Hidden Hindu Past of Indonesia | Candi Sambisari Temple

Hey guys, in a remote village of Indonesia, there is a mysterious ancient temple. As you can see, this is a giant temple complex with multiple boundary walls and different shrines. Many, many strange details are found here. This temple was buried underground for a long time, and after excavation and restoration, you can see two levels of protective walls. And once upon a time, this area could have been filled with water and could have acted as a moat. Also, notice that the elevation is slowly increasing as we approach the main shrine in the center. But something is very odd about the temple's layout. Such a design should not exist. Can you tell me what is wrong with this temple? The entry way is deliberately twisted. What do I mean? In most Hindu temple complexes, you would enter through this entrance and could head directly over to the main temple's entrance. But in this temple complex, see, there is the main temple's entrance, but in between, there is a blockade, another structure, and you can see that this is a solid wall on this side. And even if you think this is a newer structure, even then, the entrance of the main temple is not aligned with this entrance at the compound wall. So, you have to walk through this entrance, then move to the right, walk around the structure, and then again, walk towards the left to enter the main shrine. If you read mainstream history texts of Indonesia, a typical explanation given would go something like this. This temple was built by a king who would visit this temple on an elephant. Imagine a king making a grand entrance sitting on top of an elephant. He has to come in like this, turn, make a curve here, again make another curve here and then get into the main shrine. This doesn't make any sense. But why did ancient builders make such a unique layout? Why would they make a single giant temple in the center, while putting 3 smaller shrines in front of it? What was the purpose of these 3 smaller structures? Archaeologists also unearthed many unexplainable and strange stone structures. Here we can see a giant cylinder. It looks smooth and polished, looking like the body of a submarine. What is it? Was it used for some strange purpose? Or is it a lingam? Nearby, there is another odd looking structure. This is also a cylinder, but it is curved like a giant banana. But on top, there is an odd handle like structure attached. Why did they find so many unexplainable structures buried underground in this area? Now, look at this series of grenade like stone structures. They remind you of bombs. Why are they shaped like warheads and bombs? Do they have explosive materials packed inside these stone structures? Of course, this idea sounds like total nonsense. How could a single stone block have explosives packed inside them? Each one is made of solid stone, right? But look at this stone block, what if I told you there is some valuable material packed inside? Anybody with a decent level of intelligence would not believe that. But ancient Hindu temples were designed to fool people with decent level of intelligence. Archeologists have placed a series of stone blocks here, all excavated from this temple. Look at the first two stone blocks, you see blunt cylinder shaped blocks with square holes inside. Look at the third stone block, ancient builders have covered the hole with some rock like material, but the square hole is partially visible. In the next block, that square hole is completely covered with that material. And if I had not shown you the previous three stone blocks before, you would not believe that a square hole exists underneath this. The last block is the most fascinating, ancient builders have not only covered the hole, but also placed another square block on top of it, and this is the same block I showed you first. This is the same block which you thought was of solid stone, and had no chance of having anything inside. Now, were ancient builders hiding something inside these stone blocks? Are these individual stone blocks or are they assembled so well? And more importantly, do they have something hidden inside? In a previous video I showed you traces of gold in the lingam of this temple. Were ancient builders hiding materials like gold and diamond in these stone blocks? But, we are not done yet, the ruins have many baffling, unexplainable features. Look very carefully, do you see anything strange? Did you notice this hole on this block? Maybe it is nothing, right? But what about this hole? What do you think? Just a weird coincidence? Now, there are secret holes drilled in almost every such block here. If you pay attention, you will find these holes. What about this rectangular block? Anything? What about this one? You see this hole? It is a very tiny hole, nobody will notice this. A hole of such a small size should not be there because ancient builders should not have been able to create such holes with primitive tools. But today, we are not going to analyze how they made these stones, we are just going to examine these holes. Do you see any holes now on this one? Yeah, this one has a hole on this side too. So that means the hole goes from this side to that side. You see these kinds of sneaky little holes are drilled everywhere, and these are not recent ones, they were done by ancient builders. Let's look at the other stone block now. Is there a hole you can see? Look