[3] Manjusri is a Bodhisattva from Mahayana Buddhist teachings that symbolizes the "gentle glory" of transcendent wisdom (Sanskrit: prajñā).

Rakai Panangkaran (746–780 CE) was well-known as a devoted Mahayana Buddhist king who ruled the Medang Mataram Kingdom.

Sewu temple was probably expanded and completed during the rule of Rakai Pikatan, a prince who married a Buddhist princess from the Sailendra dynasty, Pramodhawardhani.

The temple is located on the Prambanan Plain, between the southeastern slopes of the Merapi volcano and the Sewu mountain range in the south, near the present border of Yogyakarta province and Klaten Regency in central Java.

The plain has many archaeological sites scattered only a few miles apart, which suggests that this area served as an important religious, political, and urban center.

Although buried deep beneath the volcanic debris around Mount Merapi, the temple ruins were not completely forgotten by the local Javanese inhabitants.

Over the centuries, tales and legends infused with myths of giants and cursed princesses were recounted by villagers.

Prambanan and Sewu were purported to be of supernatural origin, and in the legend of Loro Jonggrang, they were said to have been created by a multitude of demons under the order of Bandung Bondowoso.

In 1733, Pakubuwono II granted the Dutch merchant Cornelius Antonie Lons permission to make a sightseeing tour through the heartland of Mataram.

After Britain's short-lived rule of the Dutch East Indies, Thomas Stamford Raffles included Cornelius' image of Candi Sewu in his 1817 book The History of Java.

Some Dutch colonists stole sculptures and used them as garden ornaments, and native villagers used the foundation stones as construction material.

Some of the temple's best-preserved bas-reliefs, Buddha's head, and some ornaments were carried away from the site and ended up in museums and private collections abroad.

In 1867, Isidore van Kinsbergen photographed the ruins of Candi Sewu after an earthquake had caused the dome in the main temple to collapse.

Subsequently, the temple became a subject of study among archaeologists such as Willem Frederik Stutterheim [id] and Nicolaas Johannes Krom in 1923.

Although some weeks later in 2006 the site was reopened for visitors, the main temple remained closed for safety reasons.

There are northern and western ruins discovered around the same distance from the main temple, however, the stones were too scarce for reconstruction.

On each of the four cardinal points of the main temple, there are four structures projected outward, each with its stairs, entrances, and rooms, crowned with stupas, which form a cross-like layout.

These four rooms are all connected by outer corner galleries with balustrades bordered by rows of small stupas.

However, another theory suggested that the main statue was probably constructed from several stone blocks coated with vajralepa plaster.