Scientific Borobudur

Architect Srishti Dokras

Ms. Kinjal Shah
Dr. Uday Dokras

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective

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 Scientific Borobudur

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective, Stockholm SWEDEN and Nagpur INDIA

Dr. Uday Dokras

B.Sc., B.A. (managerial economics) LL.B. Nagpur University, INDIA
Graduate Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, CANADA
MBA CALSATATE USA
Graduate Diploma in Law, Stockholm University, SWEDEN
Ph.D. Stockholm University, SWEDEN

Kinjal Shah
Srishti Dokras
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Iti’pi so bhagava araham, sammā sambuddho, vijjā caranasampanno,
sugato, lokavidhūanuttaro
puri sadammasā rathi satthā deva-manussānam, buddho, bhagavā’ti.

Dhammādāsa

‘What, O Ānanda, is the Mirror of the Dhamma?

Here a noble disciple asks the Buddha.Buddha reflecting on His virtues
says:

“Thus, indeed, is the Exalted One, a Worthy One, a fully Enlightened

One, Endowed with wisdom and conduct, an Accomplished One, Knower
of the worlds, an Incomparable Charioteer for the training of individuals,
the Teacher of gods and men, Omniscient, and Holy.”

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SCIENTIFIC Borobudur

DrUday Dokras

Srishti Dokras
Kinjal Shah

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 SCIENTIFIC Borobudur

The Buddha’s Daily Routine

“The Lord is awakened. He teaches the Dhamma
for awakening.”

– Majjhima Nikāya

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective, Stockholm SWEDEN and Nagpur INDIA

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 SCIENTIFIC BOROBUDUR

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective. STOCKHOLM.SWEDEN

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 rst Edition 2021
Copyright 2020 Uday Dokras. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by means of electronic, mechanical, photocopy, micro-film,
recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holder.
ISBN No. applied for. Cost U
S $150. I N R 1500/- Euro 120

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 SCIENTIFIC BOROBUDUR
Ms. Srishti Dokras,Architect
Ms. Kinjal Shah
Dr Uday Dokras Phd SWEDEN

C O N T E N T S

 Contents page 9
 Acknowledgment & Introduction page 10
 Borobudur and the concept of path in Buddhism 10
Part I Introduction to Design Concepts of the Borodudur pp
 CHAPTER 1 Asytronomy 18
 CHAPTER II Indian design Influences of Borobudur 40
 C H A P T E R III. Indian Design Influences on Borobudur pages 127
 PART II Mysteries Solved page 67
 C H A P T E R III. Temple Triad p 68
 C H A P T E R IV Archeoastronomy p 92
 C H A P T E R V Mathematics and Numerology 105
 CHAPTER VI Fractals & Lotus-Design Elements of Borobodur page 113
 CHAPTERVII The Temple as a Mandala page 134
 CHAPTER VIII Algorithms in the Temple 154
 CHAPTER IX UNESCO on Borobudur 165
 Story of the Buddha in Pictures 166
 About the Author page 186 Srishti Dokras
 About the Author page 188 Kinjal Shah
 About the Author page 190 Dr Uday Dokras

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 Acknowledgement and Introduction
What now is Birth?
The birth of beings belonging to this or that order of beings, their
being born, their conception and springing into existence, the
manipulation of the aggregates of existence, the arising of sense
activity:-this is called birth.

And what is Decay? The decay of beings belonging to this or that

order of beings; the getting aged, and frail, grey and wrinkled; the
failing of their vital force, the wearing out of the senses:-this is
called decay.

And what is Death? The parting and vanishing of beings out of this
or that order of beings, their destruction, disappearance, death, the
completion of their life-period, dissolution of the aggregates of
existence the discarding of the body:-this is called death.

-Gautama Buddha
Borobudur and the concept of path in Buddhism
Paths have been pervasive in human civilization. We are all familiar with the streets, trails,
and lanes along which we routinely travel. Ancient Roman roads are utilized in some
places even today. In contemporary computer culture we follow “paths” on webpages as
we find our way to the information or experience we are searching for or find
unexpectedly. There are simulated paths in complex first-person virtual reality video
environments, where role-playing games formulate their content around the path to be
conquered. The idea of path is an important concept in Buddhism, and is essential in
understanding the meaning and purpose of one of the most remarkable and impressive
monuments in the world: Borobudur.

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Located on the island of Java in Indonesia, the rulers of the Śailendra Dynasty built the
Temple of Borobudur around 800 C.E. as a monument to the Buddha (exact dates vary
among scholars). The temple (or candi in Javanese, pronounced “chandi”) fell into disuse
roughly one hundred years after its completion when, for still unknown reasons, the rulers
of Java relocated the governing center to another part of the island. The British Lieutenant
Governor on Java, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, only rediscovered the site in 1814 upon
hearing reports from islanders of an incredible sanctuary deep within the island’s interior.

Candi Borobudur’s design was conceived of by the poet, thinker, and architect
Gunadharma, considered by many today to be a man of great vision and devotion. The
temple has been described in a number of ways. Its basic structure resembles that of a

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pyramid, yet it has been also referred to as a caitya (shrine), a stupa (reliquary), and a
sacred mountain. In fact, the name Śailendra literally means “Lord of the Mountain.” While
the temple exhibits characteristics of all these architectural configurations, its overall plan
is that of a three-dimensional mandala—a diagram of the cosmos used for meditation—and
it is in that sense where the richest understanding of the monument occurs.

Aerial photo of Borobudur (Tropenmuseum Collection)

The journey
Set high upon a hill vertically enhanced by its builders to achieve a greater elevation,
Borobudur consists of a series of open-air passageways that radiate around a central axis
mundi (cosmic axis). Devotees circumambulate clockwise along walkways that gradually
ascend to its uppermost level. At Borobudur, geometry, geomancy, and theology all
instruct adherents toward the ultimate goal of enlightenment. Meticulously carved relief
sculptures mediate a physical and spiritual journey that guides pilgrims progressively
toward higher states of consciousness.

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Wilson Loo Kok Wee (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The entire site contains 504 statues of the Buddha. 1460 stone reliefs on the walls and
opposite balustrades decorate the first four galleries, with an additional 1212 decorative
reliefs augmenting the path. The relief sculptures narrate the Buddha’s teachings (the
Dharma), depict various events related to his past lives (Jataka tales), and illustrate didactic
stories taken from important Buddhist scriptures (sutras). Interestingly, another 160 relief
sculptures adorn the base of the monument, but are concealed behind stone buttresses that
were added shortly after the building’s construction in order to further support the
structure’s weight. The hidden narrative reliefs were photographed when they were
discovered in the late 19th century before the stones were put back to help ensure the
temple’s stability.

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Borobudur, photo: Gildardo Sánchez (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Claire André (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)-Borobudur, Indonesia (photo: Claire André(Opens in a new window), CC
BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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Borobudur, central stupa, photo: pierre c. 38 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Borobudur, Indonesia, central stupa at the temple's apex in the distance (photo: pierre c.
38, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Moving past the base and through the four galleries, the devotee emerges onto the three
upper terraces, encountering 72 stupas each containing a three-dimensional sculpture of a
seated Buddha within a stone latticework. At the temple’s apex sits the large central stupa,
a symbol of the enlightened mind.

The experience of meaning

While the sheer size and scope of a mandala structure such as this makes the site worthy of
admiration, it is important to understand how the experience of Borobudur relates to the
philosophic and spiritual underpinnings of the Buddhist religion it reifies and
commemorates. Since its inception, roughly 2500 years ago, Buddhism has directly
engaged what it sees as the paradoxical nature of human existence. The most essential tenet
the religion promulgates is the impermanent, transient nature of existence. Transcendental
wisdom via the Dharma (the Noble Eight-Fold Path) hinges on recognizing that attachment
to the idea of a fixed, immutable “self” is a delusion.

Enlightenment entails embracing the concept of “no-self” (anattā), understood to be at the

heart of eliminating the suffering and dissatisfaction (dukkha) of sentient beings. This is the
ultimate message expressed in the sacred scriptures that are solidified in artistic
magnificence along the stone walls and railings of Borobudur. The physical movement of
circumambulating the structure symbolizes the non-physical—or spiritual—path of
enlightenment. In a real sense, then, the concept of path within Borobudur monumentalizes
the impermanent. Like a river that is never the same from moment to moment, to physically
move along the path while meditating on the spiritual message of the sutras is meant to
help one fully embrace the Buddha’s paradoxical message of impermanence.

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From the Gandavyuha Sutra, Borobudur, photo: Photo Dharma (CC BY 2.0)

The texts illustrated on the walls refer to pathways as well. For instance, the Gandavyuha
Sutra forms a major segment of the temple’s upper galleries. The last chapter of a larger
text called the Flower Garland Sutra, it relates the story of Suddhana, a youth who
commences a journey to meet fifty-three teachers while seeking the path to enlightenment.
The concept of “path” is a central theme in the text. He eventually meets an enlightened
being (bodhisattva) named Samantabadhra. Excerpts from the larger sutra illustrate the
concepts under discussion:

“I will lead those who have lost their way to the right road. I will be a bright light for those
in the dark night, and cause the poor and destitute to uncover hidden treasures. The
Bodhisattva impartially benefits all living beings in this manner.
I vow to shut the door to evil destinies and open the right paths of humans, gods and that of
Nirvana.
Once any sentient beings see the Buddha, it will cause them to clear away habitual
obstructions. And forever abandon devilish actions: This is the path traveled by
Illumination.
Sentient Beings are blinded by ignorance, always confused; the light of Buddha illuminates
the path of safety. To rescue them and cause suffering to be removed.
All sentient beings are on false paths—Buddha shows them the right path, inconceivable,
causing all worlds to be vessels of truth...”

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From darkness into light
The idea of moving from the darkness into the light is the final element of the experience of
Borobudur. The temple’s pathway takes one from the earthly realm of desire (kamadhatu),
represented and documented on the hidden narratives of the structure’s earthbound base,
through the world of forms (rupadhatu) as expounded on the narratives carved along the
four galleries set at right angles, until one finally emerges into the realm of formlessness
(arupadhatu) as symbolized and manifested in the open circular terraces crowned with 72
stupas.

Borobudur, photo: Paul Atkinson (CC BY-SA 2.0)

However, the symbolization of enlightenment these stupas represent is not intended to be

merely aesthetic. Buddhist stupas and mandalas are understood as “spiritual technologies”
that harness spiritual “energies” in the creation of sacred space. The repetition of form and
the circumabulatory progress of the pilgrim mimic, and thereby access, the cosmological as
a microcosm. The clockwise movement around the cosmic center reproduces the
macrocosmic path of the sun. Thus, when one emerges from the dark galleries representing
the realms of desire and form into the light of the “formless” circular open air upper
walkways, the material effect of light on one’s physical form merges concomitantly with
the spiritual enlightenment generated by the metaphysical journey of the sacred path.
Light, in all its paradoxes, is the ultimate goal. The crowning stupa of this sacred mountain
is dedicated to the “Great Sun Buddha” Vairocana. The temple sits in cosmic proximity to
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the nearby volcano Mt. Merapi. During certain times of the year the path of the rising sun
in the East seems to emerge out of the mountain to strike the temple’s peak in radiant
synergy. Light illuminates the stone in a way that is intended to be more than beautiful. The
brilliance of the site can be found in how the Borobudur mandala blends the metaphysical
and physical, the symbolic and the material, the cosmological and the earthly within the
structure of its physical setting and the framework of spiritual paradox.
Notes:
Borobudur and many other archaeological sites in South and Southeast Asia often have
orientalized narratives attached to them wherein colonizers “discover” or “bring to light”
ancient monuments. These distortions discount the real and living history of the site.

______________________________________________________________________
Essay by Robert E. Gordon
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/southeast-asia/maritime-se-asia/a/borobudur?modal=1

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 CHAPTER I

Astronomy:Borobudur Temple Compounds

The world-famous Javanese temple of Borobudur is located at the westernmost end of a

straight line which includes two “satellite” temples, Mendut and Pawon. Originally, the
three buildings were probably connected by a processional path running along this line.
It is shown here that the alignment points, at the horizon, where the sun sets in the days
of the zenith passages. This orientation is likely intentional and related to a ritual
procession which connected the three temples, mimicking the path of the sun in the sky.
The temple is endowed with two “satellite” temples, Mendut and Pawon, probably built
in the same period (Chandra 1980).

It is very well known indeed that the temples are located along a straight line: from “east
to west” (the orientation is not cardinal, as we shall specify below) we find Mendut,
Pawon at 1150 meters as the crow flies, and finally, further 1750 m west, Borobudur
(Fig. 2). This topographical relationship looks hardly casual, as probably a processional
way ran along the line in ancient times (the path is still partly mimicked by the modern
road from Borobodur to Pawon up to the river Pogo). The orientation of the axis could be
chosen at will by placing the satellite temples in an appropriate way, and the macroscopic
deviation from the east-west direction appears rather odd at the first sight, since the
Borobodur main complex is instead oriented to the cardinal points. It is, therefore, worth
considering the possibility of an astronomically significant orientation.
A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or
southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices
occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countries, the seasons of the
year are determined by reference to the solstices and the equinoxes.
The term solstice can also be used in a broader sense, as the day when this occurs. The day
of a solstice in either hemisphere has either the most sunlight of the year (summer solstice)
or the least sunlight of the year (winter solstice) for any place other than the Equator.
Alternative terms, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context, are "June

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solstice" and "December solstice", referring to the months in which they take place every
year.[3]
The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol ("sun") and sistere ("to stand still"), because
at the solstices, the Sun's declination appears to "stand still"; that is, the seasonal movement
of the Sun's daily path (as seen from Earth) pauses at a northern or southern limit before
reversing direction.1
Definitions and Frames of references: For an observer on the North Pole, the Sun reaches
the highest position in the sky once a year in June. The day this occurs is called the June
solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the Sun reaches the highest
position on the December solstice day. When it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is
the winter solstice on the other. The Sun's westerly motion never ceases as Earth is
continually in rotation. However, the Sun's motion in declination comes to a stop at the
moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means "sun-standing".

