BOROBUDUR TEMPLE
When I was senior high school, I visited
Borobudur Temple. This is my first time
holiday at there. Lets see the history of Borobudur Temple.
HISTORY OF BOROBUDUR TEMPLE
The Borobudur Temple is considered as one of the seven wonders of the world. This temple is located at Borobudur District, South of Magelang,
Central Java.
The
expression of experts who had been studying Borobudur
Temple varied someway. Bernet Kempers'
expression was: “Borobudur is Borobudur”,
meaning that Borobudur Temple is very unique in her
own way. Nieuwenkamp (an artist) imaginated Borobudur as “a
big lotus flower bud ready to bloom” which was “floating” on a lake. Nieuwenkamp’s imagination was supported by N. Rangkuti (1987) that from the air, the Borobudur
Temple looks floating. From the geological studies, experts were able to prove
that Borobudur area was one time a big lake. Most of
the villages around Borobudur Temple were at the same
altitude, 235 meters above the sea-level. The same altitude included the Pawon and Mendut temples. Thus
the area under 235 meter altitude was below the lake water level.
Based
on the inscription dated 842 AD, Casparis suggested
that Borobudur was one time a place for praying. The
inscription stated a phrase such as: “Kawulan i Bhumi Sambhara”.
Kawulan means the origin of holiness,
“bhumi sambhara” is a name
of a place in Borobudur. Paul Mus
stated that Borobudur Temple had the structure of stupa (conical form) with double expression. As a whole,
the Borobudur Temple was an open-flat stupa, but on the other hand, the temple expressed the idea
of a “closed world”. The latter expression could be felt when one is already
inside the temple. Whenever person is inside the temple, his or her view will
be limited to high walls full on relieves, the verandah
is always squared in such a way that one could not see other parts of the
temple, even in a same floor. The same feeling happened if one stood on arupadhatu round platform, he or she will have a wider view
only on that level, but are not able to see the lower level
nor the upper level like the one on rupadhatu
and kamandhatu. It could be said that Borobudur is a symbol of cosmic mountain covered by the sky
roof, a specific world that could be reached through isolated alleys as stages.
The closed structural design of the temple expressed the concept of a closed
world, not just a technical reasons as had been suggested by other experts ( Daud AT, 1987)
Borobudur was built by Sanmaratungga
in the 8th century, and belongs to Buddha Mahayana. Borobudur
was revealed by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles in 1814. The temple was found in
ruined condition and was buried.
The
overall height was 42 meters, but was only 34.5 meters after restoration, and
had the dimension of 123 x 123 meters (15,129 square meters). There were 10
floors. The first floor up to the sixth floor was square form,
the seventh to the tenth floor were round form.
Borobudur is facing to the East with a total of 1460
panels (2 meters wide each). Total size of the temple walls was 2500 square
meters, full of relief. The total number of panels with relief was 1212.
According to investigations, the total number of Buddha statue was 504
including the intact and damaged statues. The temple undergone restoration from
1905 to 1910, and the last restoration was done in
1973 to 1983.
1.
Structural Design of Borobudur Temple
Ever
since the first excavation, most experts speculated on the exact shape of the
temple. Hoenig, in his book “Das
form problem des Borobudur” speculate that the
original form of Borobudur Temple had four gates and
nine floors. The form of Borobudur Temple is similar
to temples found in Cambodia. According to Parmenteir,
the huge single stupa on top of the temple made the
smaller stupas in the lower part looked drowned. Stutterheim who had been studying stupas
in India and other parts of Asia concluded that the stupa
structure was an Indian origin. The original purpose of stupa
building was as storage of Buddha
Gautama and
other holy priests cremation ash.
According
to Stutterheim, the overall form of Borobudur Temple is a combination of zigurat
(middle Asian Pyramid) and Indian stupa. Stutterheim opinion was supported by the existence of this
type of form in Ancient Javanese literature.
The
relief of Borobudur temple started from the base of
the temple up to the fourth platform. The relieves at
the base contained the story of Karmawibhangga. Under
the main panel and above the Karmawibhangga relief, a
wide-sized relief was inscripted at the wall. From
this point along the alley, the relief did not show story in the sequence, but
as a repeating part of the story with the same motives which expressed the
world of spiritual beings such as half demonic body (Gandharwa,
giants or Yataka, dragon, Sidha
or angels and their ladies friends, Apsara and Nagi, all of them are heavenly beings who are tender and
beautiful.
