Nestled in what was once the heart of the Javanese empire, Jago Temple, known locally as Cungkup, stands in Tumpang village, just 22 km east of Malang City, its ruins evoking the Majapahit Empire that spanned much of the Indonesian archipelago between the 13th and 16th centuries. Nearby, the equally compelling Kidal Temple offers another window into this storied historic landscape. Built in dark volcanic stone, Kidal is compact and strikingly vertical: a tall moulded base, a slender cubic body and a tapering, stepped roof, its corners set with guardian figures and its base carved with the Garuda of Javanese myth. Together the two monuments trace the emergence of a distinctly East Javanese architectural language.
