Search More

Sunday, July 10, 2011

INDONESIA : The Borobudur temple, the world's largest Buddhist worship site

The Borobudur temple is the largest and oldest Buddhist sites of religious worship in the world. Borobudur temple is located 40 km north of Yogyakarta, 7 km south of Magelang, Central Java. in Indonesia. Borobudur temple save millions of mystery and religious history of the largest archives. Some books mention that the Borobudur temple was built during the syailendra dynasty.

Borobudur was built around the year 800 AD or the 9th century. Borobudur was built by the adherents of Mahayana Buddhism during the reign of syailendra dynasty. This temple was built in the heyday syailendra dynasty. The founder of the Borobudur Temple, King Samaratungga from civilization or syailendra dynasty. The possibility of this temple was built around 824 AD and was completed around the year 900 AD during the reign of Queen Pramudawardhani who is the daughter of Samaratungga. While the architects who contributed to build this temple according to the story of hereditary named Gunadharma.
 

Borobudur own words based on the first written evidence which was written by Sir Thomas Stamford
The statues outside of  Borobudur temple
Raffles, Governor General of the United Kingdom in Java, which gives the name of this temple. There is no written evidence that the older name in this temple of Borobudur. Only one of the oldest documents that show the existence of this temple is Nagarakretagama book, written by mpu Prapanca in 1365. In the book is written that this temple was used as a place of Buddhist meditation. 
Meaning of the name Borobudur is "monastery in the hills", which comes from the word "coal" (temple or monastery) and "beduhur" (hills or high places) in Sanskrit. Therefore, in accordance with the meaning of the name Borobudur, then this place long ago used as a place of Buddhist worship.
Borobudur temple conditions during World War I

This temple for centuries are no longer used. Then because of volcanic eruptions, most of the buildings covered with volcanic soil Borobudur. In addition, the building is also covered with various trees and shrubs for centuries. Then the building of this temple began in the days of forgotten Islam arrived in Indonesia around the 15th century. 
In 1814 when the British occupied Indonesia, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles heard of the discovery of huge archaeological objects in the village of Magelang Bumisegoro. Due to the great interest the history of Java, then immediately ordered Raffles HC Cornelius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate the location of the discovery which was a hill covered with shrubs.Cornelius assisted by about 200 men cut trees and remove shrubs that covered the giant building. Because the
one of the carvings on the Borobudur temple
building considering the already fragile and could collapse, then report to the Raffles Cornelius invention includes several images. Since that discovery, Raffles was awarded as the man who started the restoration of Borobudur and the attention of the world. In 1835, the entire area of ​​the temple has been unearthed. The temple is kept restored in the Dutch colonial period.

After Indonesia gained its independence, in 1956, the Indonesian government requested the assistance of UNESCO to examine the damage to Borobudur. Then in 1963, out of the official Indonesian government's decision to conduct the restoration of Borobudur temple with the help of UNESCO. However, this restoration was only really started on August 10, 1973. The process of restoration was recently completed in 1984. Since 1991, Borobudur designated as World Heritage or World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

No comments:

Post a Comment