____________________________________________________________________
1. Archaeoastronomy of the “Sun path” at Borobudur,Giulio
Magli,School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction
Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1712/1712.06486.pdf

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 UT date and time of
equinoxes and solstices on Earth

event equinox solstice equinox solstice

month March June September December

year day time day time day time day time

2016 20 04:31 20 22:35 22 14:21 21 10:45

2017 20 10:29 21 04:25 22 20:02 21 16:29

2018 20 16:15 21 10:07 23 01:54 21 22:22

2019 20 21:58 21 15:54 23 07:50 22 04:19

2020 20 03:50 20 21:43 22 13:31 21 10:03

2021 20 09:37 21 03:32 22 19:21 21 15:59

2022 20 15:33 21 09:14 23 01:04 21 21:48

2023 20 21:25 21 14:58 23 06:50 22 03:28

2024 20 03:07 20 20:51 22 12:44 21 09:20

2025 20 09:02 21 02:42 22 18:20 21 15:03

2026 20 14:46 21 08:25 23 00:06 21 20:50

This modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman
Republic of the 1st century BC: solstitium. Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural
History with a similar meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language
morphemes, sol, "sun", and -stitium, "stoppage".The Romans used "standing" to refer to a
component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity
is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference.
From a fixed position on the ground, the Sun appears to orbit around Earth.
To an observer in an inertial frame of reference, planet Earth is seen to rotate about
an axis and revolve around the Sun in an elliptical path with the Sun at one focus. Earth's
axis is tilted with respect to the plane of Earth's orbit and this axis maintains a position that

21
changes little with respect to the background of stars. An observer on Earth therefore sees a
solar path that is the result of both rotation and revolution.

A solargraph taken from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment at the Llano de Chajnantor
Observatory in the southern hemisphere. This is a long-exposure photograph, with the
image exposed for six months in a direction facing east of north, from mid-December 2009
until the southern winter solstice in June 2010.[6] The Sun's path each day can be seen from
right to left in this image across the sky; the path of the following day runs slightly lower,
until the day of the winter solstice, whose path is the lowest one in the image.
The component of the Sun's motion seen by an earthbound observer caused by the
revolution of the tilted axis – which, keeping the same angle in space, is oriented toward or
away from the Sun – is an observed daily increment (and lateral offset) of the elevation of
the Sun at noon for approximately six months and observed daily decrement for the
remaining six months. At maximum or minimum elevation, the relative yearly motion of
the Sun perpendicular to the horizon stops and reverses direction.
Outside of the tropics, the maximum elevation occurs at the summer solstice and the
minimum at the winter solstice. The path of the Sun, or ecliptic, sweeps north and south
between the northern and southern hemispheres. The days are longer around the summer
solstice and shorter around the winter solstice. When the Sun's path crosses the equator, the
length of the nights at latitudes +L° and −L° are of equal length. This is known as
an equinox. There are two solstices and two equinoxes in a tropical year.
Season
The seasons occur because the Earth's axis of rotation is not perpendicular to its orbital
plane (the plane of the ecliptic) but currently makes an angle of about 23.44° (called
the obliquity of the ecliptic), and because the axis keeps its orientation with respect to
an inertial frame of reference. As a consequence, for half the year the Northern Hemisphere
is inclined toward the Sun while for the other half year the Southern Hemisphere has this

22
distinction. The two moments when the inclination of Earth's rotational axis has maximum
effect are the solstices.
At the June solstice the subsolar point is further north than any other time: at latitude
23.44° north, known as the Tropic of Cancer. Similarly at the December solstice the
subsolar point is further south than any other time: at latitude 23.44° south, known as
the Tropic of Capricorn. The subsolar point will cross every latitude between these two
extremes exactly twice per year.
Also during the June solstice, places on the Arctic Circle (latitude 66.56° north) will see the
Sun just on the horizon during midnight, and all places north of it will see the Sun above
horizon for 24 hours. That is the midnight sun or midsummer-night sun or polar day. On
the other hand, places on the Antarctic Circle (latitude 66.56° south) will see the Sun just
on the horizon during midday, and all places south of it will not see the Sun above horizon
at any time of the day. That is the polar night. During the December Solstice, the effects on
both hemispheres are just the opposite. This sees polar sea ice re-grow annually due to lack
of sunlight on the air above and surrounding sea.

Orientation of the terminator (division between night and day) depends /on the
season./Illumination of Earth by Sun on 21 June. The orientation of the terminator
shown with respect to the Earth's orbital plane. /Illumination of Earth by Sun on 21
December. The orientation of the terminator shown with respect to the Earth's orbital
plane./Diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the north. Far right: southern
solstice

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 Diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the south. Far left: northern solstice/The
globe on an equirectangular projection to show the amount of reflected sunlight at
southern and northern summer solstices, respectively (watts / m2).
Cultural aspects: The concept of the solstices was embedded in ancient Greek celestial
navigation. As soon as they discovered that the Earth is spherical[8] they devised the
concept of the celestial sphere, an imaginary spherical surface rotating with the heavenly
bodies (ouranioi) fixed in it (the modern one does not rotate, but the stars in it do). As long
as no assumptions are made concerning the distances of those bodies from Earth or from
each other, the sphere can be accepted as real and is in fact still in use. The Ancient Greeks
use the term "ηλιοστάσιο" (heliostāsio), meaning stand of the Sun.
The stars move across the inner surface of the celestial sphere along
the circumferences of circles in parallel planes[10] perpendicular to the Earth's axis extended
indefinitely into the heavens and intersecting the celestial sphere in a celestial pole.[11] The
Sun and the planets do not move in these parallel paths but along another circle, the
ecliptic, whose plane is at an angle, the obliquity of the ecliptic, to the axis, bringing the
Sun and planets across the paths of and in among the stars.*
Cleomedes states:
The band of the Zodiac (zōdiakos kuklos, "zodiacal circle") is at an oblique angle (loksos)
because it is positioned between the tropical circles and equinoctial circle touching each of
the tropical circles at one point ... This Zodiac has a determinable width (set at 8° today) ...
that is why it is described by three circles: the central one is called "heliacal" (hēliakos, "of
the sun").
The term heliacal circle is used for the ecliptic, which is in the center of the zodiacal circle,
conceived as a band including the noted constellations named on mythical themes. Other
authors use Zodiac to mean ecliptic, which first appears in a gloss of unknown author in a
passage of Cleomedes where he is explaining that the Moon is in the zodiacal circle as well
and periodically crosses the path of the Sun. As some of these crossings

24
represent eclipses of the Moon, the path of the Sun is given a synonym, the ekleiptikos
(kuklos) from ekleipsis, "eclipse".
English names
The two solstices can be distinguished by different pairs of names, depending on which
feature one wants to stress.
 Summer solstice and winter solstice are the most common names, referring to the
seasons they are associated with. However, these can be ambiguous since the northern
hemisphere's summer is the southern hemisphere's winter, and vice versa.
The Latinate names estival solstice (summer) and hibernal solstice (winter) are
sometimes used to the same effect,[13] as are midsummer and midwinter.
 June solstice and December solstice refer to the months of year in which they take
place,[14] with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not
universal, however, as not all cultures use a solar-based calendar where the solstices
occur every year in the same month (as they do not in the Islamic calendar and Hebrew
calendar, for example).
 Northern solstice and southern solstice indicate the hemisphere of the Sun's
location.[15] The northern solstice is in June, when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of
Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the southern solstice is in December, when the
Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere.[16] These
terms can be used unambiguously for other planets.
 First point of Cancer and first point of Capricorn refer to the astrological signs that
the sun "is entering" (a system rooted in Roman Classical period dates). Due to
the precession of the equinoxes, the constellations the sun appears in at solstices are
currently Taurus in June and Sagittarius in December.

Names of the equinoxes and solstices

By date By season By season

By sun position
Ls (Julian (Northern (Southern
(subsolar point)
calendar) Hemisphere) Hemisphere)

Northward Vernal (spring) Autumnal (fall)

0° March equinox
equinox equinox equinox

Estival (summer) Hibernal (winter)

90° June solstice Northern solstice
solstice solstice

September Southward Autumnal (fall) Vernal (spring)

180°
equinox equinox equinox equinox

270° December Southern solstice Hibernal (winter) Estival (summer)

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 solstice solstice solstice

Many cultures celebrate various combinations of the winter and summer solstices, the
equinoxes, and the midpoints between them, leading to various holidays arising around
these events. During the southern or winter solstice, Christmas is the most widespread
contemporary holiday, while Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
and Yule are also celebrated around this time. In East Asian cultures, the Dongzhi
Festival is celebrated on the winter solstice. For the northern or summer solstice, Christian
cultures celebrate the feast of St. John from June 23 to 24 (see St. John's Eve, Ivan Kupala
Day), while Modern Pagans observe Midsummer, known as Litha among Wiccans. For the
vernal (spring) equinox, several springtime festivals are celebrated, such as
the Persian Nowruz, the observance in Judaism of Passover, the rites of Easter in most
Christian churches, as well as the Wiccan Ostara. The autumnal equinox is associated with
the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and the Wiccan Mabon.

In the southern tip of South America, the Mapuche people celebrate We Tripantu (the New
Year) a few days after the northern solstice, on June 24. Further north, the Atacama
people formerly celebrated this date with a noise festival, to call the Sun back. Further east,
the Aymara people celebrate their New Year on June 21. A celebration occurs at sunrise,
when the sun shines directly through the Gate of the Sun in Tiwanaku. Other Aymara New
Year feasts occur throughout Bolivia, including at the site of El Fuerte de Samaipata.
In the Hindu calendar, two sidereal solstices are named Makara Sankranti which marks the
start of Uttarayana and Karka Sankranti which marks the start of Dakshinayana. The
former occurs around January 14 each year, while the latter occurs around July 14 each
year. These mark the movement of the Sun along a sidereally fixed zodiac (precession is
ignored) into Makara, the zodiacal sign which corresponds with Capricorn, and into Karka,
the zodiacal sign which corresponds with Cancer, respectively.
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station celebrates every year on June 21 a midwinter
party, to celebrate that the Sun is at its lowest point and coming back.
The Fremont Solstice Parade takes place every summer solstice in Fremont, Seattle,
Washington in the United States.

26
The reconstructed Cahokia Woodhenge, a large timber circle located at the Mississippian
culture Cahokia archaeological site near Collinsville, Illinois,[18] is the site of annual
equinox and solstice sunrise observances. Out of respect for Native American beliefs these
events do not feature ceremonies or rituals of any kind.
Solstice determination
Unlike the equinox, the solstice time is not easy to determine. The changes in solar
declination become smaller as the Sun gets closer to its maximum/minimum declination.
The days before and after the solstice, the declination speed is less than 30 arcseconds per
day which is less than 1⁄60 of the angular size of the Sun, or the equivalent to just 2 seconds
of right ascension.
This difference is hardly detectable with indirect viewing based devices
like sextant equipped with a vernier, and impossible with more traditional tools like
a gnomon[22] or an astrolabe. It is also hard to detect the changes on sunrise/sunset azimuth
due to the atmospheric refraction[23] changes. Those accuracy issues render it impossible to
determine the solstice day based on observations made within the 3 (or even 5) days
surrounding the solstice without the use of more complex tools.
Accounts do not survive but Greek astronomers must have used an approximation method
based on interpolation, which is still used by some amateurs. This method consists of
recording the declination angle at noon during some days before and after the solstice,
trying to find two separate days with the same declination. When those two days are found,
the halfway time between both noons is estimated solstice time. An interval of 45 days has
been postulated as the best one to achieve up to a quarter-day precision, in the solstice
determination.[24] In 2012, the journal DIO found that accuracy of one or two hours with
balanced errors can be attained by observing the Sun's equal altitudes about S = twenty
degrees (or d = about 20 days) before and after the summer solstice because the average of
the two times will be early by q arc minutes where q is (πe cosA)/3 times the square of S in
degrees (e = earth orbit eccentricity, A = earth's perihelion or Sun's apogee), and the noise
in the result will be about 41 hours divided by d if the eye's sharpness is taken as one arc
minute.
Astronomical almanacs define the solstices as the moments when the Sun passes through
the solstitial colure, i.e. the times when the apparent geocentric longitude of the Sun is
equal to 90° (summer solstice) or 270° (winter solstice). The dates of the solstice varies

27
each year and may occur a day earlier or later depending on the time zone. The solstices
always occur between June 20 and 22 and between December 20 and 23 with the 21st and
22nd being the most common dates.
In the Constellation: Using the current official IAU constellation boundaries – and taking
into account the variable precession speed and the rotation of the ecliptic – the solstices
shift through the constellations as follows[28] (expressed in astronomical year numbering in
which the year 0 = 1 BC, −1 = 2 BC, etc.):
 The northern solstice passed from Leo into Cancer in year −1458, passed
into Gemini in year −10, passed into Taurus in December 1989, and is expected to pass
into Aries in year 4609.
 The southern solstice passed from Capricornus into Sagittarius in year −130, is
expected to pass into Ophiuchus in year 2269, and is expected to pass into Scorpius in
year 3597.

The 687-day orbit of Mars around the Sun (almost twice that of the Earth) causes its
summer and winter solstices to occur at approximately 23-month intervals.

Borobudur Temple Compounds

Kompleks Candi Borobudur

28
 Borobudur Northwest View

Location Magelang, Central Java

Coordinates Coordinates: 7.608°S 110.204°E

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Type Cultural

Criteria i, ii, vi

Designated 1991 (15th session)

Region Southeast Asia

Borobudur Temple Compounds is the World Heritage designation of the area of three
Buddhist temples in Central Java, Indonesia. It comprises Borobudur, Mendut, and Pawon.
The temples were built during the Shailendra dynasty around the 8th and 9th centuries CE,
and fall on a straight line.
Approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Yogyakarta, Borobudur sits on a plateau
between two twin volcanoes, Sundoro-Sumbing and Merbabu-Merapi, and two rivers, the
Progo and the Elo. According to local myth, the area known as Kedu Plain is a Javanese
sacred place and has been dubbed 'the garden of Java' due to its high agricultural fertility.

29
Three temples – Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut – fall on a straight line
During restoration in the early 20th century, it was discovered that three Buddhist temples
in the region, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, fall on a straight line. This may be
coincidence, but is in agreement with a native folk tale that there was an ancient brick road
from Borobudur to Mendut with walls on both sides. The three temples have similar
architecture and ornamentation, which suggests a ritual relationship between them to form
a sacred unity, although the exact ritual process is unknown.
1.Borobudur Temple
2.Mendut Temple
3. Pawon Temple

30
Other Buddhist temples and Hindu temples are scattered in the area. The earliest is Gunung
Wukir or Canggal Hindu temple dated 732 CE. According to an Canggal inscription
discovered in the temple complex, the Shivaite King Sanjaya commissioned a Shivalinga
sanctuary to be built on the Wukir hill, only 10 km (6 mi) east of Borobudur.
Ngawen temple is found to the east of Mendut temple.
The ruin of Banon temple, a Hindu temple, is several hundred meters north of Pawon
temple. It could not be reconstructed because many stones are missing, but several stone
statues of Hindu gods were found in good condition. Those of Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva and
Ganesha are now at the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta.

