Keraton Yogyakarta Palace

One of biggest city in Indonesia is Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta (or Yogya, as local people call it) also know as second tourism destination in Indonesia, after Bali. One of tourism spot in Yogya is Kraton Yogya Palace. Located in the centre of Yogya city, designed by Sultan Hamengku Buwono I, founder of the kingdom of Ngayogyokarto Hadiningrat, in 1756.
Kraton Yogyakarta area stretches 5 kilometers southwards to Krapyak village and 2 kilometers northwards until Tugu Station. As philosophy, it means the birth of human being from the high place to the perishable world, and the opposite direction symbolizes the return of human being to the Dumadi (God in Javanese philosophy), the direction from south to north. Kraton is a physical symbols, the king (Sultan) is the symbol of the real soul that presents into the physical body.
The direction from the Palace to the Tugu monument represents the road of life that is full of temptations. Beringharjo market symbolizes women temptation and temptation of power is symbolized by Kepatihan building. The straight street connecting the Palace to Tugu monument symbolizes close relationship between human being and the Creator (Sangkan Paraning Dumadi).In short, Tugu monument is a symbol of lingga (male sex organ) and Krapyak symbolizes yoni (female sex organ) and kraton is physical blend of the two.
In general, the space arrangement of the current Sultan Palace is similar to the one of Mataram Dynasty. The center of the Palace is the so called Bangsal Kencana that is adjacent to Bangsal Prabayeksa as the place to keep sacred weapons (in this room, there is an oil lamp called Kyai Wiji that is kept lit by the Palace servants). This hall is surrounded by Kedhaton yard so that people must go through layers of the yard that seem like waves in order to reach the center.
This special arrangement of the Palace looks similar to constellation of mountain and Jambu Dwipa land that is considered to be central archipelago of the universe. From north part to west part of the Palace area, there are North Square, North Siti Hinggil, North Kemandhungan, Srimanganti, Kedhaton, Kemagangan, South Kemandungan, South Siti Hinggil and South Square (the yard that is protected by high walls).
In order to reach all of the places, there are nine gates (called regol) that must be passed through, namely: gerbang, pangurukan, tarub agung, brajanala, srimanganti, kamagangan, gadhung mlati, kemandhungan and gading. Brongtodiningrat sees the significance of this number, as the highest number to describe excellence. This is related to nine holes in human beings, commonly called babahan hawa sanga. The sacredness of each Palace building is indicated by the frequency and intensity of Sultan activities in the location.