The oldest standing Hindu temples in Java, of the eighth and ninth centuries (en.wikipedia: built 8th to 9th, the exact date not known), on a cold marshy plateau at about 2,100 m with sulphur springs and vents that kill (board).
The dated inscriptions found on the plateau are of 861 (Gunung Wule, 783 Saka), 878 (Kapuhunan, 800), 882 (Indrakila, 804) and 919 (Wintang Mas II, 841) (en.wikipedia). The small shrines carry the names of the heroes of the Mahabharata (Arjuna and others), given by later villagers, not by the builders (recalled). Hermits and pilgrims came to the place of the gods (di hyang).
By 1200 the last dated inscription is 281 years old; whether anyone still serves the group is not known. The campaign board calls it a place of pilgrimage and of hermits.
Who holds it
- Title
- Keepers of the Dieng shrines, if any
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing I read names anyone at Dieng after the inscription of 919.
What it holds
- The temple group on the plateau floor
- The plateau villages that serve it, if they still do (Dieng communities)
How it was acquired
Built in the eighth and ninth centuries under the kings of old Mataram (en.wikipedia).
Allies and rivals
None named.
How things stand that morning
Standing. Use after 919 is not shown by any source.
Wealth
Pilgrims' gifts, if any; no figures.
Threats
- Volcanic gas and ash from the plateau craters (no date)
Places of note
- Dieng temple group: The Arjuna group on the plateau floor (the campaign board point).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry dieng-temples says 'early eighth century'; en.wikipedia says the eighth to ninth century and that the exact date of building is not known.
Evidence: Well dated to the ninth century; nothing for the twelfth.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A disc round the group.
Primary sources for Kediri
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Dieng Plateau (read in this pass): temples of the 8th to 9th century, build date 'not known exactly'; inscriptions Gunung Wule 783 Saka (861), Kapuhunan 800 Saka (878), Indrakila 804 Saka (882), Wintang Mas II 841 Saka (919); about 2,100 m; active craters Sileri and Sikidang
- Wikipedia (en), List of volcanoes in Indonesia (read in this pass): summit coordinates of Semeru, Bromo, Arjuno-Welirang, Penanggungan, Kelud, Lawu, Merapi, Merbabu, Sumbing, Sindoro, Slamet, Dieng, Muria, Batur, Agung, Rinjani, Tambora, Sangeang Api and others
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.