The Amazing of Cetho Temple: Relics of the Majapahit Kingdom

VIVA – Cetho temple is the last hindu temple built at the same time with the Sukuh temple around the 15th century at the end of heyday of the Hindu Majapahit empire. Now, Cetho Temple is a popular tourism in Karanganyar. The Cetho Temple area is a courtyard that presents an amazing view.

The name Cetho, which in Javanese means 'clear', is used as the name of the village where this temple is located because from Cetho Village, people can clearly see in various directions. To the north, people can see views of Karanganyar and the city of Solo with a backdrop of Mount Merbabu, Merapi, and Mount Sumbing. To the west and east, people can see green hills stretching, while to the south people can see the back and clusters of Mount Lawu's child.

As quoted by the Cultural Heritage page, the Cetho Temple site was built around 1451-1470 during the Majapahit Kingdom when Hindu influence on Java began to fade and the original Indonesian elements of prehistoric traditions began to live again.

At that time, the Majapahit Kingdom was undergoing a process of collapse with the peak of social, political, cultural and even religious chaos. The Cetho Temple site is closely related to the Sukuh Temple Site which is located on a lower plain and with a relatively close distance.

Ancient Indonesian Art thinks that the Cetho Temple Site from the beginning was a sacred site associated with honoring ancestral spirits which in the first half of the XV century was converted into a monument containing elements of Hindu-Javanese culture with local characters by means of liberation of ancestral spirits.

The Cetho temple site was first discovered by Van der Vlis in 1842. Furthermore, the historic building received much attention from archaeologists such as W.F. Stutterheim, K.C. Crucq, N.j. Krom, A.J. Bernet Kempers, dan Riboet Darmosoetopo.

Cetho Temple Consists of 14 Terraces

Before visiting the Cetho Temple, visitors must pay attention to the condition of the vehicle. This needs to be considered because the journey to Cetho Temple is a sharp incline. A very terrible route that is 500-meters before arriving at Cetho Temple.