On the flat, wet plain of West Java, a group of low brick structures has been uncovered from beneath centuries of alluvium and rice cultivation. Candi Blandongan and Candi Jiwa belong to this complex, one of the most significant archaeological sites in Indonesia for what it reveals about the earliest phases of organised religion on Java. The buildings are made of fired brick rather than the volcanic stone of the great central Javanese temples, and their plans - stepped platforms, staircases, a stupa-like superstructure at one of them - point to Buddhist practice at a period long before the monuments that made Java famous. Excavation has yielded structural remains, votive objects and burials, and work at the site continues. The film records the archaeology as it stands: brickwork exposed to the sun, the geometry of the platforms read from the air, the surrounding fields and villages, and the interpretive questions that remain open. It is a rare look at the beginnings rather than the climax of Javanese temple building.
