BOROBUDUR

beauty in peril

UNESCO
The Great Design
From an undulating plain in Central Java, forty
kilometres from Yogyakarta a huge stone
complex 1,100 years old soars into the sky.
This is Borobudur for the Buddhist, a place of
pilgrimage; for the architect, a brilliant
harmonization of form with significance; for the
art historian, an outstanding portrayal in stone
of the iconography of Mahayana Buddhism; for
anyone, a precious legacy from the past,
a symbol of human ingenuity, skill, perseverance
and faith.
Its square base has sides 123 metres long,
making its area slightly more than the hectare
enclosed by the four legs of the Eiffel Tower
in Paris. From this square rises a pyramid
of four terraces, each enclosed by a balustrade,
their three kilometres of walling covered by
1,460 reliefs, and carrying 432 statues of
Buddha commanding the four winds of Heaven.
Above this are three circular terraces of
72 fretted stupas, characteristic bell-shaped
structures each containing a statue of Buddha.
At the peak, the sealed and void central stupa
symbolizing the contemplation of supreme
truth, or Nirvana, towers more than 30 metres
above ground level.
The workers who began to robe a hill in
stone in the reign of King Samaratunga about
800 A.D., who hewed, carved, carried and dug,
must have known that they would not live
to see the great design completed. They were
working for future generations, including our
own. When Buddha the Benevolent was born
in the sixth century B.C. in what is now Nepal,
he was a king's heir. Expected to continue
the dynasty of his father, he grew up in the
royal court, married and had a son. But he
had been fore-ordained to another destiny and
at the age of 29 he renounced his riches for
a life of meditation as a wandering monk.
Under the Tree of Wisdom at Gaya in the present
Indian State of Bihar he attained enlightenment
and at Benares, in a famous sermon, established
the principles of his teaching. Until at the
age of 80 he laid his body to rest at Kusinagara,
near what is now Patna, he preached the
faith which has since brought inner tranquillity
to millions the same tranquillity which is
reflected in the still features of the 504 statues
of the Buddha at Borobudur.
The form of Buddhism which established
itself in Indonesia was Mahayana, the Great
Vehicle, with has broad objectives and which
also extended to Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia,
China, Korea and Japan. In Java it mingled
with the old Hindu-Javanese Tantrism in
which it was customary to recite magic
formulae. It is this which is the tradition of
Borobudur and which is reflected both in the
ornament and the arrangement of its
soft-coloured stones.
Each level of the huge stupa which is
Borobudur corresponds to one of the three
spheres, or Dhatus, into which Buddhist
teaching divides life. The first is Kamadhatu,
the sphere of desire, and this is the base or
Hidden Foot, whose reliefs, depicting worldly
desires and pleasures and their punishment,
 üjItsSíí

Unesco/R. Greenough Borobudur: symbol of human ingenuity, skill,

perseverance and faith
were concealed for centuries by a second
foundation of heaped-up stones. The four
rectangular terraces, with their thousands of
reliefs and decorative panels form the next
stage, Rupadhatu, or sphere of form, while the
three concentric rings of stupas compose
Arupadhatu or the sphere of formlessness,
around the great central stupa.
Four gates, each arched over by a carved
monster's head, lead to the ascent of
Borobudur, whose terraces are linked by four
stairways climbing each face of the pyramid.
The Buddhist pilgrim enters by the east gate,
turns to his left on the first terrace and mounts
terrace after terrace, keeping the monument
always on his right. In this way the reliefs
form a logical sequence which has been called
a rosary of stone. Through this he progresses
on his quest for Buddhaship or Bodhisattva,
release from the cycle of reincarnation.
Ten rounds of ascent
In succession he makes ten rounds. In the
sphere of form he sees the life of Buddha
Gautama from his birth until his sermon at
Benares, then a sequence of carved illustrations
from the Jakatas about the deeds of Buddha
in his former incarnations, then a series of
Awandas depicting deeds by Bodhisattvas in
their former lives and finally 460 reliefs,
which take up all the walls and balustrades
remaining up to the sphere of formlessness to
show scenes from the Gandawyuha and
Bhadratjari on the life of Sudhana, who, in his
quest for enlightenment, meets several
Bodhisattvas and Maitreya, the Future Buddha.
Finally the pilgrim progresses to the
sphere of formlessness, where the walls and
balustrades are devoid of ornament and
where there is nothing for contemplation but
the sky and the surrounding stone.
This is Borobudur, the temple once named
Bhumisam-Barabudhara : the Mountain of
the Accumulation of Virtue in the Ten Stages
of the Bodhisattva.
Out of history
For about a century and a half of its existence
Borobudur was the pilgrimage centre which
its builders had planned it to be. Then, with
the fall of the Mataram Kingdom c. 930
the centre of gravity of Javanese cultural and
political life moved eastwards and the
monument dropped out of history. Only two
fleeting references in eighteenth century
manuscripts are known. Earthquake and
subsidence wrought their havoc and the jungle
reclaimed its own.
It was not until 1814, under the brief
British administration of Java by Sir Thomas
Stamford Raffles that Borobudur emerged to
the light of modern knowledge. Raffles ordered
an engineer officer to investigate, 200 men
worked to fell trees, burn undergrowth and dig
away the earth where the monument had
been entirely buried : by 1835 Borobudur was
 Stone on stone, terrace on terrace, circle on square,
simplicity out of complexity

