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Photo: Crisco 1492 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia
Sewu is an eighth-century Mahayana Buddhist or Hindu temple located 800 metres north of Prambanan in Central Java, Indonesia. The word for a Hindu or Buddhist temple in Javanese is "candi", hence, the common name is "Candi Sewu". Candi Sewu is the second largest Buddhist temple complex in Indonesia; Borobudur is the largest. Sewu predates it and it is located near the "Loro Jonggrang" temple at Prambanan. Although the complex consists of 249 temples, this Javanese name translates to 'a thousand temples,' which originated from popular local folklore. Archaeologists believe the original name for the temple compound to be Manjusrigrha.
