Historical Records
Borobudur stands in the geographical center of the island of Java, fifteen miles from Yogyakarta, on a plateau that is the caldera of an ancient volcano ringed by the Menoreh mountains. Two sets of twin volcanoes – Merapi and Merbabu to the northeast, Sumbing and Sindoro to the northwest – stand sentinel across the plains. Merapi, the "fire mountain," is active.
A legend is told of a heavenly architect who built Borobudur in a single day and laid a curse on anyone who dared ascend his holy shrine. According to Asian art historian, Jan Fontein: "There is a mountain south of Borobudur that when viewed from the
monument looks very much like the profile of a man; the nose, lips and chin are clearly delineated. The story goes that the ridge depicts Gunadharma, the architect of Borobudur, who is believed to keep watch over his creation through the ages."
There were only two fleeting references to Borobudur in historical reports of the 18th century. The first recorded visitor to Borobudur was a rebel who fled to the mountain called Bara-Budur in 1709 after leading an attempt to usurp the throne from the Sultan of Matara. The Sultan sent troops who surrounded the mountain, captured him and sent him to be executed.
The next documented visitor to the monument was the heir apparent of Yogyakarta, a defiant young prince who had a reputation for rebellious and depraved behavior. In 1758, he set out to visit the "mountain of a thousand statues" against the advice of a prophecy that royalty who climbed the mountain would die. When he did not return to court, the king sent his men to bring back the wayward son. He was found vomiting blood and soon after died.
But records revealed no consensus on the meaning of the name "Borobudur." Two alternatives were proposed based on Javanese manuscripts from 842 AD: "the mountain of the accumulation of virtue on the ten stages of the Bodhisattva," or "the mountain which is terraced in successive stages." Sir Thomas Raffles, the British governor of Indonesia responsible for the excavation of Borobudur in 1814, thought that "boro" might mean "great" and "budur" might correspond to the more modern Javanese word "buda," interpreted as "The Great Buddha." One Javanese expert indicated that "boro" is related to the word for "monastery," and "budur" is a place name. This would suggest that Borobudur means "Monastery of Budur."
Fortunately, because of the native tolerance of religious diversity, many of the monuments of Java were simply abandoned rather than destroyed or defaced, and a cloud of mystery and superstition descended on Borobudur.
Borobudur revealed
Built from nearly two million stone blocks of andesite, a bluish-gray volcanic stone, Borobudur is shaped like a stepped pyramid, the base of which is 402 feet long from north to south and 383 feet long from east to west; the height is now 95 feet above ground level. The colossal monument consists of six rectangular terraces topped by three concentric circular terraces.
Four of the terraces are galleries, each enclosed by a balustrade and an inner wall, open to the sky and carved with sculptures.
At first sight, the square galleries are an overwhelming mass of images depicting the activities of gods and mortals carved in the dark volcanic stone along the wide processional paths. There are more than 1,300 narrative panels illustrating the life of Buddha and Buddhist texts, the largest and most complete collection of Buddhist reliefs in the world. Originally, there were over 500 statues of the Buddha,( In 1896, the Dutch gave the King Chulalongkorn of Siam eight wagon loads of statues and bas-reliefs, including five of the best Buddhas and two complete lions) 432 seated in lotus position on the square terraces and 72 meditating inside the bell-shaped stupas on the top terraces. There are no elaborate carvings on these three upper levels.
Sir Thomas Raffles, the British governor of Indonesia responsible for the excavation of Borobudur in 1814, speculated that Borobudur may have originally been a holy place of pilgrimage for believers of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism.
Monks from the nearby monastery would have led pilgrims along the galleries, using the carved panels to illustrate the stories of their faith and the way of the Buddha as they circled their way to the top of the monument.
Lacking further historical information, Raffles was unable to determine the exact date of Borobudur's construction. But he knew that in the 13th and 14th centuries, Islam had replaced Buddhism as the island's religion, and he thought it unlikely that Borobudur would have been built since then. Also, ancient records showed that in the 10th century, the region around Borobudur had been mysteriously deserted, and all construction in central Java had stopped then. From the detailed carvings, Raffles concluded that Borobudur had been built sometime between the eighth and tenth centuries, during a period of relative peace in East Asia, after the nomadic and religious invasions had run out of steam.
No one knows what happened to the culture that built the monument. Perhaps Merapi had erupted, choking the rice lands with layers of volcanic ash. Whatever the cause, the population moved to East Java in a mass exodus, and Borobudur was left behind, its meaning lost in time.
Building Borobudur
Based on inscriptions found on some of the stones of the monument, archaeologists agree that construction of Borobudur was probably begun around 760 AD and completed by about 830, the Golden Age of the Sailendra dynasty, under the reign of King Samaratunga. Sailendras were of foreign origin, either from South India or from Indo-China, and ruled Sumatra and Java from the 8th through the 13th centuries. Under their rule, the islands were major centers of Buddhist scholarship. The Javanese had been carving stone statues and inscriptions since about 400 AD, but between 700 and 900 AD, many of the Island's greatest shrines were erected.
Javanese society of that time must have been healthy and wealthy enough to support an endeavor such as the building of Borobudur. It would have required plentiful manpower to haul the stone – as much as 45,700 cubic yards taken from nearby streams and rivers, all fitted perfectly together without mortar. Skilled craftsmen would have been needed to carve the images, which were completed after the stones were in place, and abundant agricultural resources to provide food.
By the middle of the 9th century, Borobudur was completed with a large monastery at the southwest foot of the hill. "Today it takes a trained eye to see Borobudur from a distance," says Asian art historian, Jan Fontein.