The three temples at Borobodur belong to the Mahayana Buddhism. The details of the
cults practised are unsure, but a relationship certainly existed between the temples and the
proclaimed divine nature of the kings who ordered their construction. In this connection,
a possible, symbolic relationship between the three monuments was investigated in details
by Moens (1951). In this controversial but anyhow scholarly work, the idea is that the
temples were connected by a “magical birth” ritual, in which the monarch’s consecration
occurred both as the Buddha and as King. Moens proposed a ritual based on an analogy
with the sun path in the sky in one day, and thus endowed with three main “stations”: east,
zenith, and west. To these steps corresponded for the west, the beginning of the western
31
staircase at Borobudur; for the east, Mendut; and for the zenith, Pawon.
Although this interpretation is well known, it has never been referred explicitly to the
specific days of the zenith passages, a connection which instead looks natural: if the
“solar path” ritual had to be referenced into in the architecture of the temples, and if the
zenith culmination of the sun was, as it seems, a fundamental ingredient of the ritual,
then we would expect the procession to go in the direction from sunrise to sunset, and
the processional path to be oriented in such a way as to indicate the zenith sunset, as it
actually occurs.
Finding comparison belonging to the same cultural context would also be of help, but
one the problems is that Borobodur architectural conception is almost unique.
Besides the already mentioned Bayon, as far as the present author is aware the unique,
vaguely reasonable comparison is the so-called 108 stupas monument, located on a
hillside directly on the western bank of the Yellow River at Qingtongxia, Ningxia, China.
The monument is slightly later than Borobodur, as it was constructed during the Western
Xia dynasty (1038–1227 AD), as part of a greater Buddhist temple complex. It is
composed by 108 stupas of sun-dried mud bricks, arranged in rows disposed in a
triangular formation which narrows with height, from 19 stupas on the first row to the
uppermost single one. A front view of this monument is actually quite reminiscent of one
side of Borobodur.

View of Borobudur Temple Compounds

As far as the present author is aware, the orientation of the 108 stupas monument has

32
 never been studied. The azimuth is 120° which, with an horizon height close to zero,
gives a impressive declination -24° that is, very close to the winter solstice sunrise.
The monument is therefore, with hardly any doubt, astronomically oriented although not
to the same solar phenomenon of the Borobodur axis; of course however, at the latitude
of Ningxia about 37° north, zenith passages do not occur.

One of the Greatest Monuments in the World but Who Built it? The Strange Origins
of Borobudur and the Lost World of Cham
Borobudur is one of the great monuments of Southeast Asia. It is a colossal Buddhist stupa
that rises out of the rice paddies and palm trees with the nearby volcano Gunung Merapi in
the distance. This mysterious and beautifully constructed monument has survived volcanic
eruptions, a 2006 earthquake, and even terrorist bombs.
Even though Borobudur is the most important tourist site on Java, there is no written record
of who built it or of its intended purpose. There are no inscriptions or dates on the
monument—which was partially covered by a lava flow when it was rediscovered—and so
historians must guess as to when it was probably built. Since it is a monument built on a
grand scale, it would seem unusual that no ruler or dynasty takes credit for the structure.
Borobudur is the world’s largest Buddhist temple and acknowledged as one of the greatest
Buddhist monuments in the world. Yet, no one knows who built it!

33
Borobudur temple (22Kartika/ CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Walking the Twisting Path
The temple is actually a stupa that one is supposed to walk in a certain pattern, in a
mandala fashion, to the summit. It consists of nine stacked platforms—six square and three
circular—and is topped by a central dome which is not to be climbed. The stupa has many
staircases and walkways. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha
statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a
perforated stupa that is a stone screen. They look very much like life-size Buddhas inside a
small flying saucer! A few of the Buddha statues inside the perforated stupas have had the
outer stone stupa removed so that the Buddha statue can be clearly seen and photographed.
The stonework is exceptional. Hourglass-style keystone cuts can be seen on some of the
walls where stones have been removed.

34
Intricate and impressive carvings at Borobudur. ( Public Domain )
It has been estimated that Borobudur was a building project on such a scale that it took
many generations to complete the artificial stone mountain. Borobudur is built in the shape
of a gigantic mandala-yantra that is meant to be walked by a pilgrim seeking
enlightenment.

35
A mandala-yantra design. ( Public Domain )
One early suggestion by archaeologists when they began to study Borobudur was that the
huge stupa-hill was surrounded by an artificial lake. In this vision, Borobudur was to have
been the symbol of a lotus flower coming out of the lake. This would have meant that
pilgrimages to Borobudur would have begun by boat. However, modern Indonesian
historians largely reject the idea of a lake being created.

Currently, historians prefer to ascribe Borobudur to the Sailendra (also spelled Shailendra)
dynasty that is said to have begun circa 760 AD, some decades after the origin of the
Srivijayan Empire in Sumatra. However, the Sailendra dynasty itself is shrouded in
mystery, and like those of Srivijaya, its origins seem unclear to modern historians, who are
unsure where these master seafarers came from.

Mysterious Sailendra Dynasty

Current understanding has it that “the Shailendras are [a] thalassocracy and ruled maritime
Southeast Asia, however they also relied on agriculture pursuits through intensive rice
cultivation on the Kedu Plain of Central Java. The dynasty appeared to be the ruling family
of both the Medang Kingdom of Central Java for some period and Srivijaya in Sumatra.”

A relief of the Sailendra King and Queen at Borobudur. (Gunawan Kartapranata/ CC BY-
SA 3.0 )

36
Suddenly, in 700 AD, Java has an organized thalassocracy that now spans eastward to New
Guinea? Where did this network of Hindu seaports, rivers and rice paddies come from? I
think they are offshoots of the seafaring Cham or Champa.

‘Naval battle on a bas-relief at the Bayon, Angkor, showing Cham soldiers in the boat and
dead Khmer fighters in the water.’ (Markalexander100/ CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Researching Origins
According to sources: “Although the rise of the Shailendras occurred in Kedu Plain in the
Javanese heartland, their origin has been the subject of discussion. Apart from Java itself,
an earlier homeland in Sumatra, India or Cambodia has been suggested. The latest studies
apparently favor a native origin of the dynasty. Despite their connections with Srivijaya in
Sumatra and [the] Thai-Malay Peninsula, the Shailendras were more likely of Javanese
origin.”
Borobudur, the World's Biggest Buddhist Temple, Is Actually a UFO By Adi Renaldi

And the craziest part is that Fahmi Basya's theories about Borobudur and King Solomon
are actually gaining ground in some corners of Indonesia.

It was the kind of view people would pay to see. Fahmi Basya had led a dozen people up a
hill in Magelang, Central Java, that looked down at a wide valley below, in a video posted
to YouTube. A chilly fog hung low over the horizon, and beyond that was Borobudur, a

37
majestic Buddhist temple—the largest in the world—that has sat watch over the valley
since the ninth century.
The view was gorgeous, but that wasn't why any of them were there. Fahmi and his
followers were on the hill to search for evidence that everything we think we know about
Borobudur is wrong. It wasn't the grand work of the Shailendra dynasty, a family of royals
who ruled parts of Java and Sumatra from 650 CE to 1025 CE, he later told me. Hell, it
wasn't even Buddhist.
No, to Fahmi, Borobudur is clearly the work of an Islamic ruler. But his theories go much
further. Fahmi believes that Borobudur is part of the ancient Islamic kingdom of Sheba, a
wealthy and peaceful country that was ruled by the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis in the Quran)
and King Solomon, a prophet mentioned in all Abrahamic religions. Borobudur was
actually a temple built for King Solomon—a temple that could fly and traverse oceans like
some kind of ancient version of those giant UFOs from the movie Independence Day.
"I've always believed that Borobudur is some sort of UFO," Fahmi once told his followers
at a seminar five years ago.
It's moments like these that could make a person more in-touch with reality question how
anyone could believe Fahmi's claims. But plenty do. One tour guide at Borobudur told me
that he often sees people wandering around the temple grounds with one of Fahmi's books
in their hand.
"I've seen people scratch the gaps in the stone reliefs with sharp objects to see if it's a door
to a room that can be opened with certain keys," Murad told me. "It's that bad."
This is what convinced me to seek out Fahmi. He's not the first person to suggest that
Indonesia is actually part of some far-grander forgotten history. The leader of the
Swissindo cult—a group that claims it has access to a literal mountain of gold and
platinum and promises to wipe its followers' debts clean—spins a similar yarn that puts
Indonesia at the center of every massive global event in recent history.Others, like
Brazilian writer Arysio Santos, believes that Indonesia is actually the lost city Atlantis. And
Stephen Oppenheimer, a British writer, has theorized that Indonesia, not Mesopotamia, is
the real heart of all human civilization.
But in the annals of batshit crazy ideas, this "Borobudur is also King Solomon's ancient
UFO" theory might just take the cake. Here's what Fahmi believes: Sheba, a nation that
historians believe was in modern-day Yemen, was actually down here in Central Java,

38
where it stretched from Yogyakarta to Wonosobo in the south and north, and from Boyolali
to Kulonprogo in the east and west.Sheba was, in short, a utopia for its time. It was an
incredibly wealthy and peaceful place ruled by a wonderful queen and a man who is
considered a prophet by Muslims. King Solomon was a gifted man. He could speak to
animals and he controlled an army of jinn—spirits found in the Quran—and humans in
battle. One day, he moved his throne to the palace of the Queen of Sheba at an amazing
speed, possibly with the help of the jinn.
Borobudur was this throne, according to Fahmi. And King Solomon moved it to Magelang
with the help of the jinn—he says the complex actually flew through the air—because that's
where Sheba actually was. Fahmi then takes his theories deeper into the realm of the unreal
by arguing that it was the jinn themselves who built Borobudur."There is proof that
Borobudur wasn’t built by humans,” Fahmi told me. “It was impossible to carve the reliefs.
Only jinn can do that."These stone reliefs, which are similar to other reliefs carved in
different temples in different countries at the time, like Cambodia's Angkor Wat complex,
play a huge part in Fahmi's theories. These reliefs, which historians say tell the life of
Buddha, are actually stories from the Quran, according to Fahmi. He laid out the details of
this theory, as well as 39 other pieces of proof, in three books he's written since 2012 that

all say the stone reliefs tell readers about the glories of King Solomon's kingdoms.
A COMPILATION OF EXCERPTS FROM FAHMI BASYA'S BOOKS.
Now, no actual scholar believes any of this, a fact that seems to frustrate Fahmi. Last
November, he showed up at an archeology festival at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada
University and challenged the academics in the crowd to prove that Borobudur wasn't
actually King Solomon's flying temple.
Fahmi is himself an academic—he's a math professor at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah—and he
is adamant that all of his findings are based in the field of "Quranic Science," and on
research he conducted himself between 1982 and 2012 at Borobudur. In the video, Fahmi
walked around the Buddhist temple and pointed out several stone reliefs that he believed
were illustrations of stories from the Quran.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/evqqv4/this-man-believes-that-borobudur-the-worlds-
biggest-buddhist-temple-is-actually-a-ufo

39
Eventually, I began to lose track of his explanations. The so-called proof he kept talking
about was too far-fetched for me to swallow. But I kept listening because his commitment
to this story is still pretty amazing. Fahmi isn't some weekend conspiracy theorist. He's not
hopping on the latest pseudo-science trend like all of Indonesia's Flat Earthers. He's been
pushing this story for the better part of a decade, telling people that the idea first came to
him in a dream he had in prison.
Fahmi was jailed as an activist back during the repressive New Order years, and while he
was in prison, he claimed that Indonesia's founding father Sukarno met him in a dream. In
the dream, Sukarno agreed with Fahmi's theories that Borobudur was actually an Islamic
UFO, not a Buddhist temple. But he kept this dream secret for years, perhaps too scared to
make waves after spending time behind bars. In 2008, he started to write his ideas down. "I
finally put it out there on the internet," he told me.
Soon, his ideas started to make their way through Indonesia, where an audience receptive
to conspiracy theories started to take his ideas as fact, regardless of how far-fetched they
really seemed. It's almost like the people who once believed that Indonesia was the cradle
of civilization or the lost city of Atlantis found a new theory to believe in, one that
conveniently recast a temple recognized as a vital part of global culture as an Islamic relic,
not a Buddhist one.

40
Fahmi seized on this newfound popularity, holding "expeditions," to explore "ancient
Sheba," in Central Java. To date, he's done 15 of these fact-finding missions, charging Rp 3
million ($217 USD) per-person for each one. He's also regularly invited to speak at
mosques and has more than 18,000 followers on his Facebook account.But sometimes his
attempts to prove that all of this is real cross the line from the absurd to the cringeworthy.
For a while, Fahmi was telling people that Borobudur was actually King Solomon's final
resting place as well as his temple. So, of course, it likely contained some of the prophet's
treasures. In a video now deleted from his YouTube—but thankfully preserved online—his
followers attempt to swipe a plastic card in a gap between the stone reliefs like it's some
kind of ATM. Then, in bit of a crude animation, the relief seems to open up to display a
drawer of treasure.
Archaeologists have flat-out rejected Fahmi’s theories. If Islam forbids its followers from
creating and worshipping statues and idols—why would King Solomon build a massive
temple, one of the largest in the world, full of statues and idols?
And if "Quranic science" and Islamic mathematics are the basis of his Sheba theories, then
Fahmi must have forgotten that Hinduism and Buddhism each have their own mathematical
systems too, said Niken Wirasanti, an archaeologist from Gadjah Mada University. “The
texts in Borobudur were written in old Javanese," Niken told me. "If Borobudur was an
Islamic relic, shouldn’t the text be written in Arabic?”
Archaeologist Goenawan A. Sambodo, who's an expert on ancient Javanese script, agreed
with his colleague's assessment. There's not a shred of evidence supporting Fahmi's ideas.
But that hasn't stopped some Islamic schools from teaching his ideas as fact, Goenawan
said with concern.
“This is obviously a Buddhist relic,” Goenawan told me. “Even if it was based on Islamic
mathematics or research, there are lots of scientific references that show that Borobudur is
a Buddhist temple.”I tried to talk to Fahmi about some of the plot holes in their theories,
but he refused to budge. Instead, he doubled-down on his ideas, telling me that I only had
to look at the name of the district that lies just north of Yogyakarta city.The district is
called Sleman, which sounds a bit like Solomon when you say it aloud.“The only Muslim
prophet with a Javanese name is Solomon,” Fahmi said. “This place called Sleman is his
legacy. You must remember that."But, Solomon was in the Christian Bible too. And
millions of Indonesians have Arabic names. But the moment I tried to suggest any of this,

41
Fahmi hung up the phone. I guess, for him, it doesn't really matter what the rest of the
world thinks—at least not when it concerns telling him that temple's can't fly.

42
 CHAPTER II
Indian design Influences of Borobudur

Timeline
4,000 BC Javanese descended from seafarers of China.

6th century BC Birth of Gautama Buddha.

400 AD Java becomes sea link between India and China

Javanese began carving stone statues and inscriptions.

768-814 Charlemagne rules from northeastern Spain north to

the Baltic Sea and east into the Italian peninsula. He is
crowned emperor in 800 AD.

800s Mayans build large cities with tens of thousands of

inhabitants under reign of King Samaratunga.

7th and 8th Monks and holy men make pilgrimages to Java from
centuries Asian continent.

