Reaching Nirvana

We started our journey to Borobudur, an hour’s drive from our hotel in Yogyakarta, at 4:00 AM to see the sunrise over Gunung (Mount) Merapi. Merapi is an active volcano and is always smoking. You have to look closely to separate the trail of smoke from the clouds. (It was also quite hazy looking East.)

Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist monument, believed to have been built in the late 7th, early 8th century, 300 years before Angork Wat, and 200 years before Notre Dame. A century after Borobudur was built, it was mysteriously abandoned; then in 1006 Gunung Merapi erupted burying Borobudur in volcanic ash for centuries.

Erin captured this shot with her wide-angle lens.

The rediscovery of Borobudur began in 1814 during Thomas Raffles stint as governor of Java (before he founded Singapore). He visited Semarang and heard that there was “a mountain of Buddhist sculptures in stone” in the area. Raffles conducted a massive clearing operation of an overgrown hillock of trees that was scattered with hundreds of andesite blocks. After finding and uncovering the elaborate structure, he didn’t dig further so it wouldn’t be damaged, but left it unprotected, so for almost another century it suffered from decay, plunder and abuse. Many of the stones were taken by villagers; and priceless sculptures ended up as decorations in the homes of the rich. Many of these irreplaceable Indo-Javanese art pieces are now in private collections, and museums around the world. The official restoration project didn’t get underway til 1973 and ten years to complete!

The temple of Borobudur is constructed on ten levels, and represents a mandala, a geometric aid for meditation; or sometimes referred to as the “wheel of life”. This is a replica of a bird’s-eye view of Borobudur. We all wished there was some of way to see it from above. We were on the eighth level, the middle ring, looking out towards Merapi.

The 1400+ hand carved relief panels on the walls that surround the stupas (bells) is the only existing complete story of the life of Buddha and spans over three miles in total length. You enter the temple from the east and ascend the terraced monument circumambulating each level, clockwise.

In each niche, in each direction, there are 92 Buddha statues, with or without its head.

Each of the 72 stupas, at one time, contained a statue of Buddha, but during the restoration it was found that many of the Buddhas had been stolen, or its head removed during the time it was left unattended. There are no carvings or decorations on the levels of the stupas.

And several of the “bells” are missing, rendering a statue of Buddha to appear it is sitting in a hot tub!

Some of the stupas were constructed with stones cut in an X pattern and forming a diamond cut-out pattern; other stupas were constructed with notched square blocks forming square cutout.

There is one stupa with a fully recovered Buddha sitting in the lotus position; for women, if you can touch the Buddha’s heel, your wish will come true. For men you must reach the Buddha’s hand and run your finger down the finger of the Buddha’s hand in its mudra (position). I can’t find a rendering of how the Buddha is holding its hand to give you a better idea.

We gals could not reach the heel, here is Rachel trying her best! But Mick reached the finger so we asked him to ask that all of our wishes come true!

The very top stupa, the largest of the stupas has no cut-outs, no door and is empty inside. This top stupa represents Nirvana. Everyone reaches it in their own way, and you reach Nirvana when you have no more desire and no more want.

I imagine it’s no easy feat. I’m not even close!!!