Borobudur Temple

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The Buddhist temple called Borobudur is just outside the city of Yogjakarta. It was built between AD750 to AD 850 by the Sailendra Dynasty. Borobudur loosely means "Buddhist monastery on a hill." It was abandoned soon after completion and then covered in volcanic ash over the next few centuries, until it was finally rediscovered in 1815. Since then it has undergone numerous restoration periods, became a UNESCO world heritage site, and was even bombed on its top tiers in 1985 by political radicals. Today it's so famous it has up to 90,000 visitors on a holiday. And I bet you never heard of it until today, did you? :)

About the structure itself: It is built from 2 million stone blocks with a 118m by 118m base. The symmetrical stupa has 6 square terraces topped by 3 circular terraces, with 4 staircases leading to the top. From the air, Borobudur looks like a 3D tantric mandala (symbolic circular figure) and some think it was first used as a walk-through mandala by Trantric Buddhists. Each tier is covered in stone reliefs that tell the story of man in everyday world and spiraling upwards towards nirvana. To view the story, you should walk clockwise for 5km! The stone detail was very exquisite, and apparently once was covered in paint as well.

To enter the temple, you must wear a sarong, both men and women. We all got identical black and white sarongs. I started my way towards the top, but it was very very slow going, and not why you think. It turns out that local Indonesian schools use Borobudur as a field trip, and sends its kids with a homework assignment: interview and take a photograph with a foreigner. Oh Lord, do you know how many times I had my picture taken with 10 boys and girls? Do you know how many synonyms I invented for "good" to answer all their questions in an expeditious manner? Neither do I, but I know I hadn't even made it to the stairs in 30 minutes! I started cutting the interviews short, and ran up the steps. The crowd thinned out in the middle layers, and I was able to explore in short bursts of peace. All us "foreigners" just looked at each other and shook our heads in a "what in tarnation??" expression.

I made it to the top, where there were lovely views of the countryside. The top of the stupa had 72 Buddha images only partly visible in latticed stupas, and one is even considered lucky! I think because it is uncovered, or maybe because it still has its head. You'd be surprised how many heads go missing. The way down was a lot shorter (the children mostly ignored me, ouch my ego!) and then I just had to wade my way through the miles of vendor stalls back towards my ride.

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