The Borobudur Temple

The Borobudur Temple, with its seven terraces and its stupas, is the world’s largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia, or probably in the world. It is located in Yogjakarta, Central Java Indonesia. Because of its size, Borobudur has become one of the seven wonders in the world.

The Sailendra dynasty built Borobudur in the 9^th century.  Not long after that, people left the area but no one knows why they left. For the next 800 years people almost forgot the temple because it was buried under earth and trees. This caused a lot of damage.

At the beginning of the 19^th century, British government and then the Dutch government attempted to uncover the temple. Later on, the Indonesia government also made efforts to preserve the temple. They asked UNESCO to help restore it.

In 1973 the restoration work began. A team of Indonesian and foreign experts and hundreds of Indonesian workers rebuilt the temple. It was a big job. First they took down more than two millions stones of the temple piece by piece. Then they cleaned and repaired them. After that they returned each stones to its proper place. They also strengthened the inside of the temple.

The Borobudur was built in three tiers: a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupas. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,500 m2. Around the circular platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha.

At the beginning of 1983 the work was completed. The temple became famous. Lots of domestic and foreign tourists started to visit it.