Unesco/Institut Géographique National What to the pilgrim is luxuriant tapestry of carved stone
is to the aviator an austere geometrical figure

Unesco/Institut Géographique National

 laid bare down to the Hidden Foot. Drawings
were made, daguerrotypes and photographs
taken, the first monographs written. Between
1890 and 1891 the entire Hidden Foot
was excavated and the reliefs photographed
before the 13,000 cubic metres of stone were
replaced.
Already, the first doubts were felt for the
safety of the monument. Had the base been
covered with rubble to save the pilgrim
from being distracted by the images of worldly
desire in the Kamadhatu ? Had a new start
been made on the monument by a later
monarch wishing to claim it as his creation?
Or and this seemed very likely had the base
been reinforced with stone to counteract
the subsidence of the higher levels?
The first major restoration was carried out
by a Dutch engineer, Theodor van Erp, whose
name will always be linked to Borobudur,
in the early part of this century- Under his
direction, crumbling stupas were rebuilt, pave¬
ments laid in the terraces, carvings cleaned
of lichen and moss.
His work, and what was done after his time,
gave back to Borobudur much of its former
glory. But it soon appeared that the years the
monument had spent concealed by earth
and overgrowth had in fact protected it from
the ravages of the weather, while some of the
steps taken to clean and preserve it were
shown by later scientific investigation to risk
accelerating the process of decay in surface and
structure. By the time the Republic of
Indonesia came into existence in 1948 it had
acquired a major item of the universal cultural
heritage, but also one threatened with ruin.
Monsoon and menace
The threat to Borobudur is manifold.
Its foundations are little more than earth and
waste stone material, poured into the spaces
between what were three separate hills by the
ancient builders. No mortar was placed
between the blocks which compose it and
these are held together by gravity the same
force which also tends to pull the whole
edifice down the slope where it clings.
Not only is the monument in an earthquake
zone which has suffered several major seismic
shocks in the time since it was built, it is
also in an area where the tropical climate
subjects its construction and material to the
severest strain.
When the sun shines temperatures can vary
by 20° centigrade in a single day. During
the monsoon, a 24-hour period can bring as
much as 200 millimetres of rain, while daily
falls of 1 00 millimetres are not exceptional.
This is the weather Borobudur has endured
for more than a millennium. The rain which
has beaten upon it has overwhelmed its
inadequate system of drainage, gushed through
its gargoyles to collect in puddles on the
terraces, poured through the unmortared cracks
to wash away the sustaining earth beneath.
Today sections of the northern half of
the lower terraces lean at crazy angles; if they
 In the sphere of formlessness only
the stone and the sky are there for
contemplation

Archways topped by monsters' heads

lead to the ascent of Borobudur

1,460 reliefs point

the pilgrim towards Nirvana
collapse they could bring down the whole
monument like an avalanche.
Centuries of moisture, seeping through
the porous volcanic andésite from which
Borobudur was hewn, have attacked its exqui¬
sitely carved surfaces. Brilliant white bonds
of silica, forced there by capillary action, now
disfigure the joints and fissures. Algae,
generally associated with organisms causing
deep damage to the stone, have grown on the
dampest blocks. Lichens, which have formed
like patches of leprosy on some of the
statues, help to erode the surfaces.
Some of the measures taken in the recent
past have proved to accelerate the decay.
Too vigorous cleaning has weakened the
surfaces it was intended to save. Rebuilding
in some sections has placed severe strains
on the parts still in their original state.
" Protective " coatings have promoted the
production of damaging chemicals.
If Borobudur is to survive, a thorough and
massive rescue operation will have to be
carried through. This calls for scientific
knowledge, technical skill, aesthetic expertise
and money.
 Van Erp's achievement: the restoration of 1911 shows
the stupas in their ancient, bell-like form

When van Erp began work, the 72 stupas

on the circular terraces were little Unesco/R. Greenough
more than piles of rubble

Laid bare to the eye and to tne elements.

Contemplating Buddha revealed
by the dismantling of its stupa
 From their niches, 432 statues of Buddha
command the winds of Heaven

Removed to relative safety, these statues await reconstruction

of the monument before they can return to their rightful places

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 Unesco/R. Lemaire
One of Borobudur's gargoyles: massive, monstrous,
striking but for the job it must do, inadequate

