Candi Mendut and Candi Pawon

Most visitors drive past Mendut and Pawon on the way to Borobudur, which is a mistake. Mendut is the older sibling, a square stone temple on a high plinth whose dark inner chamber holds three large Buddhas carved almost in the round: a seated Vairocana more than three metres high, sitting with both feet down rather than cross-legged, flanked by two bodhisattvas. The outer walls carry panels of bodhisattvas, with animal fable scenes around the base. Pawon, a kilometre closer to Borobudur, is smaller and plainer, a single chamber with a slender profile. All three temples stand on one straight line, and at Vesak a procession of monks still walks it from Mendut to Borobudur.

What you actually see

• The three Buddhas - Mendut's inner chamber, with the seated Vairocana between two bodhisattvas.
• The base reliefs - animal fable panels carved around Mendut's platform.
• Candi Pawon - the small, slender temple on the line between Mendut and Borobudur.
• The banyan and the monastery - the old tree in Mendut's yard and the working Buddhist monastery across the road.

When to go

Any dry-season morning works, and both temples take about an hour together. Going before Borobudur rather than after makes the sequence of the three sites legible. Vesak, at the May full moon, fills Mendut with candles and a monks' procession, worth seeing but crowded and heavily photographed. Late afternoon light suits Mendut's east-facing front.

Honest expectations

These are small sites and take minutes each, so people who buy a combined ticket sometimes feel short-changed. Mendut's chamber is dim, hot and often full of a tour group, and photographing the Buddhas is awkward without a tripod. Pawon is barely more than a single room and stands beside a busy road. Neither compares with Borobudur, and neither is trying to.

Nearby

Borobudur is three kilometres west; Yogyakarta is about an hour south.