Borobudur, Central Java

The layout

Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, is a World Heritage site which has often been included in the list of the Seven Wonders of the World and little wonder; it's got to be one of the most incredible structures I've ever set eyes upon. It's a ninth century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java and the monument consists of six square platforms topped by three circular ones with 72 Buddha statues seated inside bell-shaped stupas.

The temple is a massive step pyramid structure made from giant stone blocks and is built on a hill surrounded by valleys and hills and an active volcano. The nine levels rise up representing the stages of enlightenment with over two and a half thousand relief panels and 500 Buddha statues throughout.

 

 

Built between 750 and 842 AD, this makes it's completion some 300 years before Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and 400 years before work began on the great European cathedrals. However, some time in the tenth century, a shift in power from central to west Java left it abandoned and forgotten under ash and growth until 1814 when Sir Thomas Raffles rediscovered it and commissioned the site to be cleared. At this stage, it was in a very poor state but more restorations took place in the early twentieth century then a complete overhaul in the 70's and 80's. 

 

Photographs taken prior to these last restorations show piles of blocks heaped in total disarray making one wonder how they even knew what it was supposed to look like. 

 

 

Several of the relief panels show galleons at sea and at the end of the last century, a full-sized replica was built which sailed from Java, across the Indian Ocean, down the coast of South Africa and on up to Ghana where it was dismantled and rebuilt inside the Borobudur museum. What a journey that must have been. 

The following photographs help tell what I simply cannot put into words.  I know there are too many but I didn't know where to begin or end.

PHOTO ALBUM:

(many of the more professional looking photos were taken by Kerstin of Lop To)

Rice paddies in Central Java