Candi Kimpulan

Hindu temple unearthed during construction of a university library

A small Hindu temple from the late 9th or early 10th century, exposed in 2009 during construction work on the campus of the Islamic University of Indonesia in Kaliurang. The temple, which had been buried by Merapi ashfall, was preserved in place and the university library was built around it. Visitors can see it through the glass walls of the library basement.

A reminder that Java's pre-Islamic past lies very thinly beneath the surface — most of the larger candi (temples) in Sleman were also rediscovered like this.

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A story
When workers digging the foundations for the Islamic University of Indonesia's new library in 2009 struck stone four metres down, a buried 10th-century Hindu temple revealed itself. The university redesigned the library to span the temple, which now sits in a glass-walled hollow at the base of the building.