Item From the Past: Borobudur

I didn't make many notes about our visit to Borobudur 15 years ago.

August 11, 1994. "Up at 4:45 to see Borobudur. Not really 'at sunrise' as advertised, but arrived close enough, at 6 a.m., when it was still fairly cool and fairly quiet. Not many other people around. A marvel of construction, long ago, and a marvel of reconstruction by UNESCO, not so long ago."

But, as usual, it isn't hard to find a good description. From Buddhanet: "[Borobudur] is of uncertain age, but thought to have been built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century A.D. For about a century and a half it was the spiritual centre of Buddhism in Java, then it was lost until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.

"The structure, composed of 55,000 square meters of lava-rock, is erected on a hill in the form of a stepped-pyramid of six rectangular storeys, three circular terraces and a central stupa forming the summit. The whole structure is in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha.

"For each direction there are ninety-two Dhyani Buddha statues and 1,460 relief scenes. The lowest level has 160 reliefs depicting cause and effect; the middle level contains various stories of the Buddha's life from the Jataka Tales; the highest level has no reliefs or decorations whatsoever but has a balcony, square in shape with round walls: a circle without beginning or end. Here is the place of the ninety-two Vajrasattvas or Dhyani Buddhas tucked into small stupas."

Best of all, a small admission allows you, if you happen to have come to Java, to wander around all the levels of the complex, as the morning fog slowly burns away. Though in awe, I can't pretend I understood very much of what I saw. But if I let a little thing like that stand in my way, I'd never go anywhere.

Better pictures than we took are also freely available, too.