"But we know that, in ancient times, this stone was covered with a kind of white plaster – called "plaster as hard as diamond" or "vajalaypa" – which may have been a base for colors and just as the pilgrim who went to Chartres saw the cathedral rise up from miles away, so the pilgrim who came to Borobudur may have seen the monument in ancient times, hours before he reached it."
Records from the 9th and 10th centuries show that Borobudur was a center of pilgrimage for about 150 years during a short but intense period of Buddhism. Chinese coins and ceramics found at Borobudur from the 11th to the 15th centuries suggest that pilgrims continued to visit Borobudur during that time.
Nature Takes A Toll
But during the 19th century, as Borobudur's past became more clear, its future grew much less certain. The climate of Java is particularly ruthless to man-made structures. In the words of Professor Soekmono, former head of the Archeological Service of Indonesia: "For over a thousand years, the rigours of the tropical climate have probed the latent weaknesses of the edifice. Sudden changes of heat and cold between day and night, where temperatures may vary by 40 degrees Fahrenheit in twenty-four hours, cause stones to crack. But the worst havoc has been caused by the heavy rains, over eighty inches a year on average, with torrential downpours of up to half an inch in five minutes. They overwhelmed the inadequate drainage system, percolating down into the central core where they washed away the earth and weakened the foundations."
"Moisture on the stones had also corroded many of the beautifully carved reliefs and favored the growth of disfiguring patches of mosses and lichens. The terrace walls sagged and tilted at crazy angles and the floors sloped inwards. Had the lower terrace walls collapsed, the whole colossal structure would have come tumbling down in a great slithering avalanche of earth and masonry."
Nature itself was destroying the monument, literally tearing Borobudur apart. Despite repeated efforts at restoration throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, major decay and structural disintegration plainly threatened Borobudur with inevitable and irreparable collapse. Several interesting suggestions for protection of the monument were made during that time. One of the preservationists suggested that Borobudur be covered by a giant umbrella to keep the rain off. Another proposal was to demolish the entire edifice and deposit the reliefs in a museum.
In 1907, Theodore Van Erp, a Dutch engineering officer, led a major restoration project. He rebuilt the crumbling stupas and heaving floors of the upper terraces, cleaning the sculptures of moss and lichen. But after four years, the limited funds were exhausted before work could begin on the lower galleries, and the basic problem of drainage had not been solved. Carvings were rapidly disintegrating; walls were crumbling.
By 1948, when the Republic of Indonesia came into existence, Borobudur was on the brink of ruin. According to Soekmono, "Deterioration was so widespread all over the monument that no partial restoration could effectively ensure its safeguard. Since the Indonesian people were determined to pass on the best of their cultural heritage to forthcoming generations, drastic but deliberate action was called for in the form of a gigantic project."
But it would be several decades before attention would again turn to Borobudur.
Saving Borobudur
There was once a terrible drought, and a Brahman told the King he would have to sacrifice one hundred living beings to bring it to an end. Unable to do this, the King proclaimed that he would select the necessary victims from among his worst subjects. At this news, his subjects all became virtuous, and the drought stopped. (a story told in the panels of Borobudur)
In 1948, in the face of imminent disaster, the newly formed Republic of Indonesia made preservation of its deep and diverse cultural heritage a central priority. In 1965, Indonesia asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for advise on ways to counteract the problem of weathering at Borobudur and other monuments. In 1968 Professor Soekmono, then head of the Archeological Service of Indonesia, launched his "Save Borobudur" campaign, persistent in his efforts to organize a massive restoration project.
In the 1970's, with the help of UNESCO, money, resources and professionals from twenty-seven countries were gathered together for the monumental effort to save the ancient temple. A bold plan was developed: to dismantle and rebuild the five square terraces from the base up; to clean each of the stones; and to reinforce the foundation, at the same time installing an efficient drainage system behind the walls and under the floors of the galleries.
The top levels of the monument would remain in place, but every other terrace, gallery, carved panel and decorative detail was to be taken apart – stone-by-stone.
In 1975, the actual work began. Over one million stones were moved during the course of restoration, and set aside like pieces of a massive jig-saw puzzle to be individually identified, catalogued, cleaned and treated for preservation. Borobudur became a testing ground for new conservation techniques, new procedures to battle the microorganisms eating away at the stone. Using state of the art techniques, experts in engineering, chemistry, biology and archeology all shared their skills to solve the multitude of problems.
The monument was closed to public for ten years. The restoration cost twenty-five million dollars and took eight years of labor and unprecedented international cooperation to complete. The day-to-day work was led by Soekmono, who personified the spirit of Borobudur and international cooperation as he worked with his colleagues.
"Indonesia was lucky to have such an outstanding scholar as head of this whole operation," says Asian art historian, Jan Fontein.
"He resigned from the archeological service to spend ten years of his life on the restoration of Borobudur. He always had his eye on the future, on the training of Indonesian archeologists to rebuild the other temples, and when you see what has been achieved in the last fifteen years in the restoration of monuments in Indonesia, one cannot fail to be enormously impressed. But all this started with the restoration of Borobudur."
"It's kind of unusual, you know, that you should start with the toughest and the most difficult of all the tasks. But that was the program in which the people who now restore monuments got their training. I have seen most of the other great Buddhist monuments in Asia, and I still think that the combination of spirituality, intellect, design and architecture have been welded together so harmoniously and so flawlessly that there is no other monument that is as beautiful as Borobudur."
The modern restoration techniques learned at Borobudur set the standards of preservation for future efforts throughout the world. Today at Borobudur, the work of archeologists and local stone carvers continues, using traditional Javanese methods to repair and replace the many damaged sculptures, including more than a few headless Buddhas.
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