Standing tall between the trees east of Malang in East Java, Kidal Temple is distinctly East Javanese in style, and stands as perhaps the finest example of the emergence of that architectural aesthetic. Built in dark volcanic stone, it is compact and emphatically vertical: a high moulded base, a slender cubic body pierced by a single chamber, and a stepped roof tapering to a crown, proportions that pull the eye upward in a way the broader temples of Central Java never do. Its base is carved with the Garuda of Javanese myth, bearing figures on its shoulders, while monstrous kala heads guard the openings. Isolated in a quiet village setting, it survives largely intact.
