Travel-Indonesia, Borobudur Temple

In Central Java, Indonesia lies one of the greatest and supposedly largest Buddhist temples in the world, containing almost 2 million stone blocks.  During our trip to Yogyakarta, detailed in this post and continued in this post, we saw many amazing and interesting sights.  The highlight of the visit, however, was our early morning exploration of the Borobudur Temple.  Built between AD 750 and 842, almost 300 years before Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, Borobudur was hidden and actually “lost” for centuries covered by layers of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Merapi.  It was finally discovered again in 1814 and throughout the past century work has continued to restore this great monument.

Borobudur is built as a 3-D mandala (a concentric diagram) separated into three tiers representing the universe through Buddhist cosmology.  The first and bottom level is a pyramid base with five concentric square terraces known as Kamadhatu (world of desire), the second level is the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms known as Ruphadatu (world of forms) and the top of the temple, a monumental stupa, is Arupadhatu (world of formlessness).  On the top tier sits 72 stupas that circle the massive main stupa…this represents the eternity without a beginning or an end, a tranquil and pure state of the formless world.

The day we visited Borobudur we hired a driver, drove about an hour from the city of Yogyakarta, and arrived at the temple before dawn.  Arriving during early morning is highly recommended to avoid crowds and most importantly to experience the beauty of the temple as the sun rises and glistens against the millions of stone carvings.  Unfortunately, the day we visited it was quite foggy, but we were still able to experience the temple in all its glory.

The sun begins to rise.  That’s Mount Merapi in the background.

Of course I brought my Loubous (my nickname for my Louboutins)…

 Walking around the temple tiers and looking up at the stupas.

And the amazing carvings…

 Monks praying; other visitors burning incense…

As we walked away, I took this last picture of the fog enveloping the massive temple once again.