8th – 13th Sailendra dynasty rules Sumatra and Java.

centuries

750 to 850 Golden Age of the Sailendra dynasty.

43
760 Probable beginning of Borobudur construction.

830 Probable completion of Borobudur construction.

700-900 People of Central Java enjoy a high level of cultural

development, erecting many grand palaces and
religious monuments.

c.930 Javanese culture and political life move east, away

from the lands around Borobudur.

13th – 14th Islam religion comes to Java.

centuries

1500-1800s Borobudur is abandoned; volcanic ash fills the

galleries; vegetation, including trees, takes root on the
buried monument.

1709 According to the 18th century chronicle Babad Tanah

Jawi, the rebel Ki Mas Dana makes a stand at
Borobudur in a revolt against the Sultan of Mataram.
The monument is besieged and the rebel defeated,
brought before the king and sentenced to death.

1758 In the Babad Mataram (History of the Kingdom of

Mataram), a story is told of the crown prince of the
Sultanate of Yogyakarta, who disobeyed his father
and journeyed to climb "the mountain of a thousand
statues." The Sultan sent his men to bring him back,
but he became ill and died as soon as he returned to
the palace.

1811-1816 Java comes under British rule.

1814 Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, the English

Lieutenant Governor of Java, is informed of the
existence of a huge monument called Chandi
Borobudur. Raffles orders Dutch engineer officer

44
 H.C. Cornelius and two hundred villagers to fell trees,
burn undergrowth and dig away the earth that covers
the monument.

1815 May 18th: Raffles visits Borobudur.

1844 A bamboo teahouse is built on top of the central stupa

of the monument.

1885 Panels that surround the hidden base of Borobudur are

discovered by J.W. Ijzerman, Chairman of the
Archeological Society in Yogyakarta, under the
processional pathway that has been built around the
monument. This discovery brings about renewed
efforts to safeguard Borobudur from vandalism and
natural threats.

1890-1891 The hidden panels are excavated and photographed,

then the pathway is replaced.

1896 Dutch Colonial officials give the King of Siam eight

wagon loads of statues and bas-reliefs from
Borobudur, including five of the best Buddhas and
two complete stone lions.

1911 A Dutch archeologist from Leiden University paints

many of the reliefs with ochre to improve his
photography. The yellow ochre remains, encouraging
the growth of algae, fungus, lichen and moss on the
stones themselves.

1907-1911 The first major restoration project at Borobudur is

begun by Theodor van Erp, a Dutch army engineer
officer. He spends the first seven months excavating
the grounds around the monument, finding missing
Buddha heads and panel stones. Van Erp then

45
 dismantles and rebuilds the upper three circular
terraces and crumbling stupas. His team cleans many
of the sculptures of moss and lichen. However, he is
unable to solve the drainage problem which is
undercutting the monument. Within fifteen years, the
gallery walls are sagging and the reliefs show signs of
new cracks and deterioration.

1948 The Republic of Indonesia comes into existence.

1955 The Indonesian government asks UNESCO for advice

on treating the weathered stones of Borobudur.

1968 The Indonesian government and the United Nations,

working through UNESCO, launch a "Save
Borobudur" campaign. A bold plan is proposed to
dismantle and rebuild the lower terraces of
Borobudur, clean and treat the story panels, and install
a new drainage system to stop further erosion.

1971 The plan is approved by the Indonesian government

and restoration committee.

1975 Restoration work begins.

1983 Feb. 23: Completion of the project is marked by an

inaugural ceremony.

1991 Borobudur is included in UNESCO's World Heritage

list.

Borobudur represents not only the creativity of Javanese geniuses but also one of the
world’s greatest constructional and artistic masterpieces. It represents the spirit of the
Monastic movement in India as materialised in this structure, with influences from the
eastern school of India and the architecture of Bengal. To understand the design elements,
we need to focus our opticals on 14 of the following.

46
1.Buddhist temples and buildings of India
2.Stupas -Buddhist Memorial Monument
3.The Indian prototype- Sanchi Stupa
4. History of Stupas
5. Sanchi: Home of the World's Oldest Stupa
6.Buddhist temples
7. Features
8. Temple Gates
9. Borobudur: the Ultimate Buddhist Temple
10. Indian connect in the history of Borobodur
11. Why it was built
12. Shailendra dynasty
13. The Sailendras and indian buddhism
14. Architectural development in stūpa structure

1. Buddhist temples and buildings of India

There are essentially three kinds of Buddhist structures:
1) stupas, bell-shaped structures that contain a holy relic or scripture;
2) temples, place of worship somewhat similar to a church; and
3) monasteries, which contain living quarters and meditation cells for monks.

Stupas are solid structures that typically cannot be entered and were constructed to contain
sacred Buddhist relics that are hidden from view (and vandals) in containers buried at their
core or in the walls. Temples have an open interior that may be entered and in which are
displayed one or more cult images as a focus for worship. Although this simple distinction
between Stupa and temple is useful, the distinction is not always clear. There are stupas
that have the external form of a stupa but are like a temple with an inner corridor and
multiple shrines.
Local temples are essentially self sufficient and rely on their own lands and support from
the local lay community to keep going. Property belongs to the community. There is not a
hierarchy of priest, bishops and archbishops like there is Christianity.

47
The word pagoda is sometimes used to collectively describe stupas and temples but
generally refers to Japanese- and Chinese style towers inspired by South Asian stupa. The
word pagoda is derived from dagada , the word used for relic chamber in Sri Lanka.
Classic Japanese- and Chinese-style pagodas usually have multiple stories, each with a
graceful, tiled Chinese-style roof, and a top roof capped by a spire. The base represents the
earth, the spire symbolizes heaven, and the connecting piece symbolizing the cosmic axis,
to the Way.

History of Buddhist Temples

Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodhgaya, where Buddha experienced his enlightenment

The word for temple in many languages is the same as cave. Many early Buddhist temples
were "artificial caves" that attempted to recreate the atmosphere of Buddhist caves in
northern India. Describing what they were probably like, the historian Paul Strachen wrote:

48
In his book Pagan: Art and Architecture of Old Burma , "the now spartan
brick gu [temple]" was "cluttered with regal objects and requisites, a clamor of activity as
food offerings were shuttled from the kitchens down passageways crowded with chanting
devotees, brightly colored wall paintings, gilded furnishings and flapping banners and
hangings...the usual plain, seated Buddha image, found in the deserted temples of Pagan
today, would have been bathed, perfumed and dresses with the finest and most costly
garments."
The architecture of Buddhist temples is influenced by the architecture of country in which
they are found and various traditions of Buddhist architecture. Japanese pagodas, for
example, have unique Japanese features that are modeled after Chinese-style pagodas,
which in turn were modeled after Indian stupas.
Because ancient wood temples were often destroyed by fire, temples today are usually
made of brick and stone with brass and iron ornaments. Chinese pagodas were often built
to commemorate important leaders or event or house important artifacts or documents.
Many Buddhist temples are located in the forests and mountains. There are two reason for
their remote locations: first, mountains and forest have always been associated with
spiritual purity, and second, Buddhist monks were often persecuted and remote location
gave them some safety. In China, Japan and Thailand temples are often in the middle of
town.
2. STUPAS -Buddhist Memorial Monument
The first and most fundamental of Buddhist architectural monuments, the Buddhist
stupa serves as a marker for a sacred space, a symbolic representation of the Buddha’s
burial mound.
To understand the stupas and pagodas that one will see throughout Asia—including those
in Angkor, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, China, Japan—it is helpful
to first appreciate the design of the earliest stupas, which can be found in India and Sri
Lanka. These stupas exerted great influence on later designs.

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 Great Stupa, Sanchi, India.forerunner for Bodobodur
3. The Indian Prototype: Sanchi Stupa
The Great Stupa at Sanchi, in central India, is one of the earliest stupas; it served as an
architectural prototype for all others that followed. The world-famous stupa — first
constructed by the 3rd century BCE Mauryan ruler Ashoka in brick (the same material as
those of Sri Lanka) — was later expanded to twice its original size in stone.

50
 Elevation and plan. Great Stupa, Sanchi, India.
In the most basic sense, as an architectural representation of a sacred burial site, a stupa—
no matter where it is located in the world or when it was built—has three fundamental
features.
 A hemispherical mound (anda). The anda’s domed shape (green highlights)
recalls a mound of dirt that was used to cover the Buddha’s remains. As you might
expect, it has a solid core and cannot be entered. Consistent with their symbolic
associations, the earliest stupas contained actual relics of the Buddha; the relic
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 chamber, buried deep inside the anda, is called the tabena. Over time, this
hemispherical mound has taken on an even grander symbolic association: the mountain
home of the gods at the center of the universe.
 A square railing (harmika). The harmika (red highlights) is inspired by a square
railing or fence that surrounded the mound of dirt, marking it as a sacred burial site.
 A central pillar supporting a triple-umbrella form (chattra).The chattra, in turn,
was derived from umbrellas that were placed over the mound to protect it from the
elements (purple highlights). Just as the anda’s symbolic value expanded over time, the
central pillar that holds the umbrellas has come to represent the pivot of the universe,
the axis mundi along which the divine descends from heaven and becomes accessible to
humanity. And the three circular umbrella-like disks represent the three Jewels, or
Triantha, of Buddhism, which are the keys to a true understanding of the faith: (a)
Buddha; (b) dharma (Buddhist teachings or religious law); and (c) sangha (monastic
community).
Around these three core building blocks were added secondary features.
 Enclosure wall with decorated gateways (toranas) at the cardinal
directions. The wall — with its trademark three horizontal stone bars (in the top
image) — surrounds the entire structure. The wall is marked in light blue highlights and
the toranas in yellow.
 A circular terrace (medhi). The terrace—surrounded by a similar three-bar
railing—supports the anda and raises it off the ground (black highlights); it likely
served as a platform for ritual circumambulation.

4.History of Stupas
After Buddha's death his relics were divided and a number of stupas were built to house
them. Although no ancient stupas remain the relics they housed are believed to have been
saved and placed in other stupas. Many of the oldest stupas date back to the period of
Buddhist expansions during the rule of King Ashoka (268-239 B.C.) The objects inside
stupas are often unknown. A gold reliquary excavated from a 2nd century B.C. stupa in
Bimaran Afghanistan was decorated with images of Buddha and Hindu gods. The reliquary
is believed to have contained the ashes of a revered saint or some object he touched.

52
Stupa developed in India in the 3rd century B.C. and were general objects of worship for
Buddhists before the formation of Buddha imagery, sculpture and painting. Sanchi stupa,
built near present-day Bhopal, India, is the oldest. It is shaped like a half sphere and built to
allow worship around it. The functions of Buddhist stupas were also diffused, and shapes
show a variety of styles in each cultural area.

Great Stupa in Sanchi

Stupa is a Sanskrit word that literally means “to heap” or “to pile up." Some scholars
believe that stupas predated Buddhism and originally were mounds of dirt or rocks built to
honor dead kings. Later, these scholars say, the Buddha imbued them with spiritual
meaning. Sylvia Somerville wrote in her book on stupas: “This explanation runs counter to
Buddhist tradition, which maintains that because the stupa conveys enlightened qualities, it
could only have been revealed by the mind of enlightenment. …In fact, some stupas, such
as the Swayambhunath Stupa in Nepal, are believed to be self-arising expressions of
enlightenment."
Stupas are the oldest Buddhist religious monuments. The first Buddhist ones were simple
mounds of mud or clay built to enclose relics of Buddha. In the third century B.C., after his
conversion to Buddhism, Emperor Asoka ordered the original stupas opened and the
remains were distributed among the several thousand stupas he had built. Stupas at the
eight places associated with the life of the Buddha were important before Ashoka and
continued to after his death. Over time, stupas changed from being funerary monuments to
being objects of veneration. As this occurred they also changed in appearance changed
also.
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Over the centuries many old stupas became pilgrimage sites. Famous ones became the
center of complex ceremonial areas. They were often surrounded by a railing with
gateways, through which pilgrims entered the ceremonial ground. Stone lions guarded the
entrances. Outside vendors sold food and offerings to pilgrims.

5.Sanchi: Home of the World's Oldest Stupa

Sanchi (30 miles from Bhopal) is a pilgrimage site that attracts worshipers from all over
the world who come to see Buddhist art and architecture that dates back to the third century
B.C. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989 and regarded as one of the most
remarkable archaeological complexes in India, it contains monasteries and the world's
oldest stupa.

“Sanchi is the oldest extant Buddhist sanctuary. Although Buddha never visited the site
during any of his former lives or during his earthly existence, the religious nature of this
shrine is obvious. The chamber of relics of Stupa 1 contained the remains of Shariputra, a

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disciple of Shakyamuni who died six months before his master; he is especially venerated
by the occupants of the 'small vehicle' or Hinayana. Having remained a principal centre of
Buddhism in medieval India following the spread of Hinduism, Sanchi bears unique
witness as a major Buddhist sanctuary to the period from the 3rd century BC to the 1st
century AD."

Eight Great Stupas

6.Buddhist Temples
A temple is a place of worship as opposed to a shrine, which is a sacred place for praying.
It generally contains an image of Buddha and has a place where Buddhists practice
devotional activities. Temples attract large crowds during festivals or if they are famous but
otherwise a fairly quiet. They are often sought as places for quiet meditation, with most
acts of worship and devotion being done in front of an altar at home.
Buddhist temples are generally a cluster of buildings---whose number and size depends on
the size of the temple---situated in an enclosed area. Large temples have several halls,
where people can pray, and living quarters for monks. Smaller ones have a single hall, a
house fore a resident monk and a bell. Some have cemeteries.
Temples can be several stories high and often have steeply sloped roofs are often
supported by elaborately-decorated and colorfully-painted eaves and brackets. The main
shrines often contain a Buddha statue, boxes of sacred scriptures, alters with lit candles,

55
burning incense and other offerings as well as images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and devas.
The central images depends on the sect.
Buddhist temples come in many shapes and sizes. Pagodas found in China and Japan are
perhaps the best known. Stupas, stone structure built over Buddhist scriptures or relics of
the Buddha or famous holy men, are found throughout the Buddhist world. . Buddhist
temples are designed to symbolise the five elements: 1) Fire,
2) Air,
3) Earth, symbolised by the square base,
4) Water, and
5)Wisdom, symbolised by the pinnacle at the top of the temple. All Buddhist temples
contain an image or a statue of Buddha. People sometimes donate money to temples and
have their names hung on special wooden plaques attached to lanterns of the temple.
Generally, the larger the donation, the larger the plaque. Buddha never viewed himself as
an object of worship. He probably would not have been very pleased to see his birthday as
the object of veneration and merit so crassly exchanged for money.
Many temples are tourist attractions and outing destinations for local people. Souvenir
amulets and other offerings are sold in little shops or booths; the names of large
contributors are placed in special boxes; and priests are available to perform special rites.

Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple

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7. Features of Buddhist Temples
Buddhist temples usually contain numerous Buddha statues. The central Buddha images
are often surrounded by burning incense sticks and offerings of fruit and flowers. Some
contain the ashes or bone reliquaries of popular holy man. Many Buddhist temples face
south and sometimes to the east, but never to the north and west which are regarded as
unlucky directions according to Chinese feng shui. Many temples are entered through the
left door and exited through the right.
The main hall is usually found at the center of the temple grounds. Inside are images of the
Buddha, other Buddhist images, altars and space for monks and worshipers. The main hall
is sometimes connected to a lecture hall, where monks gather to study and chant sutras..
Other buildings include a the sutra depositor, a library or place where Buddhist scripture
are kept; living, sleeping, and eating areas for monks, and offices. Large temples often have
special halls, where treasures are kept and displayed.

Some temples have shrines for making prayers to the dead filled with funerary plaques
with photographs of dead relatives. The photographs are often of deceased people whose
funeral ceremony was performed at the temple. Some temple feature sets of wooden
plaques with the names of large contributors and other sets with afterlife names of deceased
people. In the old days the afterlife names were only given only to Buddhist priests but now
they are given to lay people who paid the right price and now in some places have become
a kind of ranking system in the after life based in how much one has contributed..

Many Buddhist temples contain large bells, which are rung during the New Year and to
mark other occasions, and cemeteries. The pathway to the temples is often lined with stone
or paper lanterns donated by worshipers, or strung with prayer flags. Many temples are
filled with small shops selling religious items.

8. Buddhist Temple Gates

Buddhist temples usually have outer gates and inner gates protected by statues or paintings
of beasts, fierce gods, or warriors that ward off evil spirits. The gateways are composed of
wood, stone, bronze or even concrete. The beasts include Chinese lions and Korean dogs.

57
Fierce guardian gods and warriors on the outer gate sometime have lighting bolts coming
out of their nostrils and a serrated swords in their hands. Their duty is to keep demons and
evil spirits out of the temple area.
The inner gate at the antechamber to the temple complex is often guarded by four guardian
kings, representing the four cardinal directions. The king in the north holds a pagoda
representing earth, heaven and cosmic axis. The king in the east holds a sword with the
power to evoke a black wind that produces tens of thousands of spears and golden serpents.
The king in the west possesses lute. And the king in the south holds a dragon and a wish-
fulfilling jewel.

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9.Borobudur: the Ultimate Buddhist Temple
Borobudur, was built during over a half century by the Sailendra Dynasty after Mahayana
Buddhism was introduced from the Srivijaya Kingdom of South Sumatra in the early half
of the 8th century AD. Many Buddhism images and reliefs in Borobudur were made
referencing Gandavyuha and Vajrayana/Esoteric Buddhism from Sri Lanka and East India.
The stepped pyramid shape without an inner space as found at Borobudur is found in
neither India nor Sri Lanka. And there are no stupas with that similar shape in Southeast
Asia prior to Borobudur. Similar shaped monuments are found only in South Sumatra etc.
This type of monument, originating from the mountain religions of Megalithic culture that
predated the introduction of Buddhism continued through the Historical Age. Borobudur
can be seen as a massive monument of this origin, decorated in Buddhism style.

Borobudur in Java

Borobudur is a step pyramid, built around a natural hill, comprised of a broad platforms
topped by five walled rectangular terraces, and they in turn are topped by three round
terraces. Each terraces is outlined with ornaments and statues and the walls are decorated
with bas reliefs. More than two million blocks of volcanic stone were carved during its
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construction. Pilgrims have traditionally walked around the monument in a clockwise
manner moving up each of the five levels, and in process covering five kilometers.
Unlike most temples, Borobudur did not have actual spaces for worship. Instead it has an
extensive system of corridors and stairways, which are thought to have been a place for
Buddhist ceremonies. Borobodur also has six square courtyards, three circular ones, and a
main courtyard within a stupa at the temple's peak. The entire structure is formed in the
shape of a giant twirling staircase, a style of architecture from prehistoric Indonesia.
Borobudur is a three'dimensional model of the Mahayana Buddhist universe. The climb to
the top of the temple is intended to illustrate the path an individual must take to reach
enlightenment. At the main entrance on the east side, visitors can not even see the top.
Scholars believed this was intensional. At the top was the ideal of Buddhist perfection, the
World of Formlessness. The architecture and stonework of this temple has no equal. And it
was built without using any kind of cement or mortar!

Borobudur resembles a giant stupa, but seen from above it forms a mandala. The great
stupa at the top of the temple sits 40 meters above the ground. This main dome is
surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. Five closed square
galleries, three open circular inner terraces, and a concentric scheme express the universe
geometrically. At the center of the top of the temple is a beautifully shaped stupa which is
surrounded by three circles of smaller stupas that have the same shape. There are 72 of
these, each with a Buddha statue inside. Touching them is supposed to bring good luck.
Unfortunately many had their heads lopped off by 19th century explorers looking for
souvenirs. The 72 small latticed stupas look like perforated stone bells. The temple is
decorated with stone carvings in bas-relief representing images from the life of Buddha—
the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world.

Borobudur is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The
ten levels of the temple symbolize the three divisions of the religion's cosmic system. As
visitors begin their journey at the base of the temple, they make their way to the top of the
monument through the three levels of Budhist cosmology, Kamadhatu (the world of
desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). As

60
visitors walk to the top the monument guides the pilgrims past 1,460 narrative relief panels
on the wall and the balustrades.

Borobudur, northwest view

10. Indian connect in History of Borobudur

Borobudur was built by the Sailendra Dynasty kings in the 8th and 9th centuries, around
that time that Charlemagne ruled Europe. When it was completed an epic poet from Ceylon
wrote: "Thus are the Buddha incomprehensible, and incomprehensible is the nature of the
Buddhas, and incomprehensible is the reward of those who have faith in the
incomprehensible."
According to UNESCO: Founded by a king of the Saliendra dynasty, Borobudur was built
to honour the glory of both the Buddha and its founder, a true king Bodhisattva. This
colossal temple was built between AD 750 and 842: 300 years before Cambodia's Angkor
Wat, 400 years before work had begun on the great European cathedrals. Little is known
about its early history except that a huge army of workers worked in the tropical heat to
shift and carve the 60,000 square meters of stone.

11. Why it was built remains a mystery. There are no written records on the subject. No
ancient cities have been found nearby. There is no clear sanctuary as a place of worship and
no room to store icons. Many historians and archeologists believe that Borobudur is not a

61
temple but rather a kind of advertisement for Buddhism. According to an expert on the
subject, John Mikic, Borobudur was built to “to engage the mind” and to “give a visual aid
for teaching a gentle philosophy of life."
Borobodur was an active religious center until the 10th century when it was abandoned for
reasons that are not clear. At the beginning of the 11th century AD, because of the political
situation in Central Java, divine monuments in that area, including the Borobudur Temple
became completely neglected and given over to decay.According to UNESCO: the
Stylistically the art of Borobudur is a tributary of Indian influences (Gupta and post-Gupta
styles).

12.The Shailendra dynasty (IAST: Śailēndra derived from Sanskrit combined

words Śaila and Indra, meaning "King of the Mountain", was the name of a
notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century Java, whose reign signified a
cultural renaissance in the region. The Shailendras were active promoters
of Mahayana Buddhism with the glimpses of Hinduism, and covered the Kedu
Plain of Central Java with Buddhist monuments, one of which is the
colossal stupa of Borobudur.The Shailendras are considered to have been
a thalassocracy and ruled vast swathes of maritime Southeast Asia, however they also
relied on agricultural pursuits, by way of intensive rice cultivation on the Kedu Plain of
Central Java. The dynasty appeared to be the ruling family of both the Medang Kingdom of
Central Java, for some period, and the Srivijaya Kingdom in Sumatra.
The inscriptions created by Shailendras use three languages; Old Malay, Old Javanese,
and Sanskrit - written either in the Kawi alphabet, or pre-Nāgarī script. The use of Old
Malay has sparked speculation of a Sumatran origin, or Srivijayan connection of this
family. On the other hand, the use of Old Javanese suggests their firm political
establishment on Java. The use of Sanskrit usually indicates the official nature, and/or
religious significance, of the event described in any given inscription. After 824, there are
no more references to the Shailendra house in the Javanese ephigraphic record. Around 860
the name re-appears in the Nalanda inscription in India. According to the text, the king
Devapaladeva of Bengala (Pala Empire) had granted 'Balaputra, the king of Suvarna-dvipa'
(Sumatra) the revenues of 5 villages to a Buddhist monastery near Bodh Gaya. Balaputra
was styled a descendant from the Shailendra dynasty and grandson of the king of Java.

62
From Sumatra, the Shailendras also maintained overseas relations with the Chola kingdom
in Southern India, as shown by several south Indian inscriptions. An 11th-century
inscription mentioned the grant of revenues to a local Buddhist sanctuary, built in 1005 by
the king of the Srivijaya. In spite the relations were initially fairly cordial, hostilities had
broken out in 1025.
Rajendra Chola I the Emperor of the Chola dynasty conquered some territories of the
Shailendra Dynasty in the 11th century. The devastation caused by Chola invasion of
Srivijaya in 1025, marked the end of Shailendra family as the ruling dynasty in Sumatra.
The last king of Shailendra dynasty — the Maharaja Sangrama Vijayatunggavarman —
was imprisoned and taken as hostage. Nevertheless, amity was re-established between the
two states, before the end of the 11th century. In 1090 a new charter was granted to the old
Buddhist sanctuary, it is the last known inscription with a reference to the Shailendras.
With the absence of legitimate successor, Shailendra dynasty seems ceased to rule. Other
family within Srivijaya mandala took over the throne

13.The Sailendras and indian buddhism The rise of the pāla dynasty in the 8th century
ad brought paradigm shifts in Buddhist text, ritual, and sacred architecture that sent cultural
waves across the expanding maritime and land trade routes of Asia.The architectural
concepts travelled in the connected Buddhist world between the Ganges valley and Java. A
movement of architectural ideas can be seen from studying the corpus of the temples in the
Pāla (750–1214 AD) and Śailendra (775–1090 AD) domains of India and Indonesia. This
led to a paradigm shift in the design of a stūpa architecture at Kesariya (Bihar) that em-
phasizes the arrangement of deities in the circular maṇḍalic fashion with a certain
numerological configuration of life-size Buddha figures placed in the external niches of the
monument. This new architectural concept possibly played a key role in the development
of a more elaborate structure of Borobudur in Java.The architectural linkages emerge
stronger with the central fivefold structure of the temples of the Pālas and Śailendras. In
order to make the essential comparison, a quick method of drawing architectural plans is
developed that is based on the basic measurements and not archaeological plans.

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14. Architectural development in stūpa structure: The main archaeological sites of the
middle and lower Ganges plain were recorded in the 19th century by Alexander
Cunningham, following the travel accounts of the Chinese scholar-pilgrims Faxian (c. 337–
422) and Xuanzang (c. 602–64). Northeast India contained not only early Buddhist stūpas
and monastic complexes, but also a range of stūpa structures that advanced from the tradi-
tional hemispherical stūpa of Sanchi, through the cruciform, terraced stūpa structure of
Nandangaṛh to the elaborate stūpa-maṇḍala of Kesariya. Most of the Pāla structures that
may have served as a model for Central Javanese temples are in dilapidated state today,
making it difficult to track the architectural borrowings.
But since 1998, the ASI excavations of some parts of Kesariya Stupa in Bihar,India have
uncovered striking design similarities with the massive Central Javanese stūpa of
Borobudur, whose stepped pyramid structure and maṇḍalic arrangement of deities in
circular
This article demonstrates how the spread of Buddhism through maritime routes was
closely linked with commercial activities, and how these networks were different from
overland routes. It also provides a survey on early India–China networks and introduces the
64
activities of Buddhist monks and the importance of Śrīvijayan rulers and their contribution
to the maritime spread of Buddhism. In the second part, the article discusses the role of Sri
Lanka and the Bay of Bengal networks in the maritime transmission of Buddhism. It shows
that Buddhism spread in various forms from one cultural zone of Asia to another. It also
demonstrates that the transmission of Buddhist doctrines, images and texts was a complex
process that involved itinerant monks, traders and travellers.1
The Buddhas of Borobudur, for example, resemble in some ways the stone Buddhas of the
Pāla Buddhist monastery of Ratnagiri in Odisha . There are unresolved debates about the
origin of the Śailendra dynasty69 and their sudden rise to power in Central Java in c. 750–
1090 that coincided with a massive surge in temple construction that included Borobudur
(c. 760–830) and Candi Kalasan.

The construction dates of Buddhist monuments of the Śailendras and the Pālas are close
and they have many design features in common. We have already seen how the design
ideas for Buddhist art and architecture were circulating from the 5th century. It was the
network of monks, artists, and craftsmen that made possible the construction of the huge
monuments and ritual centres.

The first record of the association of the Śailendras and Pāla India is dated to the Kelurak
inscription of c. 778 and the last inscription found in India referring to Śailendras is the
smaller Leiden copperplate inscription of c. 1090.By then, the ties between the two states
had been sustained for more than three centuries. 2

From an architectural point of view, a monument like Borobudur can only have been the
culmination of a long period of artistic gestation. Wolff Schoemaker (1924: 22) suggests
three to four centuries of an autochthonous gestation period and argues about the lack of an
autonomous development of sculpture in Java. Given the Śailendra-Pāla contacts and the
construction of the earlier Śaiva temples on the Dieng plateau, it is not beyond the bounds
of possibility in this connected Buddhist world that a breakthrough development in the Pāla
domain, which transformed a stūpa into a maṇḍala of life-size Buddhas, was enhanced
with narrative reliefs at Somapura and Vikramaśīla and reached its ultimate form of
expression on Javanese soil. Jordaan has argued that the Śailendras built their monuments

65
in direct cooperation with Indian architects and craftsmen. This seems possible at the high
conceptual level of architectural design, but at the level of relief carving and highly
innovative stūpikā design there is no trace of non-Javanese influences.3

REFERENCES
1.China and Beyond in the Mediaeval Period: Cultural Crossings and Inter-Regional
Connections, ed. Dorothy C. Wong and Gustav Heldt (Amherst: Cambria Press, 2014)
2. Chapter 8, Borobudur’s Pāla forebear? A field note from Kesariya, Bihar,
India,swati chemburkar

3.Across Space and Time: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity,By Patrick
Haughey,google books

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 PART II

Mysteries Solved?

Ālavaka next asked the Buddha:

“How does one cross the flood?

How does one cross the sea?
How does one overcome sorrow?
How is one purified?”

The Exalted One replied

“By confidence one crosses the flood, by heedfulness the sea.

By effort one overcomes sorrow, by wisdom is one purified.”

