Borobudur is one of the attractive monuments in Central Java. It is located in the regency of Magelang. It is about 41 km from Yogyakarta. The site of Borobudur is ideal. It beautifully surrounded by hills, on the north and northeast by the mount Merapi and Merbabu, on the northwest by mount Sumbing and Sundara.
Borobudur is a Buddhist temple. It designed by the ancient Javanese architect. The Syailendra Dinasty built it in the ninth century. It consists of several storeys. They form terraces with their stupas carved with a lot of interesting reliefs. The reliefs depict the life of Buddha Gautama and sacred stories of Buddhism. It is not easy to recognise the stories or the scenes in the reliefs. Because firstly the sculptures and the designs did not keep the original manuscript in executing their work, secondly techniques of carving obscured the meaning of the reliefs. It could be because the sculpture did not make any differences between the deserve personalities for example, kings or Gods, Brahmans or priests. The sculptures did not carve their spesifics outstanding personalities.
There are many stupas. One of them is the main stupa. It is the biggest of all. It is located in the top of the temple. According the Buddhist cosmology, this universe divided into three major parts. They are Kamadhatu, Rupadhatu, and Arupadhatu. Kamadhatu is the phenomenal world for common people. The reliefs here depict the scenes of karmawibangga. It means the law of cause and effect. We can see them in the southeastern at the base of the temple.
Rupadhatu is the transitional sphere in which human beings release from worldly matter. We should always turn left to do pradaksima. It consists of four square galleries. The reliefs here depict to gandha wiyuha, lalita wistara, jataka, and awadhana. Lalita wistara is the reliefs depict the life story of Buddha Gautama since he was born in lumbini garden. He was the prince of king Chudadana from Kapilawastu kingdom. One day Siddhartha went out of his palace and on his way out of his palace, he saw four signs such as a blind man, a sick man, a dead man, and a priest. Then he decided to leave the palace and wandered as a hermit, finally he meditated under a bodhi tree and got supreme wisdom and he became a Buddha Gautama. For the first time he taught at the deen park Benares town. You can see them in the upper serves of the main wall of rupadhatu.
Arupadhatu is the highest sphere the abode Gods and we will come into the world of meditation. It has three terraces. They have neither reliefs nor ornaments. They adored with many latticed dagobs arranged in the three concentric circles and surrounding the main stupa. They contain the Buddha statue. The holes in the dagobs of the first and second rows are lozenges, while the holes in the dagobs of the third series are square. The purpose of these differences is unknown.
There are many lion statues. They intended to be the guard of the threshold. In a book, it says that Siddhartha come from Sakya Simba dynasty that had a lion symbol. Beside that, lion was the Buddha’s vehicle when he takes to the nirvana or the paradise. There are many statues in sitting and standing position. The hand positions of the Buddha statues in the sitting position are different. They have certain names and meaning.
Vocabulary
Storeys: floor in a building
Stupa: dome enclosing a statue of Buddha.
Carve: form by cutting away material from stone or wood
Reliefs: (method of) carving, etc in which the design stands out from a flat surface
Sculpture: art of making figure, statues, etc in stone wood
Obscured: not easily seen or understood
Hermit: a person who lives alone and simply, esp. for religious reasons
Abode: house or home
note:
maaf kalo banyak structure yang salah…
