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  • Welcome to the largest Buddhist monument in the world; the massive Borobudur. In Indonesian,

  • ancient temples are known as candi; thus "Borobudur Temple" is locally known as Candi Borobudur.

  • This amazing temple not only serves as a shrine to the Lord Buddha, but it is also a place

  • for Buddhist pilgrimage. I will now tell you the history behind Borobudur,

  • before going into detail why the temple looks the way it does.

  • It's hard to say exactly when and why Borobudur was built, as there are no written records

  • to be found. Archeoligists and historians estimate that it was built during the Sailendra

  • dynasty, in mid 8th century and took around 75 years to complete. Borobudur is only one

  • of several temples located in central Java built during this era.

  • This was an era where power shifted between two rival families, the Buddhist Sailendras

  • and the Hindu Sanjayas. Both built large temples, this one being Saildendras largest temple

  • and the Prambanan temple compound was the Sanjayas greatest temple. Even though these

  • two dynasties were rivals, archelogogists have come to believe that there was never

  • a large scale religious conflict on Java, as temples of different religion have been

  • allowed to remain, even during times when the rival was in power.

  • Borobudur was later abandoned, for what reason is still unknown. What is known is that the

  • center of power moved from central Java to east Java in the 10th century and that several

  • volcanic eruptions took place during the same period. If the latter influenced the former

  • is hard to say, but many say it is the most likely reason for the abandonment. Others

  • believe it was used actively as a temple all the way into the 16th century, until the majority

  • of the population converted to Islam. Again, the exact reason why it was abandoned is impossible

  • say. Even though Borobudur layed hidden for centuries

  • under layers of volcanic ash and jugle growth; the monument was not completely forgotten.

  • According the Javanese history scripts, smaller rebel battles have taken place close to the

  • temple and some notes associate the temple with bad luck and misery. One script mentions

  • the misfortune of the crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate, who despite the curse

  • of the temple, payed it a visit in 1757. Upon returning to his palace after his Borobudur

  • visit, he fell ill and died the very next day. I hope you are not supersticiuous..

  • The temple was discovered for the first time by foreigners in the early 19th century, during

  • the short British rule of the Dutch East Indies. The appointed Governor, General Thomas Stamford

  • Raffles, had heard about a hidden temple in the jungle in central Java and he decided

  • to investigate it. He sent an expedition of around 200 men who found the temple and started

  • clearing it of vegetation and dug away earth to reveal it. Reports of the founding were

  • sent back to the Governer, who ordered the temple to be fully revealed. The work on removing

  • all the earth was finished in 1835. Although fully exposed in all its beauty,

  • appreciation of the site developed slowly and it served for some time largely as a source

  • of souvenirs and income for "souvenir hunters" and thieves.

  • Borobudur started to receive some attention in the early 20th century, when a restoration

  • project was initiated. Due to the limited budget, the restoration was primarily focused

  • on cleaning the sculptures. During this restoration, it was discovered

  • that three of the Buddhist temples in the region; Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, are lined

  • in one straight line position. According to native folk tales, there used

  • to be a brick-paved road with walls on both sides connecting the three temples to eachother.

  • The three temples have similar architecture and ornamentation deriving from the same time

  • period, which suggests that some ritual relationship existed between the three temples. In order

  • to honor this relationship, the pilgrims of today start their pilgrimage from Mendut and

  • walk the distance to Pawon and Borobudur where they climb the temple.

  • In the late 1960s, the rather newly formed Indonesian Government initiated a major restoration

  • project in order to bring Borobudur back to its former glory. They requested help from

  • the international community in order to renovate and protect Borobudur. The Indonesian government

  • and UNESCO then undertook the complete overhaul of the monument in a big restoration project

  • between 1975 and 1982. The project involved more than 600 people and included improving

  • the foundation, cleaning of all the carvings and also a new drainage system. These restorations

  • saved the temple from slowly disintegrating and made Borobudur what it is today.

  • Now that you know the history behind Borobudur, I will move on to tell you why the temple

  • looks the way it does. Borobudur is essentially built as one massive

  • stupa. A stupa is a buddist burial mound for buddist leaders and holy relics. According

  • to the Buddhist cosmology, there are three stages of mental preparation. Each one of

  • these preparations is linked to one of the many worlds or "planes" that exists within

  • Buddhism. Borobudur is based around these three stages of mental preparation where each

  • platform represents one of the three stages of mental preparation.

  • The temple has a total of nine platforms, of which the lower six are square and the

  • upper three are circular. The first platform, the base, representsmadhātu - the world

  • of desires. The rest of the square platforms represent Rupadhatu - the world of forms and

  • the upper three circular platforms, together with the main stupa, represent the formless

  • world - Arupadhatu. The walls on the lower platforms are covered

  • in beautiful relief panels, depicting stories from Buddhism. The main part shows the descent

  • of the Lord Buddha from the Tushita heaven and ends with his first sermon. The panels

  • on the wall are read from right to left, while on the balustrade read from left to right.

  • This conforms with the ritual performed by pilgrims who move climb the temple in a clockwise

  • direction while keeping the sanctuary to their right.

  • At the upper circular levels you will find seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large

  • central stupa. When you look at the stupas, you will see that they are decorated in different

  • ways. The outer levels have diamond shaped holes, while the inner levels have square

  • holes. The diamond shaped holes stands for instability, the square holes for stability

  • and the main stupa is solid which stands for eternity. This one again refers to the formless

  • world - Arupadhatu -- and represents how the world of forms changes to the world of the

  • formless. Each stupa holds a Statue of Buddha -- each one except the main stupa which is

  • empty. Of the original 504 Buddha statues covering Borobudur, over 300 are damaged and

  • 43 are missing. Since the monument's discovery, Buddha heads have been stolen as collector's

  • items, which is the reason why many statues are headless.

  • In 1885, a hidden structure under the base was accidentally discovered. When the "hidden

  • foot" was fully reviled they say that it also contained reliefs which, like the base, describe

  • the world of desire. Only a small part of the hidden foot can be seen, as majority of

  • the hidden footare covered in a stone encasement, for which reason is unknown. The main theory

  • however, is that the encasement base was constructed long ago to add extra weight to the base,

  • as the original base might have been incorrectly designed.

  • Today, Borobudur is the single most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia with several

  • million visitors each year. No wonder, as it is one of the most fascinating temples

  • ever built.

Welcome to the largest Buddhist monument in the world; the massive Borobudur. In Indonesian,

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