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 C H A P T E R III
TEMPLE TRIAD
Straight-line arrangement of Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut Temples

To explain the additions or extensions at Barabudur and Mendut by successive Shailendra

rulers, possibly without exception, which have come to light during restoration activities at
those temples, one needs to understand that religious merit of the royal zealot did increase
to a great extent from the building of a stupa. Indeed for every spectator the sacred
construction work would be an incentive to join the creed while it would help the initiate in
his meditations aiming at the attainment of the Bodhi. Furthermore, the “accumulation of
religious merit” which the monarch earned through the construction of a magnificent
temple would also benefit his realm — “the thriving State of the Shailendras” as it is
68
designated in the inscriptions of the period. This topographical relationship looks hardly
casual, as probably a processional way ran along the line in ancient times (the path is still
partly mimicked by the modern road from Borobodur to Pawon up to the river Pogo).

Borobudur Temple (Biggest Buddha’s temple in the world)

Borobudur, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Magelang, Central Java,
Indonesia. The monument consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular,
topped by a central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha
statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a
perforated stupa. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple, as well as one of the greatest
Buddhist monuments in the world.
Built in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty, the temple was designed
in Javanese Buddhist architecture, which blends the Indonesian indigenous cult of ancestor
worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana. The temple also demonstrates the
influences of Gupta art that reflects India’s influence on the region, yet there are enough
indigenous scenes and elements incorporated to make Borobudur uniquely Indonesian. The
monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The
journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the
monument and ascends to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology:
Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the
world of formlessness). The monument guides pilgrims through an extensive system of
stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades.
Borobudur has the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world.
Chandi MENDUT and Chandi PAVON supplement the temple complex. They were
built during the reign of King Indra (782–812 AD) of the Shailendra dynasty. The whole
temple complex symbolizes the way of a spiritual seeker from the mundane life to the
Divine life, to the state of Buddha. In old times a big road led from Borobudur eastern
entrance to Chandi Mendut, passing through Chandi Pavon. Along the entire road there
were walls with numerous towers, niches, and sculptures.
 Chandi Mendut,
 Chandi Pawon,
 the famous Borobudur temple complex.

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Pawon Temple
Pawon temple (known locally as Candi Pawon) is a Buddhist temple located between two
other Buddhist temples, approximately 1,150 metres away from Mendut and 1,750 metres
away from Borobudur.
, Pawon is connected with the other two temples, all of which were built during the
Sailendra dynasty (8th–9th centuries). Examines the detail and style of its carving this
temple is slightly older than Borobudur.
The three temples were located on a straight line, suggesting there was a symbolic meaning
that binds these temples.
“Between Mendut and Borobudur stands Pawon temple, a jewel of Javanese temple
architecture. Most probably, this temple served to purify the mind prior to ascending
Borobudur.”1

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The original name of this Buddhist shrine is uncertain. Pawon literally means “kitchen” in
Javanese language, which is derived from the root word awu or dust. The connection to the
word “dust” also suggests that this temple was probably built as a tomb or mortuary temple
for a king. Pawon from the word Per-awu-an (place that contains dust), a temple that
houses the dust of cremated king. However who was the personage that entombed here is
still unknown. Local people name this temple as “Bajranalan” based on the name of the
village. Bajranalan is derived from the sanskrit word Vajra (thunder or also a Buddhist
ceremonial tool) and Anala (fire, flame). Due to its small size, Pavon resembles a memorial
monument. When the temple was found, it was in a very poor condition. Themes of
decorative reliefs in Pavon include the “heavenly tree”, vessels with gifts, bearded dwarfs
spilling necklaces, rings and jewels from boxes. Such themes are explained by the fact that
Chandi Pavon is dedicated to the deity of wealth Kubera, who was usually depicted at
entrances to temples.
Inner premises of the temple are trimmed with dark volcanic stone. Although no statues
have been preserved in Chandi Pavon, it is possible to ascertain by outer wall reliefs that
the temple once was dedicated to Kubera – the generous lord of luck and wealth. There are
also extant images of Kalpataru – the mythical tree of desires in Hindu and Buddhist
traditions. The desires ingrained in righteous thoughts and true faith will be fulfilled.
In the contemporary era during the full moon in May or June, Buddhists in Indonesia
observe Vesak annual ritual by walking from Mendut passing through Pawon and ends at
Borobudur.

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Mendut Temple
Mendut temple is a ninth-century Buddhist temple, located in Mendut village, Mungkid
sub-district, Magelang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The temple is located about three
kilometres east from Borobudur. Mendut, Borobudur and Pawon, all of which are Buddhist
temples, are located in one straight line. There is a mutual religious relationship between
the three temples, although the exact ritual process is unknown.
Borobodur was once the center of religious rituals of Mahayana Buddhism, which was
corroborated by the existence of other temples with Mahayana Buddhism around it. Studies
conducted on the location of Borobudur and the other temples surrounding it shows that
the three temples are positioned along a single straight line, which was organized during
the construction of Mendut Temple. It is also shown that the imaginary line connecting the
three temples is linked to Mount Merapi.Studies on the temples surrounding Borobudur
show a similarity with regard to the period of construction, which is the era of Mataram
Kuno (Ancient Mataram), as well as their religious affiliation, that is, Mahayana
Buddhism, which excludes Banon Temple as it is filled with statues of Hindu Gods . These
studies led to an interpretation that Borobudur Temple is highly associated with Pawon and
Mendut Temples located in the east. The association between Borobudur and the two
surrounding temples also identifies that the three temples were the centers for religious
rituals in the past. Geographically, Ngawen Temple is located in the east of Borobudur
Temple. However, no study has been conducted revealing the association between
Borobudur, Pawon, Mendut, and Ngawen Temples in the past. To further observe the
association between the four temples, this study will focus on their location, religion,
ornaments, and statues. The author believes that this research would provide a new
interpretation of Borobudur and the surrounding Buddhist temples as monuments for sacred
procession in the past and as a world heritage in the future.Field observation of the four
temples, namely Borobudur, Pawon, Mendut, and Ngawen was conducted.
The temple possesses several meanings related to the belief of Mahayana Buddhism.
Moreover, in the past, Borobudur had served as the center of other sacred buildings
surrounding it . Within a distance of 5 km around the temple, there are three other temples
affiliated with Mahayana Buddhism, among which are Pawon Temple (1,150 m from
Borobudur) and Mendut (2,900 m). Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut Temples are located in
the west of Elo River, and Ngawen is, in fact, located in the east side of the river,which is,

72
in turn, 4 km away from Borobudur .According to previous studies, Borobudur, Pawon,
and Mendut Temples are positioned on a straight line and they form a triadic of sacred
buildings affiliated to Mahayana Buddhism. However the imaginary axis connecting the
three temples is not a straight line, and it is interpreted that they were the centers of
religious rituals and processions in the past. Furthermore, it is suggested that the three
temples were closely associated with Mount Merapi. Nevertheless, further examination of
the map shows an addition temple called Ngawen Temple, from which a parallel imaginary
axis can also be drawn, connecting it to the other three temples. Thus, on the basis of this
fact, it can be interpreted that, in the past, the procession of the religious rituals might begin
in Ngawen Temple and end in Borobudur.
The layout of Chandi Mendut is traditional. It is a temple with a deity figure placed on a
pedestal, intended for ritual processions. The walls contain thematic reliefs with scenes
from Buddhist parables. The reliefs contain well-preserved images of Bodhisattvas. Inside
Chandi Mendut itself there are three statues: Gautama Buddha in the middle, Bodhisattva
Avalokiteśvara on the left, and a non-identified Bodhisattva on the right (there is an
assumption that it is a statue of Vajrapani).

73
The most unusual thing is that Shakyamuni Buddha is sitting in a “European” or “royal”
pose with his both feet put on the lotus pedestal and his knees widely parted, without any
traces of clothes. Bodhisattvas are sitting in traditional poses with one foot under their body
and the other foot lowered.In traditional Buddhist iconography the image of the body part
relating to genitals is always hidden by either a pose (asana) or pleats on the clothes (when
Buddha is standing or lying). Hence, for adherents of canonical Buddhism the aforesaid
depiction of Buddha is probably somewhat shocking.

Religious associations of Borobudur Temple with other nearby temples: Two major
schools, namely Mahayana and Hinayana (Theravada), are found in Buddhism.Mahayana
Buddhism is described as the “great vehicle”, in which a holy man stays on the Earth,
rather than going to heaven, in order to be able to help. Moreover, in Mahayana Buddhism,
it is believed that a savior visits the Earth in the future, whereas Hinayana Buddhism or
Theravada is described as a “small vehicle”, in which the Buddha is merely the Buddha
himself, without the presence of Bodhisattva. Discussions on structures built during the
Hindu–Buddhist era are highly associated with religious context. Revealing the religious
background of a structure requires an observation of the components of the building.
According to Soekmono (2005), temples in Indonesia can be classified in two major
groups, namely Hindu and Buddhist temples. One of the main features of Buddhist temples
74
is the existence of the stupas. A stupa is a bell-shaped structure of the shrine, which is a
unique feature of Buddhist temples. Nevertheless, to explore more about the religious
affiliation of a specific structure, we need to focus on the statues, reliefs, sketches, and
other ornaments of structures.
The most important argument for the coherence of Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon in my
view is the fact — which Van Erp discovered by chance — that the three of them had been
lain out along one straight line: 15Pawon on the right shore of the Progo River, 1750 m
East of Barabudur, and Mendut 1150 m further East, on the left shore of the Elo River, just
upstream from its junction with the Progo.16
Van Erp considered this fact and, as it were, the logically deducible.

a. for the west, the beginning of the western staircase at Barabudur;

b. for the Suryaloka, the bhavagra ― the top level of the Akanistha Heaven;
c. for the east, Candi Mendut; and
d. for the zenith, Candi Pawon.

TRIAD

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Borobudur stands in the geographical center of the island of Java, fifteen miles from
Yogyakarta, on a plateau that is the caldera of an ancient volcano ringed by the Menoreh
mountains. Two sets of twin volcanoes – Merapi and Merbabu to the northeast, Sumbing
and Sindoro to the northwest – stand sentinel across the plains. Merapi, the "fire mountain,"
is active. A legend is told of a heavenly architect who built Borobudur in a single day and
laid a curse on anyone who dared ascend his holy shrine. According to Asian art historian,
Jan Fontein: "There is a mountain south of Borobudur that when viewed from the
monument looks very much like the profile of a man; the nose, lips and chin are clearly
delineated. The story goes that the ridge depicts Gunadharma, the architect of Borobudur,
who is believed to keep watch over his creation through the ages."

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There were only two fleeting references to Borobudur in historical reports of the 18th
century. The first recorded visitor to Borobudur was a rebel who fled to the mountain
called Bara-Budur in 1709 after leading an attempt to usurp the throne from the Sultan of
Matara. The Sultan sent troops who surrounded the mountain, captured him and sent him to
be executed.

The next documented visitor to the monument was the heir apparent of Yogyakarta, a
defiant young prince who had a reputation for rebellious and depraved behavior. In 1758,
he set out to visit the "mountain of a thousand statues" against the advice of a prophecy that
royalty who climbed the mountain would die. When he did not return to court, the king sent
his men to bring back the wayward son. He was found vomiting blood and soon after died.

77
But records revealed no consensus on the meaning of the name "Borobudur." Two
alternatives were proposed based on Javanese manuscripts from 842 AD: "the mountain of
the accumulation of virtue on the ten stages of the Bodhisattva," or "the mountain which is
terraced in successive stages." Sir Thomas Raffles, the British governor of Indonesia
responsible for the excavation of Borobudur in 1814, thought that "boro" might mean
"great" and "budur" might correspond to the more modern Javanese word "buda,"
interpreted as "The Great Buddha." One Javanese expert indicated that "boro" is related to
the word for "monastery," and "budur" is a place name. This would suggest that Borobudur
means "Monastery of Budur."Fortunately, because of the native tolerance of religious
diversity, many of the monuments of Java were simply abandoned rather than destroyed or
defaced, and a cloud of mystery and superstition descended on Borobudur.

The first study on Borobudur was conducted during the Dutch East Indies era by Van Erp
and N. J. Kroom,2 which coincided with the temple’s restoration project. Based on the
similarities with regard to the architectural style and ornamentation of the three temples it
indicated an association between Borobudur Temple and two other temples located nearby,
namely Pawon Temple and Mendut Temple. They seem to have been built in the same
period, that is, the Sailendra dynasty era. The next study was conducted by J. L. Moens in
3
the 1950s connected the three temples with Banon Temple, a Hindu temple located near
Pawon Temple. Furthermore, it shows that Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut Temples were
all ritual centers of Mahayana Buddhism, whereas Banon Temple was a place for the
followers of Siwa-Siddhanta. Another study conducted by IGN Anom imaginarily
connected Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut Temples,showing that the three temples were
built along a straight line

Association of the positioning of Borobudur Temple with the four nearby temples
Borobudur Temple is located in the west of Elo River. The temple possesses several
meanings related to the belief of Mahayana Buddhism. Moreover, in the past, Borobudur
had served as the center of other sacred buildings surrounding it.. Within a distance of 5 km
around the temple, there are three other temples affiliated with Mahayana Buddhism,
among which are Pawon Temple (1,150 m from Borobudur) and Mendut (2,900 m) .

78
Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut Temples are located in the west of Elo River, and Ngawen
is, in fact, located in the east side of the river, which is, in turn, 4 km away from Borobudur
. According to previous studies, Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut Temples are positioned on
a straight line and they form a triadic (a group of three) of sacred buildings affiliated to
Mahayana Buddhism.

However, according to Totok Roesmanto , the imaginary axis connecting the three temples
is not a straight line, and it is interpreted that they were the centers of religious rituals and
processions in the past. Furthermore, it is suggested that the three temples were closely
associated with Mount Merapi. Nevertheless, further examination of the map shows an
addition temple called Ngawen Temple, from which a parallel imaginary axis can also be
drawn, connecting it to the other three temples.Thus, on the basis of this fact, it can be
interpreted that, in the past, the procession of the religious rituals might begin in Ngawen
Temple and end in Borobudur.

Discussions on structures built during the Hindu–Buddhist era are highly associated with
religious context. Revealing the religious background of a structure requires an observation
of the components of the building. Temples in Indonesia can be classified in two major
groups, namely Hindu and Buddhist temples. One of the mainfeatures of Buddhist temples
is the existence of the stupas. A stupa is a bell-shaped structure of the shrine, which is a
unique feature of Buddhist temples. Nevertheless, to explore more about the religious
affiliation of a specific structure, we need to focus on the statues, reliefs, sketches, and
other ornaments of structures.
Bodobodur and Merapi Volcano: Borobudur was mysteriously abandoned by the 1500s,
when the center of Javan life shifted to the East and Islam arrived on the island in the 13th
and 14th centuries. Perhaps Mount Merapi had erupted, choking the rice lands with layers
of volcanic ash. Whatever the cause, the population moved to East Java in a mass exodus,
and Borobudur was left behind, its meaning lost in time. Some scholars believe that famine
caused by an eruption of Mount Merapi forced the inhabitants of Central Java to leave their
lands behind in search of a new place to live. When people once again inhabited this area,
the glory of Borobudur was buried by ash from Mount Merapi.

