Ascending Ever Closer To Heaven. Java's Magnificent Borobudur Temple.
It is just on 4.00 am and I have climbed to the highest point of Borobudur, a 9th-century monument in Magalang central Java Indonesia, the world's largest Buddhist temple.
I have braved the morning chill along with a few other intrepid early- risers and sit in the pre-dawn darkness waiting for the sun to rise and, given that the conditions are ideal, it promises to be spectacular.
As the sun’s light begins to creep ever slowly over the horizon we are able to make out the perfectly formed cone of Indonesia’s most active volcano, Merabu-Merapi, whose smoking summit provides a stunning backdrop to one of the most amazing wonders of the ancient world. Now, as the sun peeks over the horizon, flooding the lush valley with its soft light, we are able to see just exactly where we are; it is truly breathtaking!
I am sitting atop one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world, a structure so vast that it’s almost indescribable. The temple itself consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a massive central dome. The walls are decorated with 2,672 relief panels each one different and 504 Buddha statues. On the top is a massive central dome, surrounded by 72 large Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.
Built in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty the temple's design followed the Javanese Buddhist architecture of the time, blending the Indonesian indigenous cult of Ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana.
What is astonishing about this huge structure is that it lay hidden under jungle and volcanic ash for nearly seven hundred years!
Java was under British administration from 1811 to 1816 and it’s appointed governor at the time was Lieutenant Governor General Thomas Stanford Raffles, who took great interest in the history of Java. He collected Javanese antiques and made notes through contacts with local inhabitants during his tours throughout the island. On an inspection tour to Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big monument hidden deep in a jungle near the village of Bumisegoro. He was not able to make the discovery himself and so sent H.C. Cornelius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate.
Over the course of two months, Cornelius and his 200 men cut down trees, and dug away the earth until finally, they were able to see just what exactly they had ‘discovered.’ In terms of sheer size, it compared to the great pyramids of Giza. Surprisingly, there is no written record of who actually built Borobudur or of its intended purpose. The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years and was completed during the reign of Samaratungga.
Archaeologists have estimated that the temple was completed sometime during the late eighth or early ninth century and then, after all these years of toil it was suddenly abandoned. It can only be assumed that at that time Marapi underwent one of it's more violent eruptions covering the entire structure under tons of ash and it was simply a matter of time before the jungle took over.
The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the temple that ascends to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology. Pilgrims climb through an extensive system of stairways and corridors adorned with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades of which Borobudur has the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world.
Borobudur is one of the most awe-inspiring man-made structures I have ever had the privilege to see. The sheer size of it is simply jaw-dropping, sitting as it does atop a fairly large hill. For starters that hill would have had to have been levelled flat before the actual temple could have been built and, one must remember that all of the work would have been done by hand! Thousands of Masons, designers, labourers and engineers would have lived on site creating an entire city while the structure was under construction along with wives children merchants and a variety of business supporting the construction team. And then, upon completion, once this magnificent structure was finished, everybody simply vanished!
Today, Borobudur receives more visitors than any other attraction in Indonesia, some sixty thousand every day! This high volume of tourists and pilgrims, who all ascend Borobudur's narrow stairs, have caused severe wear, eroding the ancient stone surfaces and made them thinner and smoother. Overall, Borobudur has 2,033 surfaces of stone stairs and about 49 per cent are now severely damaged.
To avoid further wear and tear two main sections of Borobudur stairs are now covered with wooden structures, which seem to be doing an adequate job of preservation. A similar technique has been used to protect the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia and the Pyramids in Giza. Recently at Borobudur, there was talk of supplying all visitors with special sandals to cut down on the wear and tear, but the cost of supplying 12 million pairs per year would have proven prohibitive,
Writing articles about places like Borobudur is easy but no words can adequately describe the majesty of a structure such as this and even my photographs don’t really do it justice. One really has to see for oneself just how spectacular it actually is.
So, when visiting Indonesia remember that there is a whole lot more to see than just the beaches of Bali.
Photographs copyright Paul v Walters.
