abby in wonderland

The final touristy place I went to in Indonesia was Borobudur, Yogyakarta.

I’m incredibly proud that the final touristy thing I did is something that’s actually on the World Heritage list. Win on my part!

Borobudur is a 19^th Century Mahayana Buddhist monument. It’s located in Central Java, close to Yogyakarta in a place called Magelang.

The monument is HUGE.

It’s a temple compromised of size GIANT square platforms with three circular platforms on top. It has 2 672relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. On the top platform is a main dome surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, which are hiding inside perforated stupa (which is another word for ‘heap’… personally, I think they look like mini-domes, but whatever).

It’s a temple compromised of six GIANT square platforms with three circular platforms on top. It has 2 672relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. On the top platform is a main dome surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, which are hiding inside perforated stupa (which is another word for ‘heap’… personally, I think they look like mini-domes, but whatever).

The monument is a shrine to Buddha and also a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. What a journey! Climbing up the monument left everyone panting and melting! We had to stop twice in order to rehydrate and get our breath back before reaching the top level. The pilgrims’ journey begins at the base of the monument and follows a path that goes around and around the monument while rising to the top – we took the stairs, so I can do nothing but feel sorry for the poor Buddhists who have to do this trek!

Apparently, the top three levels represent levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness).Throughout the trek of the pilgrims, the monument guides the journey with stairways, corridors and 1 460 narrative relief panels on the walls and balustrades.

 During the journey the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades.

A pilgrimage to Borobudur still takes place once a year. The Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument…

Hopefully the peddlers leave THEM alone. Because we weren’t on any particular religious mission, the peddlers followed us everywhere, thrusting postcards/wall-decorations/toy-planes/ash-trays in the shape of Borobudur at us…

Yikes.

It figures though. Borobudur is Indonesia’s most visited tourist destination. If the people come, the peddlers follow.

It was pretty majestic. Up high on top of that monument you can see for a fair stretch. All you can see is green. It’s beautiful, untouched (because the World Heritage Trust’d whoop your ass if you tried) land that still holds a certain ancient mystique…

The legend that goes with the monument says that genies helped to build the monument (and many others nearby) in just one night.

It’d take a lot of magic to reach such a feat!

Perhaps that’s why it felt so magical sitting there…