Borobudur Temple, The Pride of Indonesia

BOROBUDUR TEMPLE, THE PRIDE OF INDONESIA

Borobudur temple is better known than Prambanan temple. But where is its exact location ? Borobudur temple is located in the district of Magelang, the province of Central Java, Indonesia. It is accessible from surrounding cities of Yogyakarta, Semarang and Surakarta. Yogyakarta is the closest big city about twenty-five miles away to the southeast. It takes about one hour to get there by car from Yogyakarta. The temple is located about fourty-three miles from Semarang, the capital of Central Java. It takes about two hours to get there by car from Semarang. Another big city is Surakarta or Solo, which is located about sixty-two miles to the east. It takes about three hours to get there by car from Surakarta (Solo).

Borobudur was built in the 9^th century by King Samaratungga from Syailendra dynasty. In the 11^th century the Mataram Kingdom was deteriorating and finally completely collapsed and then disappeared. For about a thousand year Borobudur was deserted and forgotten. The whole area became forest.

The temple was found in the 1814 by British colonial ruler. At that time it was in poor condition. It was destroyed by nature. The foundation was not strong enough to support the heavy burden so it was collapsed on some parts. Many statues are broken and lost their heads. All parts of the temple was made from stone so moss could make further damage. Probably earthquake made the condition worse.

The first restoration was carried out by the colonial ruler in the late 19^th century and also in the early 20^th century. But it was only a minor restoration. The final restoration was carried out by the Indonesian authority with the aid from UNESCO. It took ten years from 1973 - 1983 to finish it. Now that the foundation had been strengthened with concrete. Missing stones are replaced with new ones but they are not carved and marked with a small metal.

Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist temple in the world. The dimension of the lower part is 123x123m. Its shape is a combination between a stupa and a pyramid. There are seven stages. The first four stages are rectangular and the last three stages are round. There are four entrances, one in each side. The main entrance is in the east. On the walls stories are carved as bas relief. There are stories of Karmawibangga, Jataka, Avadana, Lalitavistara, Gandawyuha and Badracari. The most important one is Lalita vistara. It is the story of Prince Sidharta Gautama, the prophet of Buddhism. It is carved in 120 panels around the 1^st gallery of the main wall. All stories start from and end in the eastern gate. On the upper part of the walls there are niches in which there are statues of meditating Buddha.

On the last three stages there is no more bas relief. There is no more stories. There are only stupas. Stupa is stone construction that looks like bell. There are seventy two stupas with statues of Buddha inside. The total number of statues of meditating Buddha is five - hundred and four. Right in the midle a grand main stupa stands out among the smaller ones. This one is solid, there is no statue inside. This stage is the symbol of arupadathu, the highest level of spirituality.

Today there is a Buddhist ceremony takes place at Borobudur once a year. It is Waisyak ceremony on May. When there is a full moon on May Buddhist from all parts of Indonesia come to Borobudur to celebrate the birth of Prince Sidharta Gautama. They believe that the Prince was born, illuminated and died at the same date. Usually the ceremony begin in the afternoon to midnight.

This complicated structures definitely needs hardwork from thousands of workers for many years, maybe about one hundred years. No one knows for sure how long it was constructed. It certainly needs a lot of resources – material, man power, financial etc. Java must had been very prosperous to build it. It is really a witness of a great past.