carefully, because it is hiding in plain sight. There, when I put the camera down, you can see a hole. This one is a little bit bigger. Is it shallow? Maybe this is only an inch deep. Let's look at the top. You see this? Yeah, it is covered by all the dirt and leaves and whatnot, but underneath all the dirt, there is the hole. This temple is full of many strange details like this. Who built this temple? Maybe the carvings in the temple can give us a clue. Just before we enter the main temple, at the staircase, we are welcomed by these two weird creatures carved on either side. I am quite fascinated by how they look, but below each creature, at the bottom, you can see this figure. Who is he? He is clearly overweight and he is shown in a seated position, but in his hands, he is holding two bells. Why? As soon as you enter, he will ring the bell and alert the people inside that you are coming. And you can see how fierce he looks. This guy is at least 1200 years old and we can still see all the details. He is heavily ornamented, but is not wearing any clothes except a loin cloth like a sumo wrestler. He is wearing a fancy headband, probably made of gold, and the headband is adorned with flowers. His earrings are so heavy, they are dropping below his shoulders. He has a thick necklace, armbands, wristbands, all possibly made of gold, not to mention the massive waistband and his anklets. He is so cute. Above, you can see this creature called Makara. A lot of people think that the term Makara means a crocodile, but this has a lot more features than a crocodile. Look at its teeth, it has human like teeth, both in the upper and lower jaw. Inside its mouth, you can see a lion like animal. Strangely enough, he is shown biting his nails. Is he stressed about something? Look at the mane of this animal, it is just fantastic. And there is a strange band that goes from the top of his head. You can see flowers on both ends. Look at the ball like growth on top of the Makara. Is he a kind of fish like the flower horn? Only these types of fishes have this growth. But it gets better, he even has feathers on his head, maybe they were the color of the feathers of a peacock. But the Makara not only has the features of a flower horn and a peacock, he also has a trunk like an elephant. It is carved very sturdily, because I don't think anyone would have realized that this is an elephant's trunk. Now, let's take a look at the main chamber of this temple. This lingam is truly all inspiring. We have already explored this lingam and found traces of gold in a previous video, but look at the base. This is very elaborately carved with so many layers, like a bunch of wafers stacked on top of one another. See how many grooves are cut on it, it is quite extraordinary. Again, I am assuming that this base is made of a single stone, but maybe there are multiple stone blocks here, assembled together, and maybe something is packed inside them. Let's go back in time a thousand years ago, ancient Hindus would have come here on a regular basis and chanted the sacred mantra OM. I am going to chant the same mantra here, and this is what it would have sounded like in ancient times. I have not edited that audio, so you can feel the vibration and reverberation. Ancient builders were masters of creating things like this. This chamber was intentionally designed to create that reverberation, if someone chants the OM mantra here. The name of this temple is Chandi Sambisari, but it is pronounced as chandi, not candy, but Indonesians spell it this way. Chandi simply means temple in Indonesian. The lingam is designed with two important features. This spout, you can see how it has a nice channel going on top. This part is called the Soma Sutra, and it is an important part of the lingam. What is its purpose? Imagine how ancient people would have worshipped this lingam. Thousand years ago, they would pour water on top of the lingam, and this water would flow to the base here, and it would be released through the spout here. I have shown you a couple of primitive Soma Sutras in this video already. Where did I show you? Remember these? I expect you to put two and two together. Going back to our big spout in the lingam, because it hangs out of the base, it creates an imbalance in the structure. So usually a column is constructed under the spout to support it. Here, it is richly carved with a freaky dragon. You can see how the teeth of the lower jaw and the teeth of the upper jaw fit perfectly, very much like a crocodile. And look at its eyes, it definitely reminds you of a reptile, doesn't it? And there is another feature of the lingam that is almost never discussed. You can see this line starting from here, and then climbing up to make a tall cylinder here, like what you would see in a bar graph, and then it just goes back to being a straight line at the bottom. Inside this, you can see another bar carved. This whole thing is called the Brahma Sutra, and you will find it in most of the ancient lingams. The word Brahma Sutra means the thread of the creator. This is a big mystery though, because there is no satisfactory explanation in any ancient text that clearly explains the meaning of this. What is the meaning of this, and does it have a purpose? I hope you enjoyed this strange temple in Indonesia. I am Praveen Mohan, thanks a lot for watching, don't forget to subscribe, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye!