Candi Sewu is an eighth century Mahayana Buddhist temple located 800 metres north of Prambanan in Central Java, Indonesia. Candi Sewu is the second largest Buddhist temple complex in Indonesia right after Borobudur.
Although the complex consists of 249 temples, this Javanese name Sewu translates to 'a thousand temples,' which originated from popular local folklore.
According to several inscriptions (dated from the 8th century) which were discovered in 1960, the original name of the temple complex was probably ‘Manjusri grha’ , meaning ‘The House of Manjusri’.
Manjusri (Sanskrit: मञ्जुश्री) is a Bodhisattva from Mahayana Buddhist teachings that symbolizes the gentle glory of transcendent wisdom.
The temple was severely damaged during the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, now the temple looks like a ruin with piles of stones, but it is still worth seeing after you have been to Prambanan.
