Portal:Indonesia/AOTW/29, 2007

 Candi Sukuh is a fifteenth century Javanese-Hindu temple located on the western slope of Mount Lawu (elev. 910 m or 3,000 feet above sea level) on the border between Central and East Java provinces.

Candi Sukuh has a distinctive thematic reliefs from other candi where life before birth and sexual education are its main theme. Its main monument is a simple pyramid structure with reliefs and statues in front of it, including three tortoises with flattened shells and a male figure grasping his penis. A giant 1.82 m (6 feet) high of lingga (phallus) with four balls, representing penile implants, was one of the statues that has been relocated to the National Museum of Indonesia.

The founder of Candi Sukuh thought that the slope of Mount Lawe is a sacred place for worshiping the ancestors, nature spirits and the observance of the fertility cults. The architecture of Candi Sukuh differs completely from other candi from the Kediri, Singhasari and Majapahit periods. Unlike meticulous design and reliefs, Candi Sukuh has a simple truncated pyramid as its main monument, surrounded by monoliths and life-sized figures. Candi Sukuh contains a pervasive theme of spiritual liberation symbolized by reliefs and statues. There is an obvious depiction of sexual intercourse in a relief on the floor at the entrance where it shows a paired lingga (phallus) and yoni (vagina).

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