When Indonesia Was Hindu

Indonesia is a constellation of more than 17,000 islands straddling the equator. Though thousands of miles from India, its temples and statues rival those found on the subcontinent. This July, the Indian government even agreed to help restore Indonesia’s largest Hindu temple, Prambanan.

For centuries, Hindu god-kings ruled an empire that stretched across the world’s largest archipelago. Yet it took only a few decades — and a disputed throne — to forever change the course of Indonesian history.