walls
that surround it, date from the first
sultan's reign.

brother, this section is often bypassed by
tourists as there is little to see.
Further south stands the entrance to the
sultan's main palace (Rp12,500 including
optional guided tour, Rp3000 camera
fee). Little has changed here in 250 years:
the hushed courtyards, the faint stirrings
of the gamelan and the elderly palace
retainers, dressed in the traditional style
with a kris (dagger) tucked by the small
of their back, all contribute to a
remarkable sense of timelessness. You
enter the complex through the palace's
outer courtyard or keben .
Two silver-painted raksasa (temple
guardian statues) guard the entrance to
the largest and most important palace
courtyard, the Pelataran Kedaton . On
the right, the ornate Gedung Kuning
contains the o ces and living quarters
of the sultan, out of bounds to tourists.
A covered corridor joins the Gedung
Kuning with the Golden hrone
Pavilion, or Bangsal Kencono , the
centrepiece of the Pelataran Kedaton.
Its intricately carved roof is held aloft
by hefty teak pillars, with carvings of
the lotus leaf of Buddhism supporting
a red-and-gold diamond pattern of
Hindu origin, while around the pillar's
circumference runs the opening line
of the Koran. he eastern wall leads
to the Kesatrian courtyard, home to
another gamelan orchestra and a
collection of royal portraits, while to
the south is a display dedicated to
Hamengkubuwono IX.

Alun-alun Utara
Most people enter the Kraton through
the northern gates by the main post
o ce, beyond which lies the busy town
square, Alun-alun Utara. As is usual in
Java, the city's grand mosque, Mesjid
Agung (visit outside of prayer times),
built in 1773 by Mangkubumi, stands on
the western side of the alun-alun . It's
designed along traditional Javanese lines,
with a multi-tiered roof on top of an airy,
open-sided prayer hall. A little to the
north of the mosque, just by the main
gates, stands the Sono Budoyo Museum ,
Jl Trikora 6 (Tues-hurs 8am-2pm,
Fri-Sat 8am-11am, Sun 8am-1pm;
Rp3000), which houses a fine exhibition
of the arts of Java, Madura and Bali.
he intricate, damascene-style wooden
partitions from northern Java are
particularly eye-catching, as are the many
classical gold and stone statues dating
back to the eighth century.

4

The Sultan's Palace
On the southern side of the alun-alun lies
a masterpiece of understated Javanese
architecture, the elegant collection of
ornate kiosks and graceful pendopos
(open-sided pavilions) that comprise the
Kraton Ngayogyokarto Hadiningrat - the
Sultan's Palace . It was designed as a scale
model of the Hindu cosmos, and every
plant, building and courtyard is symbolic;
the sultans, though Muslim, held on to
many Hindu and animist beliefs and
thought that this design would ensure the
prosperity of the royal house.
he palace (Sat-hurs 8.30am-1.30pm)
is split into two parts. he first section,
the Pagelaran (Rp7000 entrance, Rp1500
camera fee), lies immediately south of the
alun-alun . Belonging to the monarch's

The Taman Sari
A five-minute walk southwest of the
palace, along Jalan Rotowijayan and
down Jalan Ngasem and Jalan Taman,
takes you to the Taman Sari (Water
Garden; daily 8am-3pm; Rp7500) of
Mangkubumi. his giant complex
was designed in the eighteenth century
as an amusement park for the royal
house, and features a series of empty
swimming pools and fountains, an
underground mosque and a large
boating lake. Unfortunately, it fell into
disrepair and most of what you see
today is a concrete reconstruction,
financed by UNESCO.