Borobudur

Borobudur is a Javanese writing: boro meaning monastery and budur meaning above. With a height of 35m, Borobudur is the most important place to Buddhists. Borobudur is built in a square shape and has a total of 504 Buddha statues, 106 cm in size.

The Borobodur panels depict the teachings of Buddhism. The galleries are built to guide Buddhists as they move upward, reaching closer to Nirvana. Each level represents a higher level of consciousness. Therefore, Borobudur is a 3D guide to enlightenment. The Gupta architecture reflects India's influence to Indonesia in the past showing that Buddhist was a great empire back then in Central Java.

All of the statues sits in a lotus position with 6 different hand positions. The first position faces east with the right hand closed signifying calling the Earth as witness. The second faces south with hands open which means giving. The third faces west meaning meditation. The fourth faces north which signifies reassurance. The fifth means teaching and the last is the circle of life.

Borobudur was built in the 8th century and was founded in 1814, after being forgotten for almost 800 years. It was a great Buddhist empire but in the 9th century, the Buddhist moved due to the internal war and the volcanic eruption in 1006. When the people found Borobudur, the temple was buried and was destroyed because the stones were simply stacked and was not strong. Ever since 1991, UNESCO claimed Borobudur as a world heritage site and now it is secured.

The stairway that brings you to Nirvana

Water drainage system

Borobudur has 9 levels of which 6 are squared and 3 are circular. The 9 levels of Borobudur are categorized into 3 divisions. The first level represents Kamadathu (world of desire), the second to the seventh level represents Rupadhatu (world of forms) and the last two levels represent Arupadathu (formless world).

The first level shows reliefs of desire but most of the reliefs are covered with stones to support the monument and because it contains ponographic content.

On the first level, there's a total of 160 desires of which 52 are positive attitudes and 108 are negative attitudes.

Narrow corridor with reliefs of Buddha's story

Scene of when Buddha was born

The second level shows the life of Buddha. Buddha was born on 524 BC in Lumbini Garden, Kathmandu. Before he was born as human, Buddha was born in many kinds of animal form. Immediately, when Sidharta was born, he could stand up, speak and walk 7 steps with a lotus flower growing out of each step and was given the name Sidharta Gautama. He then became Buddha after meditating under a tree.

In total, there are 72 stupas. The first item of a stupa is the close of monk, second is the lotus flower, third is the upside down rice bowl and last is a walking stick. The rice bowl and the walking stick came from Buddha's life after he was aware of suffering and when he died.

The diamond-shaped holes in the stupas symbolize instability while the square holes symbolize stability.

The biggest stupa on top of Borobudur contains no hole and it is empty unlike the rest of the stupas because Buddhists believe that no one is perfect.

Now, Borobudur is honored not only because it is a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture but also because it shows an outstanding example of Indonesia's art and architecture from the 8th century. It is now protected so that no one will be able to steal and because it is an extremely important place for Buddhists.

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Borobudur was the place that gave me a sense of satisfaction and joy. I was happy to find out about why the temple was built in such a way, what the story is behind the reliefs, as well as a lot of knowledge into Buddhist which was very captivating and fascinating. Never did I know why some of the stupas had diamond shaped holes or squared holes or why was there a big, empty stupa in the center if I had not been to Borobudur. Furthermore, before visiting Borobudur, I have always thought that Borobudur was circular shaped.