Division
of panels are: the first panel expressed a heavenly being in sitting position,
on both side of this panel are small panel with a small standing statue. This figures are repeated 26 times for each side of the
wall. Between the panels is carved three bodies, a male flanked by two women.
There
was a long series of main relieves at the first alley, either at the main wall
or at the inner side of Kutamara wall. Relieves at the Kutamara wall depicted Jataka's and Awadana's,
a story of Buddha's life which expressed as Bodhisatwa, due to his good deeds in the past. Sometimes, Buddha is
expressed in the form of animals such as rabbit, monkeys etc. As it was told in
animated stories, the story was adopted from Sanskrit book, Jatakamala.
Only one third of the relieves were known, the rest
was still unclear.
The
lower relieves of the main wall contained the same story. The upper relieves
also had the same story as the lower one. The story contained the life of
Buddha consisting of 120 frames until he began teaching Buddha religion. The
first frame began from the South of stairway of the curved
gate at the East, and follow the path of the sun (the temple on the
right side). The life story of Buddha was adopted from Lalitawistara
book.
At
the second alley, Jataka and Awadana
story were continued on the inner side of Utamara,
and on the main wall, story was began with stories
adopted from Gandhawyuha. This story was so long that
it occupied the main wall and inner side wall of Utamara
at the third and fourth alley. The story showed the adventure of a Sudhana who met Bodhisatwa Maytreya (the future Buddha) to have religious lesson from
the Buddha. Later on, the Sudhana met with Bodhisatwa Mandjusri, and finally
he met with Dyani Bodhisatwa
Samanta Badra, who gave the
highest wisdom. Most of those stories expressed the use of spiritual strength
and unusual happenings.
There
were many beautiful ornaments inscripted at the wall
of the fourth alley, because the fifth alley did not contained
any ornaments. The fifth alley is a transitional alley to the next platform,
the round platform. The next round platforms also did not contained any
ornaments at all (Kaylan,1959).
t temples. Thus the area under 235 meter
altitude was below the lake water level.
Based
on the inscription dated 842 AD, Casparis suggested
that Borobudur was one time a place for praying. The inscription stated a phrase such as: “Kawulan
i Bhumi Sambhara”.
Kawulan means the origin of holiness,
“bhumi sambhara” is a name
of a place in Borobudur. Paul Mus
stated that Borobudur Temple had the structure of stupa (conical form) with double expression. As a whole,
the Borobudur Temple was an open-flat stupa, but on the other hand, the temple expressed the idea
of a “closed world”. The latter expression could be felt when one is already
inside the temple. Whenever person is inside the temple, his or her view will
be limited to high walls full on relieves, the verandah
is always squared in such a way that one could not see other parts of the
temple, even in a same floor. The same feeling happened if one stood on arupadhatu round platform, he or she will have a wider view
only on that level, but are not able to see the lower level
nor the upper level like the one on rupadhatu
and kamandhatu. It could be said that Borobudur is a symbol of cosmic mountain covered by the sky
roof, a specific world that could be reached through isolated alleys as stages.
The closed structural design of the temple expressed the concept of a closed
world, not just a technical reasons as had been suggested by other experts ( Daud AT, 1987)
Borobudur was built by Sanmaratungga
in the 8th century, and belongs to Buddha Mahayana. Borobudur
was revealed by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles in 1814. The temple was found in
ruined condition and was buried.
The
overall height was 42 meters, but was only 34.5 meters after restoration, and
had the dimension of 123 x 123 meters (15,129 square meters). There were 10
floors. The first floor up to the sixth floor was square form,
the seventh to the tenth floor were round form.
Borobudur is facing to the East with a total of 1460
panels (2 meters wide each). Total size of the temple walls was 2500 square
meters, full of relief. The total number of panels with relief was 1212.
According to investigations, the total number of Buddha statue was 504
including the intact and damaged statues. The temple undergone restoration from
1905 to 1910, and the last restoration was done in
1973 to 1983.
Opinion
My
opinion about this place is very beautiful art . enjoy to visited over there. I
can to see many wonderfull view at here. My wish I’ll can go there again
Source
: http://www.emp.pdx.edu/htliono/borobudu.html
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very interes