Borobudur

We visited Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world and Indonesia’s most visited tourist attraction.

Built in the 9th century out of gray volcanic rock, it was abandoned around the 14th century and rediscovered in the 1800s. It has been restored several times since its rediscovery, and is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

After waking up at 4am, taking in the sunrise, visiting Chicken Church, and eating breakfast, we proceeded to visit this awe-inspiring architectural wonder.

Visits to the temple are limited to 1,200 people per day. Each group must be accompanied by a guide. We waited 10 minutes or so for our tour to start.
Everyone must wear these bamboo sandals, which are meant to preserve the stone and slow down the wear and tear by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
Not bad looking, really!
Our guide telling stories about the construction, history, and symbolic and spiritual aspects of the temple.
We rented umbrellas for $2. It was smoking hot! (Krista would like to clarify that Fin was under the umbrella for most of it!)
Getting closer.
We arrive at the base of the temple. It is shaped like a pyramid with nine platforms. The lower six are square in shape and upper three are cicular. Unlike other pyramids, Borobudur is built atop a natural hill. Its foundations may predate the Buddhist kingdom on Java and may have been constructed by a still older Javanese culture.
Each platform has four stairway entrances at the cardinal directions. We entered from the East. The stairs are steep, and each step is quite tall.
Who are you lookin at?
Borodudur is decorated with thousands of relief panels depicting scenes from Buddhist legends and stories.
Buddha is always sitting on a lotus, and differ in the position of the hands, called the mudra. Borodudur has six different mudras represented which are grouped together by the cardinal directon of the temple where the relief is located.
The various shades of stone make a kind of checkerboard pattern.
The sky was glorious, with great views in all directions.
It’s ok to lose your head!
Endless little corners to explore, we could have easily spent twice as long.
Approaching the upper levels, which represent formlessness, perfection and ultimately, nirvana
Each bell shaped stupa contains a Buddha statue.
There are 72 smaller stupas surrounding a single large central stupa. The central stupa is empty, and it is unknown whether it contained a statue at some point.
Fin toughing it out in the heat.
The base of each stupa is a lotus flower.
Just vibing.
This stupa comes with a convertible top for sunny days.
All of the Buddhas on the top platform have hands in the Dharmachakra mudra, which means “turning the wheel of dharma”.
The large stupa is the center and pinnacle of Borobudur.
Mixed feelings heading to the exit as we were overheated but also it felt like there was so much to see.
Looking up from the west side.
So cool! Hard to find words to describe the feeling of being there.
Bye bye, Borobudur.
On the way out we saw a “graveyard” of stones that have not found a place in the temple. The process of restoring the temple involved much dissasembling and reassembling, and not every stone has found a home. It’s a testament to the enormous effort spent to preserve this place.

We had been to nirvana, but our day wasn’t over yet. We drove another hour or so to see another ancient temple and UNESCO site, Prambanan! Stay tuned.

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