Mendut and Pawon in Borobudur

Part of the Borobudur travel guide — see every topic in All Borobudur Guides.

Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut sit on a single straight axis running roughly three kilometres east from the great monument, and the alignment is deliberate — the three were almost certainly used in sequence in a single ritual procession. Both smaller temples are included on most Borobudur tickets or cost very little separately, both take fifteen minutes, and both are nearly empty. Mendut in particular holds a sculpture that is arguably finer than anything on Borobudur itself.

Mendut

The furthest east and the oldest of the three, probably early ninth century. It is a compact square temple on a high base, and unlike Borobudur it has an interior: a single chamber holding three enormous stone figures carved in the round — a seated Buddha three metres high in the teaching gesture, flanked by the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani. The carving is exceptional and the enclosed, dim chamber gives it a presence that open-air sculpture rarely has. The exterior walls carry reliefs of bodhisattvas and, at the base, illustrated fables.

Pawon

The smallest of the three, sitting between the other two, close to the Progo river. It is a single slender structure on a square plan with a narrow chamber, now empty, and finely carved exterior panels of kalpataru wish-fulfilling trees flanked by pot-bellied dwarfs and heavenly figures. Its function is disputed — the name suggests a kitchen or a place of ashes, and it may have been a repository or a way station on the processional route. It takes ten minutes to see, is almost always empty, and is included in the combined ticket.

The monastery and the Vesak procession

Next to Mendut is Mendut Monastery, an active Buddhist community with a garden of statues, which is worth walking through. At Vesak, the annual celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, monks and pilgrims walk the three-kilometre route from Mendut through Pawon to Borobudur in procession, and the evening ends with a lantern release at the monument. It falls on the full moon in May or June, draws very large crowds, and is the one time the alignment of the three temples is used as intended.

Practicalities

Both are on the main road from Muntilan into Borobudur, so any driver passes them; ask specifically, because many tours do not stop. Combined tickets with Borobudur exist and are the cheapest way. Both open through the day and neither is ever crowded except at Vesak. There is a very large banyan tree beside Mendut that has become a photograph in its own right. Allow forty-five minutes for both including the monastery, and see them after Borobudur rather than before, when the contrast in scale works in their favour.

Mendut and Pawon at a glance

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