Indonesia - Borobudur

Borodbudr is the most visited attraction in Indonesia. You can see why. It's the world's largest Buddhist building. It was built in the ninth century and is truly impressive in both scale and design. It's an amazing place to visit and deserves its listing as a UNESCO World Heritage listed site.


The temple is huge, but just to increase the impact, it has been built on top of a hill in the shadow of Mount Merapi, a still active volcano. The area around the monument is fairly heavily wooded, so you don't really see the temple until you're right on top of it. It's a great sight to see the temple suddenly pop out of the tree line in front of you.

The temple is built as a series of levels. There's six square levels, three round levels, then a massive dome on top. The popular theory, is that people would enter at the ground level and walk in a clockwise fashion around each level in turn. I cheated and walked a quarter of each level. That took ages, so I imagine if you did all the levels in proper sequence, it would take you a good half a day to go through all the levels.


Each level is basically a long corridor. On each side, there's some amazingly intricately carved bas relief carvings. They're very impressive. I'd say that they're just as good as the ones at Angkor Wat, if not better. The temple was only in use for a couple of hundred years before being totally abandoned. It was rediscovered in 1815 by a team lead by Sir Stamford Raffles, of Singapore fame. Apparently, just the top was visible - the rest was completely covered by volcanic ash. That was good in a way, as it preserved all the carvings. The carvings on the bottom level are the best preserved. They probably got covered straight away, so are amazingly well preserved. Some of the ones on the top levels have been bashed about by the weather and robbers.

All the way up the sides of the temple are a huge number of Buddha statues. Most of these are replacements. The originals were just too easy to steal! There are quite a few headless Buddhas about, but restoration has put a new noggin on most of them.

When you reach the top, circular level, the entire building changes. The lower levels are surrounded by quite high walls. Once you get to the top, there's no more walls. All you see is a series of bell shaped latticed domes. Each one contains a seated Buddha, just visible through the lattice of stonework. It's an amazingly spectacular sight. The domes are laid out in a loose sprial, so you can walk half a metre to the left and see a completely different arrangement of domes. It's a great mathematical puzzle in 3D!


Once I got to the top, I ran into a couple of school girls. They were keen to practice their English on me, so they asked me a few simple questions, took my photo and away I went. I then ran into another group and repeated the procedure. Then again and again and AGAIN! Eventually, I was swarmed by 100 giggled school children, all clamouring to have their photo taken with me. I felt like a move star. Well, for the first 5 minutes anyway. I then got a bit grumpy after that. They were VERY loud, very persistent and didn't speak very good English! I finally ran into their teacher. She thanked me for my time, told me the kids were all from a school in Solo City and asked me for one last photo. They then left, which transformed the temple from an insane mad house to a serene, peaceful monument overlooking a volcano and a rapidly setting sun. Just like I planned.

I'm afraid I went a bit mental taking photos here. Everywhere you look, there's another interesting view, a strange combination of domes or a great piece of scenery. It's a great place to visit.


I was eventually kicked out of the temple just before the sun set. I took a few more pics and headed for my car. That's a bit of a trauma. The way into the complex is fairly well labeled, but getting out is a bit of a nightmare! You walk straight into a massive jumbled, confused market. Everyone wants to sell you some batik or fans or blow pipes. It's all a bit crazy. I eventually found my driver, but by then it was pitch black and a bit spooky!

Borobudur would have to be one of the most spectacular ancient monuments I've ever visited. The decoration is just amazing and the location by the volcano is just great. Go see it now. You won't be disappointed.