79
 Mountain peaks, according to Buddhist thought, are the place where contact with divine
truth may take place. There are 129 volcanoes in Indonesia and smoke can be seen
emerging from the mountaintop at least 300 days a year. Mount Merapi, which stands at
about 9,551 feet (2,911 meters) tall, lies in one of the world's most densely populated
areas and dominates the landscape immediately north of the major city of Yogyakarta, on
the island of Java.It is a stratovolcano being the youngest and southernmost of a volcanic
chain extending north and northwest, to the Mount Ungaran volcano. The name Merapi
could be loosely translated as "Mountain of Fire" from the Javanese combined words
"Meru," meaning "mountain," and "api," meaning "fire."Tectonically, Merapi is situated
at the subduction zone where the Indo-Australian Plate is sliding beneath the Eurasian
Plate. It is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire – a section of fault lines and volcanoes
stretching from the western coast of South America, Alaska through Japan and Southeast
Asia.

Merapi has been active for about 10,000 years. The volcano's biggest and most devastating
eruptions occurred in 1006 and 1930. The eruption of 1006 was so bad that many believe
the existing Hindu kingdom in the area was destroyed, as it spread ash over all of central
Java. During the 1930 eruption more than 1,300 people were killed."The material has to
travel 30 miles [48 km] to get to the surface; there has to be enough propellant force to
push them all that way and out.Merapi is the poster child for unstable lava domes,"
Wunderman said. "The dome on Merapi rests on a steep, unstable environment, and it is
easy for pieces to break off and do damage; for example, hot gases can be released and
form a superheated, high speed cloud that rolls down the mountain. The volcano is
considered sacred by some local people who believe a supernatural kingdom exists atop
Merapi, according to Indhanesia.com, an informational website about Indonesia. Every
year a priest climbs to the top to make an offering.
Creation
Merapi is very important to Javanese, especially those living around its crater. As such,
there are many myths and beliefs attached to Merapi. Although most nearby villages have
their own myths about the creation of Mount Merapi, they have numerous commonalities.
It is believed that when the gods had just created the Earth, Java was unbalanced because of
the placement of Mount Jamurdipo on the west end of the island. In order to assure

80
balance, the gods (generally represented by Batara Guru) ordered the mountain to be
moved to the centre of Java. However, two armourers, Empu Rama and Empu Permadi,
were already forging a sacred keris at the site where Mount Jamurdipo was to be moved.
The gods warned them that they would be moving a mountain there, and that they should
leave; Empu Rama and Empu Permadi ignored that warning. In anger, the gods buried
Empu Rama and Empu Permadi under Mount Jamurdipo; their spirits later became the
rulers of all mystical beings in the area. In memory of them, Mount Jamurdipo was later
renamed Mount Merapi, which means "fire of Rama and Permadi."
Spirit Kraton of Merapi
The Javanese believe that the Earth is not only populated by human beings, but also by
spirits (makhluk halus). Villages near Merapi believe that one of the palaces
(in Javanese kraton) used by the rulers of the spirit kingdom lies inside Merapi, ruled by
Empu Rama and Empu Permadi. This palace is said to be a spiritual counterpart to
the Yogyakarta Sultanate, complete with roads, soldiers, princes, vehicles, and
domesticated animals. Besides the rulers, the palace is said to also be populated by the
spirits of ancestors who died as righteous people. The spirits of these ancestors are said to
live in the palace as royal servants (abdi dalem), occasionally visiting their descendants in
dreams to give prophecies or warnings.

Spirits of Merapi
To keep the volcano quiet and to appease the spirits of the mountain, the Javanese regularly
bring offerings on the anniversary of the sultan of Yogyakarta's coronation. For Yogyakarta
Sultanate, Merapi holds a significant cosmological symbolism, because it forms a sacred
north-south axis line between Merapi peak and Southern Ocean (Indian Ocean). The sacred
axis is signified by Merapi peak in the north, the Tugu Yogyakarta monument near
Yogyakarta main train station, the axis runs along Malioboro street to Northern Alun-alun
(square) across Keraton Yogyakarta (sultan palace), Southern Alun-alun, all the way to
Bantul and finally reach Samas and Parangkusumo beach on the estuary of Opak river and
Southern Ocean. This sacred axis connected the hyangs or spirits of mountain revered since
ancient times—often identified as "Mbah Petruk" by Javanese people—The Sultan of
Yogyakarta as the leader of the Javanese kingdom, and Nyi Roro Kidul as the queen of the

81
Southern Ocean, the female ocean deity revered by Javanese people and also mythical
consort of Javanese kings.

Abandonment Borobodur lies 28 KM away from the mountain. No one knows what
happened to the culture that built the monument. Perhaps Merapi had erupted, choking the
rice lands with layers of volcanic ash. Whatever the cause, the population moved to East
Java in a mass exodus, and Borobudur was left behind, its meaning lost in time. Borobudur
lay hidden for centuries under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind
its abandonment remain a mystery. It is not known when active use of the monument and
Buddhist pilgrimage to it ceased. Sometime between 928 and 1006, King Mpu
Sindok moved the capital of the Medang Kingdom to the region of East Java after a series
of volcanic eruptions; it is not certain whether this influenced the abandonment, but several
sources mention this as the most likely period of abandonment. The monument is
mentioned vaguely as late as c. 1365, in Mpu Prapanca's Nagarakretagama, written during
the Majapahit era and mentioning "the vihara in Budur".Soekmono (1976) also mentions
the popular belief that the temples were disbanded when the population converted to Islam
in the 15th century.

The monument was not forgotten completely, though folk stories gradually shifted from its
past glory into more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and misery. Two old
Javanese chronicles (babad) from the 18th century mention cases of bad luck associated
with the monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi (or the History of Java), the
monument was a fatal factor for Mas Dana, a rebel who revolted against Pakubuwono I, the
king of Mataram in 1709. It was mentioned that the "Redi Borobudur" hill was besieged
and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad
Mataram (or the History of the Mataram Kingdom)4 , the monument was associated with
the misfortune of Prince Monconagoro, the crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in
1757. In spite of a taboo against visiting the monument, "he took what is written as the
knight who was captured in a cage (a statue in one of the perforated stupas)". Upon
returning to his palace, he fell ill and died one day later.

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During the Britiash administration from 1811 to 1816, Lieutenant Governor-
General Thomas Stamford Raffles was appointed governor who took great interest in the
history of Java. On an inspection tour to Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big
monument deep in a jungle near the village of Bumisegoro. He was not able to see the site
himself, but sent Hermann Cornelius , a Dutch engineer who, among other antiquity
explorations had uncovered the Sewu complex in 1806–07, to investigate. In two months,
Cornelius and his 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away the earth
to reveal the monument. Due to the danger of collapse, he could not unearth all galleries.
He reported his findings to Raffles, including various drawings. Although Raffles
mentioned the discovery and hard work by Cornelius and his men in only a few sentences,
he has been credited with the monument's rediscovery, as the one who had brought it to the
world's attention.

Christiaan Lodewijk Hartmann, the Resident of the Kedu region, continued Cornelius's
work, and in 1835, the whole complex was finally unearthed. His interest in Borobudur was
more personal than official. Hartmann did not write any reports of his activities, in
particular, the alleged story that he discovered the large statue of Buddha in the main
stupa. In 1842, Hartmann investigated the main dome, although what he discovered is
unknown and the main stupa remains empty.
The Dutch East Indies government then commissioned Frans Carel Wilsen, a Dutch
engineering official, who studied the monument and drew hundreds of relief sketches. Jan
Frederik Gerrit Brumund was also appointed to make a detailed study of the monument,
which was completed in 1859. The government intended to publish an article based on
Brumund's study supplemented by Wilsen's drawings, but Brumund refused to cooperate.
The government then commissioned another scholar, Conradus Leemans, who compiled
a monograph based on Brumund's and Wilsen's sources. In 1873, the first monograph of the
detailed study of Borobudur was published, followed by its French translation a year later.
The first photograph of the monument was taken in 1872 by the Dutch-
Flemish engraver Isidore van Kinsbergen.
Appreciation of the site developed slowly, and it served for some time largely as a source
of souvenirs and income for "souvenir hunters" and thieves. In 1882, the chief inspector of
cultural artifacts recommended that Borobudur be entirely disassembled with the relocation

83
of reliefs into museums due to the unstable condition of the monument. As a result, the
government appointed Willem Pieter Groeneveldt, curator of the archaeological collection
of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences,[38] to undertake a thorough investigation of
the site and to assess the actual condition of the complex; his report found that these fears
were unjustified and recommended it be left intact.

Borobudur was considered as the source of souvenirs, and parts of its sculptures were
looted, some even with colonial-government consent. It is said that in 1896 King
Chulalongkorn of Siam visited Java and requested and was allowed to take home eight
cartloads of sculptures taken from Borobudur. These include thirty pieces taken from a
number of relief panels, five buddha images, two lions, one gargoyle, several kala motifs
from the stairs and gateways, and a guardian statue (dvarapala). Several of these artifacts,
most notably the lions, dvarapala, kala, makara and giant waterspouts are now on display in
the Java Art room in The National Museum in Bangkok.

Restoration
Borobudur attracted attention in 1885, when the Dutch engineer Jan Willem
IJzerman Chairman of the Archaeological Society in Yogyakarta, made a discovery about
the hidden foot. Photographs that reveal reliefs on the hidden foot were made in 1890–
1891. The discovery led the Dutch East Indies government to take steps to safeguard the
monument. In 1900, the government set up a commission consisting of three officials to
assess the monument: Jan Lourens Andries Brandes, an art historian, Theodoor van
Erp [nl], a Dutch army engineer officer, and Benjamin Willem van de Kamer, a
construction engineer from the Department of Public Works.
In 1902, the commission submitted a threefold plan of proposal to the government. First,
the immediate dangers should be avoided by resetting the corners, removing stones that
endangered the adjacent parts, strengthening the first balustrades and restoring several
niches, archways, stupas and the main dome. Second, after fencing off the courtyards,
proper maintenance should be provided and drainage should be improved by restoring
floors and spouts. Third, all loose stones should be removed, the monument cleared up to
the first balustrades, disfigured stones removed and the main dome restored. The total cost
was estimated at that time around 48,800 Dutch guilders.

84
The restoration then was carried out between 1907 and 1911, using the principles
of anastylosis and led by Theodor van Erp. The first seven months of restoration were
occupied with excavating the grounds around the monument to find missing Buddha heads
and panel stones. Van Erp dismantled and rebuilt the upper three circular platforms and
stupas. Along the way, Van Erp discovered more things he could do to improve the
monument; he submitted another proposal, which was approved with the additional cost of
34,600 guilders. At first glance, Borobudur had been restored to its old glory. Van Erp went
further by carefully reconstructing the chattra (three-tiered parasol) pinnacle on top of the
main stupa. However, he later dismantled the chattra, citing that there were not enough
original stones used in reconstructing the pinnacle, which means that the original design of
Borobudur's pinnacle is actually unknown. The dismantled chattra now is stored
in Karmawibhangga Museum, a few hundred meters north from Borobudur.
Due to the limited budget, the restoration had been primarily focused on cleaning the
sculptures, and Van Erp did not solve the drainage problem. Within fifteen years, the
gallery walls were sagging, and the reliefs showed signs of new cracks and
deterioration. Van Erp used concrete from which alkali salts and calcium
hydroxide leached and were transported into the rest of the construction. This caused some
problems, so that a further thorough renovation was urgently needed.

...nature takes a toll

But during the 19th century, as Borobudur's past became more clear, its future grew
much less certain. The climate of Java is particularly ruthless to man-made structures. In
the words of Professor Soekmono, former head of the Archeological Service of Indonesia:
"For over a thousand years, the rigours of the tropical climate have probed the latent
weaknesses of the edifice. Sudden changes of heat and cold between day and night, where
temperatures may vary by 40 degrees Fahrenheit in twenty-four hours, cause stones to
crack. But the worst havoc has been caused by the heavy rains, over eighty inches a year
on average, with torrential downpours of up to half an inch in five minutes. They
overwhelmed the inadequate drainage system, percolating down into the central core where
they washed away the earth and weakened the foundations."

"Moisture on the stones had also corroded many of the beautifully carved reliefs and

85
favored the growth of disfiguring patches of mosses and lichens. The terrace walls sagged
and tilted at crazy angles and the floors sloped inwards. Had the lower terrace walls
collapsed, the whole colossal structure would have come tumbling down in a great
slithering avalanche of earth and masonry."

Nature itself was destroying the monument, literally tearing Borobudur apart. Despite
repeated efforts at restoration throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, major decay
and structural disintegration plainly threatened Borobudur with inevitable and irreparable
collapse. Several interesting suggestions for protection of the monument were made during
that time. One of the preservationists suggested that Borobudur be covered by a giant
umbrella to keep the rain off. Another proposal was to demolish the entire edifice and
deposit the reliefs in a museum.

In 1907, Theodore Van Erp, a Dutch engineering officer, led a major restoration project.
He rebuilt the crumbling stupas and heaving floors of the upper terraces, cleaning the
sculptures of moss and lichen. But after four years, the limited funds were exhausted before
work could begin on the lower galleries, and the basic problem of drainage had not been
solved. Carvings were rapidly disintegrating; walls were crumbling. By 1948, when the
Republic of Indonesia came into existence, Borobudur was on the brink of ruin. According
to Soekmono, 5"Deterioration was so widespread all over the monument that no partial
restoration could effectively ensure its safeguard. Since the Indonesian people were
determined to pass on the best of their cultural heritage to forthcoming generations, drastic
but deliberate action was called for in the form of a gigantic project." But it would be
several decades before attention would again turn to Borobudur.
Little is known about the early history of Borobudur except that it was built some time
between AD 750 and 850, during the Sailendra Dynasty. A huge workforce must have been
required to hew, transport and carve the 60,000 cubic metres of stone in constructing the
temple, but the details remain as vague as the monument's name, which possibly derives
from the Sanskrit words ‘Vihara Buddha Uhr’, meaning Monastery on the Hill’.

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The three temples at Borobodur belong to the Mahayana Buddhism. The details of the
cults practised are unsure, but a relationship certainly existed between the temples and the
proclaimed divine nature of the kings who ordered their construction. In this connection, a
possible, symbolic relationship between the three monuments was investigated in details by
Moens. In this controversial but anyhow scholarly work, the idea is that the temples were
connected by a “magical birth” ritual, in which the monarch’s consecration occurred both
as the Buddha and as King. Moens proposed a ritual based on an analogy with the sun path
in the sky in one day, and thus endowed with three main “stations”: east, zenith, and west.
To these steps corresponded for the west, the beginning of the western staircase at
Borobudur; for the east, Mendut; and for the zenith, Pawon.

