candi

A candi is a Hindu or Buddhist temple in Indonesia, particularly in Central and Eastern Java, mostly built during the "Hindu-Buddhist period"(between 4th and 15th centuries).

The official definition is an ancient stone building used for worship, or for storing the ashes of cremated Hindu or Buddhist kings and priests, with a larger archaeological definition as Hindu and/or Buddhist sacred structures for religious rituals and ceremonies. In Balinese architecture, the candi is a stone or brick structure of one cell-shrine with portico and pyramidal roof, located within a pura.

The candi architecture reflects a form of syncretism typical of Java. As V.M.Y Degroot, noted in 2009 "the Indian concept of space appears to have been more directly implemented into Buddhist architecture than in Hindu shrines. The layout of the large Buddhist temples of Central Java indeed depicts a rather concentric view of the cosmos, compatible in most respects with Indian descriptions of the universe. The Hindu religious compounds, on the contrary, emphasize a different approach in which the idea of progression is reinforced, as well as the association of sanctity with the rear of the temple compound, as so frequently found in East Java."