BOROBUDUR: ENLIGHTENMENT MANIFESTS IN MAGELANG
Declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1991, the Borobudur Temple Compounds continue to inspire travelers and ennoble Indonesia.
Declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1991, the Borobudur Temple Compounds continue to inspire travelers and ennoble Indonesia.
The largest Buddhist temple in the world used to be an easy place to go to for the people of Central Java a few decades ago, particularly for a Grade 5 student and his motorbike-riding dad. They would park closely to the temple, just right at the entrance, before bonding by marveling at the view. “That's why I feel like a priest!” jested my Magelang guide Ignatius, who's a Catholic yet cherishes his childhood Borobudur memories as priceless. Before I could joke that perhaps he meant “monk” and not “priest,” our handler Adjie beat me to it, dropping his quip quickly, “'Feel only!” We laughed in the most restrained way we can muster, remembering we were just about to ascend Borobudur Temple, as we waited for our designated Borobudur guide to call us for our climb.
This guide of ours announced immediately all the restrictions, such as “no smoking” and “no sitting or stepping on the stupas.” Visitors are also not allowed anymore to reach the highest and biggest stupa, a rule imposed after a European athlete parkoured from the main stupa, all the way to the surrounding lower stupas, as part of a viral ad for an energy drink in 2016. I did not resent the orders at all, and passionately agree that smokers and idiots ought to be kicked out of this sacred ground. And as I saw that some of the buddhas housed in the niches were headless, I felt hurt, so hurt that I would have understood if, all of a sudden, the authorities would decide to no longer even allow visitors in.
So, I am grateful for all the rules we must observe now. Only a maximum of 2,000 visitors per day must be allowed, from the former 57,000 to 62,000, to protect the structural integrity of the temple from the weight of guests. Visitors must prebook online to enable administrators to measure the temple's daily carrying capacity. There are only eight touring sessions daily, each accompanied by an official Borobudur guide, and each batch allowing no more than 150 people. If you do not pre-book, you can do walk-in, but risk having to wait for up to two hours until you can be accommodated in a slot. But if you are obedient and booked online, your reward is an easy procedure of simply claiming your ticket and all-access wristband upon arrival, plus a voucher that must be exchanged in a designated counter. Our vouchers entitled each of us to a maroon sling bag where we must put in our shoes, because we must wear the woven slippers provided, the only footwear allowed on the temple to protect the surface of the stones. Had we been told to go barefoot, I still would have followed.
Please let me correct a common misconception among foreigners – Borobudur is not part of Yogyakarta, but is instead within Magelang Regency. It just so happens that Borobudur is so very near Yogyakarta, that most Yogyakarta travel itineraries naturally include Borobudur in their stops. And that's probably the easiest thing to clarify about Borobudur, because even after centuries of its discovery, as our Borobudur guide pointed out one by one, so many aspects of its origin and construction remain a mystery.
For example, no one knows how this 9th century, 123-meters-by-123-meters of a wonder, crowned with 72 stupas, decked with 2,672 bas relief panels, and 504 Buddha statues, was built. Not even scientists can figure out how the builders smoothed out its over-two-million interlocked volcanic stones. No tools have ever been found to give a clue about its construction.
Another mystery is how Borobudur was forgotten and abandoned between the 12th and 14th centuries. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions may have been the reason for people to move eastward, along with the decline of Buddhism in Java, as Islam became the dominant religion. Ancient manuscripts state that only by the 18th century did people return to the area. By 1814, hidden under volcanic ash and jungle vegetation, the temple was found by a team organized by the British governor general Sir Stamford Raffles, guided by directions from locals. He ordered its first restoration and the rest of the world learned about Borobudur's existence.
Three levels compose Borobudur, adhering to the Buddhist understanding of the universe. First, we stood at the foundation, the Kamadhatu, which represents desire, is fully covered, but with a portion in its southeast corner exposed to show the bas relief on the law of cause and effect. Carvings depict people gambling or committing murder, drinking to intoxication, and committing lustfully harmful acts, such as adultery, rape, and incest. Moving up, we reached the Rupadhatu, representing form and transition, the curbing of our desires while we are still bound by our earthly form. These are the five square levels that also bear the bas reliefs depicting the story of the Buddha, from his former lives, his wanderings, and up to his attainment of enlightenment. These levels also bear the outward-looking niches housing buddhas, and sadly, some of which have been beheaded, the painful sight being clearly visible even as we stood below, before our ascent.
