Candi Borobudur
Located in the village of Borobudhur, West of Muntilan, and around 20kms south of Magelang. Muntilan is 42km NW of Yogyakarta.
Construction:
Built in four different stages, begun as a Hindu temple, and transformed into a Buddhist place of worship after its second stage.
The temple is Mahayana buddhist, and the name of the temple has been translated to mean: "Mountain of accumulation of merits of the ten states of Buddhisattva"
Borobudhur has a diameter of 123m across the axes and including the reinforcing pedestal. currently, it has a height of 31.5m, this would have been around 42m when its pinnacle was still intact. It is built in the shape of a large stupa, its structure representing the three spheres of the Buddhist cosmology:
The reliefs at Borobudhur reinforce the meaning of each sphere.
The Kamadhatu was covered by a broad base at a time when many reliefs had not yet been completed. For this reason, it is almost certain that the base was not part of the original plan (prudes propagated the notion that the carnal scenes of the everyday world should not sully the eyes of the pilgrims) but added later to reinforce the base against the weight of the temple.
The Borobudhur has a total of 1460 reliefs depicting scenes from eleven stories, not all of which have been identified. the reliefs should be viewed from the East side, and one should walk holding the monument to the right. Interspersed between the reliefs are 1212 decorative panels. The panels, in addition to telling the stories outlined below, also contain interesting information about contemporary life. Follow this link to read more about
musical instruments displayed on them.Kamadhatu: 160 covered base reliefs illustrate scenes of everyday life, scenes in hell, the torture of sinners and scenes in heaven. The series show the karmawidhangga, the illustration of the law of karma (cause and effect). The base is covered except at the south-eastern side. Coverage necessary to support the enlarged structure on top, or according to others for moral reasons: the profane should not be shown. Inscriptions have been found above some of the reliefs with instructions to the sculptors about the scene to be carved, this suggests that the base was covered before the work was completed - elsewhere on the monument no such instructions have been found.
Rupadhatu: reliefs with stories from Sanskrit manuscripts: Gandhawyuha, Lalitawistara, Jataka and Awadana. Ornamental designs along the edges: kalamakara, foliage, spirals & flowers.
Arupadhatu: no reliefs nor ornament, a world for meditation. The circular terraces have no beginning and no end.
Built in the shape of a stupa, many stupa adorn the structure starting from the solid central stupa at the top of the monument. Around it are arranged 72 stupas in open lattice work each housing one Buddha. A further 1472 stupa adorn the Rupadhatu. Additionally, the Rupadhatu houses 432 niches with Buddhas that can be found from the first storey upwards. The statues depict the various manifestations of Buddha, and these differ per layer and orientations.
First storey facing outward: statues of Manushi Buddhas, who manifest themselves in the world
Niches surrounding the three lower galleries: Dhyani buddhas with specific mudra
Attributes: All the Buddha statues have an uncovered right shoulder when Buddha is in sitting position and an undergarment which is visible at his legs.
The existence of the Borobudhur was known to the Javanese even before Raffles' visit as witnessed by references to "redi Borobudhur" in the Babad Tanah Jawa (Mas Dana who rebelled against Pakubuwana I was captured there 1709-1710) and elsewhere. Interest in the Borobudhur greatly increased after 1814 when Cornelius visits Borobudhur at the behest of Raffles, who heard of the ruins existence in Semarang. With 200 men and in 1.5 months he uncovers the monument. Starting with Sieburgh in1837, painters and photographers visited the monument, driven by their own interest or as part of official missions such as Wilsen and Schoenberg Mueller in 1948-53. The first photographs were taken in 1845 by Schaeffer, but it was Van Kinsbergen's careful and artistic work of 1873 that was to become famous and inspire Gauguin's work. The stream of interested visitors continues unabated leading to the discovery of the hidden base by IJzerman in 1885. The plethora of sculpture attracted collectors, and even the Government believed there was plenty so that when King Chulalongkorn of Siam visited in 1896 he was given five Dhyani Buddha, two lions, a makara gargoyle, lion-heads from staircase wings, kala heads &c. The Borobudhur display at the Exposition Mondial in Paris in 1900 added to the temple's fame, and in that year a Committee was inaugurated and charged with advising the Government about the restauration of the Borobudhur.
The Borobudhur Committee was chaired by Brandes and included the then still unknown 2nd Lieutenant van Erp who was to supervise and lead the actual restoration. Working with a budget of F48,000 (to which later F10,000 was added for photography), van Erp's work focussed in the first instance on improving the sewerage works, making urgent repairs and a partial restoration. As work progressed many stones and sculptures found their way back to the monument from the village.
In the second stage of the restoration, starting in 1909, the focus moved beyond urgent repairs and the "reunion of that what time had separated" to recreating the elements that were key to building, to recapture the thought that motivated its construction". In so doing, van Erp's approach did not allow for the creation of what was never there, instead he aimed to recapture the strong horizontal lines of the upper plinths of the main walls, and the visual reverberation of the power of repetition emanating from the niches topping these walls.
Van Erp in his restoration moved beyond the prevention of further decay and stopped well short of recreating what was not there. His careful work and the continued focus on the whole, rather than series of minute details alone made his restoration exemplary, and his approach laid the foundation - though be it with a lag - for future work.
In 1968 a large scale renewed renovation was undertaken in which the foundation was further strengthened, and (rain) water treatment improved. This restoration was completed in 1983 when the temple was reopened in a new park setting.