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 9th
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 19th 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.
