The History OF Borobudur Temple
Borobudur is one of seven miracles in the world.
It is located at South of Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. 10km north west of
Yogyakarta. Borobudur was built by Sanmaratungga in the 8th Century, and
belongs to Buddha Mayahana. Borobudur was revealed by Sir Thomas Stanford
Raffles in 1814. The temple was found in ruined condition and was buried.
Nobody knows how this very big temple could be buried by hundreds years. But,
in the villager near the temple source, the temple was burried by the lava from
Mount Merapi, one of the most active mountain in the world. So, there weren’t
any people could find it.
The expression of experts who had been studying
Borobudur Temple varied someway. Bernet Kempers’ expression was: “Borobudur is
Borobudur”, meaning that Borobudur Temple is very unique in her own way.
Nieuwenkamp (an artist) imaginated Borobuduras “a big lotus flower bud ready to
bloom” which was “floating” on a lake. Nieuwenkamp’s imagination was supported
by N. Rangkuti (1987) that from the air, the Borobudur Temple looks floating.
From the geological studies, experts were able to prove that Borobudur area was
one time a big lake. Most of the villages around Borobudur Templewere at the
same altitude, 235 meters above the sea-level. The same altitude included the
Pawon and Mendut temples. Thus the area under 235 meter altitude was below the
lake water level.
Based on the inscription dated 842 AD, Casparis
suggested that Borobudur was one time a place for praying. The inscription
stated a phrase such as: “Kawulan i Bhumi Sambhara”. Kawulan means the origin
of holiness, “bhumi sambhara” is a name of a place in Borobudur. Paul Mus
stated that Borobudur Temple had the structure of stupa (conical form) with
double expression. As a whole, the Borobudur Temple was an open-flat stupa, but
on the other hand, the temple expressed the idea of a “closed world”. The
latter expression could be felt when one is already inside the temple. Whenever
person is inside the temple, his or her view will be limited to high walls full
on relieves, the verandah is always squared in such a way that one could not
see other parts of the temple, even in a same floor. The same feeling happened
if one stood on arupadhatu round platform, he or she will have a wider view
only on that level, but are not able to see the lower level nor the upper level
like the one on rupadhatu and kamandhatu. It could be said that Borobudur is a
symbol of cosmic mountain covered by the sky roof, a specific world that could
be reached through isolated alleys as stages. The closed structural design of
the temple expressed the concept of a closed world, not just a technical
reasons as had been suggested by other experts ( Daud AT, 1987)
Borobudur was built by Sanmaratungga in the 8th
century, and belongs to Buddha Mahayana. Borobudur was revealed Raffles in 1814.
The temple was found in ruined condition and was buried.
The overall height was 42 meters, but was only
34.5 meters after restoration, and had the dimension of 123 x 123 meters
(15,129 square meters). There were 10 floors. The first floor up to the sixth
floor was square form, the seventh to the tenth floor were round form.
Borobudur is facing to the East with a total of
1460 panels (2 meters wide each). Total size of the temple walls was 2500
square meters, full of relief. The total number of panels with relief was 1212.
According to investigations, the total number of Buddha statue was 504
including the intact and damaged statues. The temple undergone restoration from
1905 to 1910, and the last restoration was done in 1973 to 1983.
But today, the Indonesia country can be so proud
because they have very interesting and very beautifull temple in the world.
Borobudur temple.
