Two thousand years ago, on the high, misty slopes of active volcanoes, the people of Java built shrines for the spirits of their ancestors. With the coming of Indian religions, they re-dedicated their shrines to Shiva, the Hindu God of Destruction.
It was the beginning of a golden age of temple building which was to culminate in the creation of Borobudur, a giant man-made ' cosmic mountain ', a symbol in stone of the Buddhist path to enlightenment, then, as now, the largest monument in the southern hemisphere.
Today 95 per cent of Javanese are Muslims, but the sultans' palaces continue to nurture the serene classical dances which once came from India, and their celebrated shadow puppets are still revered as ancestral spirits.
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