Borobodur

On Tuesday, I went on a surprise field trip to the Buddhist temple Borobodur. I think really it was just a surprise for me anyway as Odette- another student who also lives in Aceh- seemed to know we were both going. The two of us went with a teacher from the language school who acted as our wonderful guide. It was fantastic! Borobodur is the second oldest Buddhist temple in the world (second to the temple in Thailand) and is in the city of Magelang, about an hour outside of Yogya. The drive was beautiful, we drove by rivers, passed the Menara Mountains, and went through spacious fields and landscapes. The temple itself is quite an attraction. The path leading up to it, is sadly reminiscent of a theme park, with overpriced food and souvenirs and people adamantly hawking merchandise. There was a sign in book at the entrance which displayed the wide variety of visitors; just from that day there were people from the Netherlands, U.K., Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Canada (Odette), and America...

Borobodur was built sometime in the 7th century, but by the 8th century the nearby volcano, Merapi, erupted and covered Borobodur in a molten tomb. It wasn't until the 18th century, I think, that a farmer discovered it while trying to till the land. The dutch came in and excavated Borobodur, somehow uncovering and restoring this gigantic marvel. It has since been restored three times. While some of the reliefs are missing, and many of the Buddhas have been decapitated by looters, the stories are still present and the atmosphere is still intensely spiritual. There are several levels to the temple representing the levels of Karma. On the first level there are reliefs depicting the happy version of life where people are treated with equality and kindness juxtaposed with a life of gossip and negative interactions resulting in people with animal-like features. The second level has various Buddha stories and the third level mostly has giant bell-like Buddha housings. Legend says if you can touch the thumb of a Buddha you get to make a wish- most of those thumbs have already been destroyed though, the rest were covered in other tourists.
These pictures are thanks to Odette who luckily had her camera ready. Thanks, Odette!

I should mention that, while we all marveled at the splendor of Borobodur, we were stuck by how little respect it was paid by tourists and guards alike, all of whom sat on statues and carvings and threw trash all around. Odette, who has been to the oldest and most magnificent Buddhist temple in the world, was of the opinion that we should be required to be barefoot. as is the case at the other temple. It reminded me a bit of Yosemite, incredible beauty, somewhat tainted by marketing to the masses.