Borobudur Temple Tourism

Borobudur Temple is a magnificent Buddhist monument located in the Kedu Valley, in the southern part of Central Java, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Standing majestically on a hilltop overlooking lush green fields and distant hills, it is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries, during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty. The monument is a marvel of design, decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The architecture of Borobudur is a Gupta architecture that reflects India's influence on the region, yet there are enough indigenous scenes and elements incorporated to make Borobudur uniquely Indonesian. It covers an enormous area, measuring 123 x 123 meters. The temple is built as a single large stupa and, when viewed from above, takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the nature of mind. The pilgrimage journey through the monument ascends through three levels symbolic of the Buddhist cosmology: Kamadhatu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). Borobudur was abandoned for centuries before it was rediscovered in the 19th century.