The last levels of our climb were towards the Arupadhatu, the representation of nirvana, in the form of three circular terraces where huge perforated stupas each enclose a buddha seated in meditation. Again, some of these buddhas have been mercilessly beheaded, while some remain intact. Our Borobudur guide explained that each of these buddhas represent “a warrior in a cage,” the struggle being that of liberation, to rise above the world and reach nirvana. He then clarified a common misconception about nirvana: reaching nirvana is not like reaching heaven because it is not exactly a happy place. “Nirvana is not heaven – it is enlightenment,” he stressed. Attaining enlightenment therefore is not a guarantee of blissfulness. Enlightenment is awareness, our arrival not to paradise but to being at peace with our true selves.
At this juncture, he pointed up to the highest stupa, empty, without a buddha in it. He talked about the contradicting studies regarding its emptiness – some say that relics and an “unfinished buddha” originally dwelt in it, while some say it has been empty from the start, symbolizing formlessness. Given what I just learned from the tour, that some of the buddha's missing heads were stolen by Dutch, British, and Japanese invaders during the colonial and World War periods – with some of these heads appearing in British and American museums, even in Beverly Hills – it is likely that there may have really been a buddha inside the main stupa, which may have been stolen by another selfish, heartless desecrator. I myself am not sure who to believe, but perhaps I can be at peace with not knowing. I arrive at that not out of being enlightened but out of taking comfort from witnessing the people of Magelang, and Indonesia as a whole, doing the best they can to take care of Borobudur.
Another little-known fact about Borobudur is how it completes a triad of temples that Buddhist devotees flock to, mostly during Vesak or Buddha Day, and that the two other temples are also within Magelang, even predating the great Borobudur – Mendut and Pawon Temples. And yet another mystery is how these three ancient temples form a straight line, thus, pilgrims follow the path of that line, starting their journey on foot from the oldest temple, Mendut, to the second oldest, Pawon, and finally to the youngest, Borobudur. Ignatius told me that last year alone, before Vesak, 37 monks from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore walked all the way from their countries of origin to go to Mendut, Pawon, and Borobudur. “Some of them walked as far as 2,600 kilometers,” Ignatius said.
Beyond being a temple, Mendut has an active Buddhist monastery, Ignatius pointed out. He also directed my attention to its bas reliefs, one of which being that of Hariti, the deity-demon carrying a baby, and to whom couples pray to conceive. Inside the temple, the Buddha sits, not in the usual lotus position but supposedly western style, as one would sit on a chair with a backrest. The statue is flanked by two bodhisattvas, both seated uniquely too, with one foot each touching the ground. And as far as phallic mysteries go, the stupa of this temple is missing, while what appears to be a huge linga is planted right across it, in the lush green of the fields.
As for Pawon, the biggest mystery is its being empty, but it is believed that the temple formerly housed the statue of a bodhisattva in honor of King Indra of the Seilendra dynasty, within which Borobodur, Pawon, and Mendut were constructed. Pawon is said to resemble the slimmer built of Hindu temples, and indeed looks like one. It bears five stupas on top and the carving of Kala-Makara right on its entrance, without a lower jaw, signifying an open mouth sucking in the universe. These carvings alone more than make up for me not seeing a buddha inside, but what I do regret missing was walking farther around the temple to see the carving of the tree of life, the Kalpataru, said to possess divine powers that can grant prayers. Maybe I ought to pray to be able to come back to do my own Mendut-Pawon-Borobudur walk.
But our Magelang journey did not end in Pawon. After completing all three temples of the Borobudur Temple Compounds, Ignatius was initially contemplating to bring me to other spots, but time constraints forced him to improvise, and we ended up in Bukit Rhema's House of Prayer for All Nations, dubbed as the Chicken Church. Its young staff-guide stressed that the place is not a church, and instead holds prayer rooms for free use of people of any faith. Neither was it designed to look like a chicken, he said, because it was inspired by a dove which its now-85-year-old founder Daniel Alamsjah saw in a dream. For years, it has been mocked for being supposedly strange, until a miracle happened. The 2016 blockbuster sequel of the 2002 Indonesian romcom classic “Ada Apa Dengun Cinta” (“What's Up with Love?”) was filmed here. Since then, the place has been welcoming as much as 3,000 visitors a day.
Meanwhile, Ignatius had to be searching for our companions who suddenly wandered off like chicks, so I and Adjie were the ones left to climb the crown of the chicken, or dove, for the 360-degree view of Magelang and a view of Borobudur. In Magelang, the best resorts pride themselves of affording the best Borobudur views.
Not everyone will be able to afford these ultra-luxurious vantage points, so it is good to know that there are spots like this quirky place where simple folk can go to see something sacred. I certainly loved what I saw – Borobudur from a distance, amid fun-loving Gen Z Indonesians, zooming in their phones and shooting reels, their own simple way of capturing a thing of beauty.
Majestic view of Borobudur
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