Candi Surowono, in the Kediri region of East Java, has lost its upper structure and stands today as a richly carved base, but it remains one of the most rewarding temples on the island for anyone interested in narrative art. Its walls are covered with relief panels illustrating stories drawn from the fable literature and the epic tradition, carved in a dense, animated style in which animals, hermits, demons and human figures crowd the available surface. The panels reward slow reading: characters recur from scene to scene, landscapes are rendered as stylised rock and foliage, and the humour of the fables comes through clearly. Temples of this kind in East Java were often associated with the commemoration of members of a ruling house, and Surowono belongs to that world of court patronage. The film films the reliefs in raking light so that the carving reads clearly, follows several narratives around the building panel by panel, and places the monument within its rural surroundings.