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Operation Rescue
The preservation of Borobudur was an early
anxiety of the infant Republic of Indonesia
from its founding, although it was apparent
even then that the scale and complexity
of the problem made it one which a new
and developing country could not solve
on its own.
In 1948 two Indian archaeologists,
C. Sivaramamurti and K.R. Srinivasan, were
invited to survey the state of the monument
and in 1955 the Indonesian Government
asked Unesco for advice on the weathering
and disintegrating of the stone. Unesco
sent a distinguished Belgian art historian.
Dr. Paul Coremans, to Borobudur, and after
his mission a staff member of the Indonesian
Archaeological Service went to Brussels
for special training at the laboratory of the
Royal Institute of the Artistic Heritage.
A thorough-going programme of research
was launched in 1966, boreholes were sunk
and the mechanics of the soil investigated.
Some of the balustrades were dismantled in
order to prevent the collapse of a large part
of the monument. The following year Unesco
commissioned Professor Caesar Voûte of
the Netherlands and Dr. Bernard Groslier of
France to study means of preserving the
monument and in 1969 Dr. Giselle Hyvert,
a French biologist, and two Dutch civil
engineers. C.C.T. de Beaufort and O.H. Deibel,
undertook a mission to investigate the
technical problems of restoration.
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Their reports, covering aspects as diverse as
engineering problems, earthquake hazards,
microbiological analysis of the organisms, study
of the pores of the stones and the chemistry
of the water which was attacking them,
provided hope that a long-term solution could
be found.
There were disagreements among some
experts, both then and later, on the sequence of
steps to be taken : was it necessary to dismantle
the whole monument? Could the terraces
be reinforced without throwing the whole
structure out of balance? Should the stones
be cleaned on the spot or moved to
laboratories for treatment?
But there was consensus on the broad
lines: if the subsidence could be checked and
proper drainage provided, the stones of
Borobudur could be cleaned and refurbished
and, free from the threat of all-pervading
moisture, could be expected to survive.
It was on this basis that the International
Campaign to Safeguard Borobudur got into
gear in 1973, after five years of work by
Indonesian and international specialists. By
August, when President Suharto of Indonesia
inaugurated the restoration work, Unesco
had received payments and pledges from the
international community worth more than
$2 million for the Trust Fund which
Member States had voted to set up for the
protection of the sanctuary.
Estimated cost of the rescue operation was
$8 million, of which the Indonesian
Government guaranteed $3 million. The bulk
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^¡ÍJ^ . w^J

I -'? ;

Rain, up to 200 mm a day, is the great enemy.

Temporarily removed to relative safety,
these statues face the pitiless downpour

Great fissures, separating the unmortared

blocks, threaten the whole mighty edifice
with collapse

The beauty to be saved:

504 serene statues like this grace the complex

13
of the balance had come, and was expected
to come, from other governments. Australia,
Belgium, Burma, Cyprus, Ghana, the
Federal Republic of Germany, India, Iran,
Italy, Japan, the Netherlands Singapore
and Thailand responded to Borobudur's need
with cash donations and contributions in
kind includind expert services and equipment.
But help is expected from many other
sources as well as governmental ones. Even
in the early days of the campaign private
bodies and institutions contributed nearly
$13,000, while a steady stream of smaller
sums was awaited through Project No. 560
of the Unesco Gift Coupon Scheme, the
channel for individuals of good will to aid
Unesco work and for which donations can be
as small as $5. At the other end of the
scale it was anticipated that contributions
from private sources in the Netherlands,
Japan and the United States could be reckoned
in millions of dollars.
The task of saving Borobudur will be long,
delicate and complicated. The Executive
Committee for the International Campaign has
called for continued studies on stone
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conservation, a photogrammetric survey of
the whole northern face, a new mechanical
analysis of the soil, stability calculations and
an engineering seismological appraisal
to back up the careful re-creation of the
sanctuary.
But Unesco has undertaken other
campaigns to preserve the world's cultural
heritage and one outstanding precedent
shows that this aim can transcend immediate
needs and purely national preoccupations.
When the temples of Nubia were threatened
by the waters of the new Aswan Dam,
fifty countries contributed $20 million
to save the artistic treasures of 23 temples
and to transport the two great monuments of
Abu Simbel, stone by stone, to a new site.
There was therefore reason for confidence
when Mr. René Maheu, Director-General
of Unesco, called for a new movement
of international cultural solidarity when the
Trust Fund was opened.
What was at stake, in his words, was a
world masterpiece of architecture and
sculpture and a call of the purest faith, whose
disappearance would impoverish all men.
 Undermined by centuries of monsoons,
the lower terraces yield dangerously to pressure

Unesco/R. Lemaire

The smuous grace of these figures composes a ballet

in high relief but the missing hand and the fragment of face
speak only of decay

Foliage, fissures, bonds of silicon forcing

their way through the joins
all help the decay of Borobudur

15
SOURCES

Bernard P. Groslier: Borobudur, in Unesco

Courier, June, 1968;
Giselle Hyvert; The Conservation of the
Borobudur Temple,
Unesco, RMO/RD /2646/CLP, July 1972;
Caesar Voûte: The Restoration and
Conservation project of Borobudur Temple,
Indonesia, in Studies in Conservation,
Vol. 18, N° 3;
Yazir Marzuki and Fred D. Awuy:
Namo Buddhaya, Indonesia Overseas Bank,
Amsterdam.

The co-operation of the Indonesian Delegation

to Unesco, the Unesco Centrum, Amsterdam
and the Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco,
Tokyo, is gratefully acknowledged.

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