The Borobudur temple is the largest temple which is the 9th century relic. This temple looks very impressive and sturdy so famous throughout the world. Invaluable historical relics, and that was one of the seven wonders of the world. This temple is located at Borobudur District, South of Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.
The Borobudur itself is best known as the world's most famous Buddhist monument was built during heydays of ancient rules from Syailendra dynasty sometime in the early 9th century. It is the home to hundreds of Bhudda statues and 2,672 relief panels. seven terraces represent the steps from earthly realm to Nirvana. The temple building is also a vast Mahayana Buddhist monument in the form of a pyramid mandala. It was built around 800 AD by kings from the Syailendra dynasty and abandoned shortly after completion. It covers an area almost 1.5 ha, with central dome almost 35 meters above the base.
But did you know that as well as in other ancient buildings, the Borobudur temple did not escape the mystery about how to make it? This mystery spawned many speculative opinion to controversy. With some notes and references are limited, let us try to analyze and little uncover the mystery of making of this temple.
The Design
The Borobudur temple has the basic structure of 'punden berundak' (worship building that has rectangular shape and are arranged terraced). This temple has ten levels that consisting of six level of square shape courtyards, three circular shape courtyards with one main stupa as a peak. And on all of circular courtyards scattered several stupas.
The temple was built on a hill or a row of small hills that extends to the west-southwest and east-southeast with a length of 123 m, 123 m of width and height of 34.5 m that measured from the surface of the surrounding flat land with a flat hilltop.
The Borobudur Temple also looks quite complex views of the parts are built which consists of 10 levels and the temple walls are filled with pictures as much as 2,672 relief panels. There are 505 statues that complement the temple. Uniquely the number of stupas at the Arupadhatu (stupa at the top do not count) are: 32, 24, 26 which has a comparative basis, ie 4:3:2, and everything is divisible by 8. And height of the stupa at the three levels are 1.9 m, 1.8 m, each distinct 10 cm. So is the diameter of these stupas, has the exact same size with a height 1.9 m, 1.8 m, 1.7 m.
The Forming Materials
The embankment soil above the original soil was added as filler and morphology shaper of temple. The embankment soil has been created and done by the original founder of the Borobudur temple, not a result of the restoration work. The embankment soil thickness is not uniform even though located on the same floor, which is between 0.5 to 8.5 m.
The rocks that formed the Borobudur was the andesite type with high porosity, pore content of approximately 32% to 46%, and the hole between pore with another one are not related. And compressive strength is low when compared to similar rock compressive strength. From the Sampurno research results on 1969 is obtained a minimum compressive strength of 111 kg/cm2 and a maximum compressive strength of 281 kg/cm2. And heavy of the rocks volume between 1.6 to 2 ton/m3.
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| Aerial view of the Borobudur temple, one of UNESCO World Heritage Site in Indonesia. (Picture from: http://khilmifuadi.blogspot.com/) |
But did you know that as well as in other ancient buildings, the Borobudur temple did not escape the mystery about how to make it? This mystery spawned many speculative opinion to controversy. With some notes and references are limited, let us try to analyze and little uncover the mystery of making of this temple.
The Design
The Borobudur temple has the basic structure of 'punden berundak' (worship building that has rectangular shape and are arranged terraced). This temple has ten levels that consisting of six level of square shape courtyards, three circular shape courtyards with one main stupa as a peak. And on all of circular courtyards scattered several stupas.
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| The Budha statue and several stupas on Borobudur, the great Buddhist tample on Java (Indonesia), built and decorated perhaps before 800AD. (Picture from: http://www.indonesia.travel/) |
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The Borobudur cross section and building ratio. (Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/)
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The Forming Materials
The core soil which is serves as subgrade or foundation of Borobudur temple is divided into two, namely embankment soil and native soil that forming of the hill. The embankment soil was deliberately made for the Borobudur temple construction purpose and adapted to the temple shape.
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| One of picture reliefs on the Borobudur wall. (Picture from: http://pusakatours.com/) |
The rocks that formed the Borobudur was the andesite type with high porosity, pore content of approximately 32% to 46%, and the hole between pore with another one are not related. And compressive strength is low when compared to similar rock compressive strength. From the Sampurno research results on 1969 is obtained a minimum compressive strength of 111 kg/cm2 and a maximum compressive strength of 281 kg/cm2. And heavy of the rocks volume between 1.6 to 2 ton/m3.
How to Build
The temple data both from the design, history, and philosophy of building were so many available. Many historians and ancient buildings experts was write about this temple. Data search results either in books or the internet, none of which slightly reveals the mystery of how was the temple built. Still became the unsolved mystery based on those information above. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | UNESCO]
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