Role of the moon: It is worth mentioning that the role of the moon is quite relevant in
Buddhism, since festivals and recurrences associated with Buddha's life are timed by the
full moon. As is well known, in the course of a 18,6 years cycle the maximal declination of
the Moon in her monthly cycle undergoes a slow variation from a minimum to a maximum,
equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic minus/plus the obliquity of the earth-moon plane
( =5° 9') with respect to the ecliptic. This leads to a minor standstill at declination
and a maximal standstill at declination . In 800 AD the obliquity of the
ecliptic was about 9' greater than today so =23° 39' and the two standstills correspond to
declinations 28° 48' and to 18° 30' respectively. The last matches impressively well the
87
orientation of Pawon, while the first is not far (less than two degrees in declination,
corresponding to less than 2 degrees also in azimuth) from that of Mendut (parallax
corrections are negligible at these latitudes).

Since the minor standstill of the Moon is always mimicked by the sun two times a
year, it is impossible to distinguish it from a solar orientation in the case of a single
building. However, the coincidence of two buildings possibly related to the two
standstills is, to say the last, impressive. In this respect it is important to remember that
precise azimuths for the major standstills of the Moon are very difficult to individuate, and
major standstills lunar orientations should always be understood as aimed to the full moon
closest to the solstice, which always attains a declination close to the extremal one in the
years of the standstills. The choice of orientation to the extrema of the moon might thus
have arisen from calendrical reasons.6

Moens: Confirmed that the temple triad of Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon dates from the
1& 3
period of the Shailendra dynasty, which in close cooperation with the kings of the
Sanjaya dynasty dominated Central Java for nearly two centuries, is no longer liable to
doubt since the explorations of Van Erp and Krom. In his extensive Barabudur-monograph,
Van Erp called the three temples “...a triad that according to (their) architecture and
ornamentation derive from the same time period.” 7This observation of course concerns the
style of the temples as we are familiar with today, that is to say following the renovations
and extensions which must have been executed by the end of the ninth century when
Shailendra hegemony in Java came to an end.

REFERENCES
1. and 3. .J. L. Moens (1951). "Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon en hun onderlinge
samenhang (Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon and their mutual
relationship)" (PDF). Tijdschrift voor de Indische Taai-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Het

88
Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen: 326–386. Archived from the
original (PDF) on August 10, 2007. trans. by Mark Long
2. 1.Beschrijving van Barabudur,Krom (N.J.) & Van Erp (T.),Martinus Nijhoff, 1920-31.,
1920
4."Mataram, Historical kingdom, Indonesia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 1
January 2015.
See also The Role of Dutch Colonialism in the Political Life of Mataram Dynasty: A
Case Study of the Manuscript of Babad, Tanah Jawi, Asian Social Science 10(15) · July
2014
5. Art of Indonesia: Pusaka, Haryati Soebadio, Bambang Sumadio, et al. | 1 March 1998
6.Archaeoastronomy of the “Sun path” at Borobudur,Giulio Magli,School of Architecture,
Urban Planning and Construction Engineering,Politecnico di Milano, Italy
7. BESCHRIJVING VAN BARABUDUR. EERSTE DEEL. ARCHAEOLOGISCHE
BESCHRIJVING DOOR,
Krom, N.J.; Erp, T. van.,Published by 's-Gravenhage, 1920. (1920)

Not the Borobudur but a Thigh temple like a lotus concept

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90
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 CHAPTER IV

Archaeoastronomy and the Borobudur temples

Introduction: Borobudur was probably built between the 8th and 9th centuries, and after
awhile disappeared from the existence, deep beneath the layers of ash because of volcanic
eruption and then abandoned by the people around a middle age. There is a study that
suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the fourteenth century decline of Buddhist
and Hindu kingdoms in Java.
The Borobudur should wait until the 19th centuries when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles,
which during that period of time appointed as the British ruler in Java, and on 1814
informed by the native about an abandoned temple somewhere in the jungle, so for the first
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time, the world acknowledge about its existence. And since that time, there were numerous
restoration project to preserve the Borobudur, up until this time.
Mysteries of the Temple Complex: There is still mystery surrounding the Borobudur,
what is the exact purpose of Borobudur? If that is for religious purpose, yes, it is, indeed.
One theory is the Borobudur is related to Buddhism cosmology, a Mandala, and the
building represents the “three worlds’ of Buddhism cosmology, started as the ‘world of
desire’ (Kāmadhātu) on the base level, then the ‘world of form’ (Rupadhatu), the the
‘world without form’ (Arupadhatu) on top. But, is there something else?
As with other ancient civilizations, the forms often have metaphorical symbols, like the
square shape and all the attributes in the Rupadhatu, changed into the plain circular
platforms in Arupadhatu, speak about the phylosophycal of changing the world in
Buddhism, as a pilgrim journeys from below, through a system of stairways and corridors
with about 1500s narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades, finally reach the
top level, in the world without, and we found no figurative panels at all, instead we will
find Stupas there. But, do the forms & alignment of the Stupas tell something that related to
the sky? That is the very question that we want to answer from our expeditions.
Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or
multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in
the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures". It
considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other
cultures. It is often coupled with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching
in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical
astronomy, the use of historical records of heavenly events to answer astronomical
problems and the history of astronomy, which uses written records to evaluate past
astronomical practice.
Since the 19th century, numerous scholars have sought to use archaeoastronomical
calculations to demonstrate the antiquity of Ancient Indian Vedic culture, computing the
dates of astronomical observations ambiguously described in ancient poetry to as early as
4000 BC. Archaeoastronomy is sometimes related to the fringe discipline
of Archaeocryptography, when its followers attempt to find underlying mathematical
orders beneath the proportions, size, and placement of archaeoastronomical sites such as
Stonehenge and the Pyramid of Kukulcán at Chichen Itza.

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Archaeoastronomy uses a variety of methods to uncover evidence of past practices
including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics and probability, and history.
Because these methods are diverse and use data from such different sources, integrating
them into a coherent argument has been a long-term difficulty for
archaeoastronomers. Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape
archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can
reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such
as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture Other examples which have
brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order
embedded in the roads of settlements. It can be applied to all cultures and all time periods.
The meanings of the sky vary from culture to culture; nevertheless there are scientific
methods which can be applied across cultures when examining ancient beliefs.
Alignments
A common source of data for archaeoastronomy is the study of alignments. This is based
on the assumption that the axis of alignment of an archaeological site is meaningfully
oriented towards an astronomical target. Brown archaeoastronomers may justify this
assumption through reading historical or ethnographic sources, while green
archaeoastronomers tend to prove that alignments are unlikely to be selected by chance,
usually by demonstrating common patterns of alignment at multiple sites.
An alignment is calculated by measuring the azimuth, the angle from north, of the structure
and the altitude of the horizon it faces. The azimuth is usually measured using
a theodolite or a compass. A compass is easier to use, though the deviation of the Earth's
magnetic field from true north, known as its magnetic declination must be taken into
account. Compasses are also unreliable in areas prone to magnetic interference, such as
sites being supported by scaffolding. Additionally a compass can only measure the azimuth
to a precision of a half a degree.
A theodolite can be considerably more accurate if used correctly, but it is also considerably
more difficult to use correctly. There is no inherent way to align a theodolite with North
and so the scale has to be calibrated using astronomical observation, usually the position of
the Sun. Because the position of celestial bodies changes with the time of day due to the
Earth's rotation, the time of these calibration observations must be accurately known, or

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else there will be a systematic error in the measurements. Horizon altitudes can be
measured with a theodolite or a clinometer.

Solar positioning
While the stars are fixed to their declinations the Sun is not. The rising point of the Sun
varies throughout the year. It swings between two limits marked by the solstices a bit like
a pendulum, slowing as it reaches the extremes, but passing rapidly through the midpoint.
If an archaeoastronomer can calculate from the azimuth and horizon height that a site was
built to view a declination of +23.5° then he or she need not wait until 21 June to confirm
the site does indeed face the summer solstice.
Central Java in particular it is well endowed with Hindu and Buddhist candi, and we can
assume that most (if not all) of these had astronomical associations. have already written
about the orientation of the eastern gateway at Borobudur

Temple alignments using Astronomy: The ancestors of the Indonesian people since
ancient times used the constellation in the sky as a time marker for example, the people of
Central Java observed the constellation of Orion until it rose to a certain height to
determine the beginning of the farming period. Astronomy is not an invisible knowledge
for our ancestors, they observe the motion of the stars, the sun and the moon as markers of
time.Borobudur could have been an astronomical monument that recorded all the
movements of the sky in that era. To prove it, the hypothesis starts from the shape of the
temple which is quite unique. When observed from the sky, the shape is
symmetrical. Floors 1 to 7 are equilateral while floors 8 to 10 are circular with the center of
a main stupa with a total height of 20 meters and a diameter of 17 meters. This main stupa
has a unique position, at the center of the circle of small stupas. From this symmetrical
shape of the temple (like a clock) finally it is hypothesized that the main stupa of the
temple has a function as a time marker.
The first time marker used by humans is gomon or the sundial. The system is very simple,
only a stick that is placed vertically on the ground. By observing the length of the wand's
shadow each time it can be drawn a wand shadow pattern. Well, this stick shadow pattern
is used by ancient humans to mark the time.

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 Main Stupa of BOrobudur Temple. Credit: Irma Hariawang
To test the truth of the hypothesis, the research team made observations at Borobudur
Temple. Observed the main stupa shadow pattern when the sun is at the Vernal Equinox
point (the point of intersection of the celestial equatorial plane and the ecliptic plane) which
is 19 to 20 March. This time is considered special because on that day the sun will rise and
set in the east and west true (east true & west true). Armed with these observational data, a
shadow model of the main stupa is made every day of the year and corrected for
measurement and observation errors. The result is the shadow of the main stupa making a
distinctive pattern that falls on certain small stupa around it. Examples of practical
applications such as this, if we see the shadow of the main stupa falling on Stupa 1 on level
8 then it is time to plant (for example).

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 The shadow of the main stupa in one year. giant clock mechanism.

This discovery certainly must be adjusted to many factors, for example the tectonic shock
factor which makes the position of the temple stupa shifted so that the fall of the shadow is
no longer accurate. In addition, the mechanism of time marker that is used by the
community in the Borobudur development era is not yet known, so we do not yet know for
certain the stupas which are considered important and which are used as signs. 1

Relief of the Moon, 7 small circles as stars and sun on the walls of the temple. Like the
picture of a constellation. Credit: irma Hariawang

Temple Alignments and Calendrical Links to Sun path: Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
also considered the nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a
central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.
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The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated
stupa” One can see the 72 stupas on the top platform of the temple. The number 72 is equal
to the even number of the days passing from the zenithal passage in October to the
December solstice, and from the December solstice to the zenithal passage on the end of
February or first of March.

In fact, she stressed the possibility that the number of the ancillary temples or stupas in the
temples of Sewu, Prambana and Borobudur, had a calendrical link to the path of the sun.
There is another link concerning the mudras of the statues of Buddha. At first glance, all
the Buddha statues appear similar, but there is a subtle difference between them in the
mudras, or the position of the hands. There are five groups of mudra: North, East, South,
West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass points according to Mahayana.

The first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which
the Buddha statues that face one compass direction have the corresponding mudra. Buddha
statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same
mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represents one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own
symbolism".

During the restoration in the early 20th century, it was discovered that three Buddhist
temples in the region, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, are positioned along a straight line
pointing to another link to the zenith passage of the sun - an alignment of three temples,
Borobodur and the satellites Mendut and Pawon temples, along the sunset azimuth on the
days of zenithal sun.The three temples at Borobodur belong to the Mahayana Buddhism.
2
The details of the cults practised are unsure, but a relationship certainly existed between
the temples and the proclaimed divine nature of the kings who ordered their construction.
In this connection, a possible, symbolic relationship between the three monuments was
investigated in details by Moens (1951). In this controversial but anyhow scholarly work,
the idea is that the temples were connected by a “magical birth” ritual, in which the
monarch’s consecration occurred both as the Buddha and as King. Moens proposed a ritual
based on an analogy with the sun path in the sky in one day, and thus endowed with three
main “stations”: east, zenith, and west. To these steps corresponded for the west, the

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beginning of the western staircase at Borobudur; for the east, Mendut; and for the zenith,
Pawon. Although this interpretation is well known, it has never been referred explicitly to
the specific days of the zenith passages, a connection which instead looks natural: if the
“solar path” ritual had to be referenced into in the architecture of the temples, and if the
zenith culmination of the sun was, as it seems, a fundamental ingredient of the ritual, then
we would expect the procession to go in the direction from sunrise to sunset, and the
processional path to be oriented in such a way as to indicate the zenith sunset, as it actually
occurs.

Finding comparison belonging to the same cultural context would also be of help, but one
the problems is that Borobodur architectural conception is almost unique. Besides the
already mentioned Bayon, as far as the present author is aware the unique, vaguely
reasonable comparison is the so-called 108 stupas monument, located on a hillside directly
on the western bank of the Yellow River at Qingtongxia, Ningxia, China. The monument is
slightly later than Borobodur, as it was constructed during the Western Xia dynasty (1038–
1227 AD), as part of a greater Buddhist temple complex. It is composed by 108 stupas of
sun-dried mud bricks, arranged in rows disposed in a triangular formation which narrows
with height, from 19 stupas on the first row to the uppermost single one. A front view of
this monument is actually quite reminiscent of one side of Borobodur. As far as the present
author is aware, the orientation of the 108 stupas monument has never been studied. The
azimuth is 120° which, with an horizon height close to zero, gives a impressive declination
-24° that is, very close to the winter solstice sunrise. The monument is therefore, with
hardly any doubt, astronomically oriented although not to the same solar phenomenon of
the Borobodur axis; of course however, at the latitude of Ningxia about 37° north, zenith
passages do not occur. Archaeoastronomy of the “Sun path” at Borobudur

G. Magli has proposed that the line indicated the azimuth of the sunset on the days of
zenithal sun (let us note that, for the line of the three temples, an alignment along sunrise
was proposed too in [15]). It is easy to test the alignment proposed by Magli using software
such as SunCalc.org for instance. Using date 12 October, we can see the alignment.
Actually, SunCalc.org and the Photographer's Ephemeris give this day for the zenith
passage. Figure 2: The alignment of the three temples along the sunset on a day of zenith

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passage of the sun, obtained by means of SunCalc.org. For what concerns the architecture
of Borobudur, let me add to the references also the very interesting article [1 on the
algorithm used for building the temple.3

Borobudur has geographics coordinate 110 12 10.34 E 7 36 30.49 S. The main structure of
Borobudur can be devided into three components: foot, body, and head. Borobudurs head
part consist of a main stupa at the center and three terraces which is (more or less) circular
in shape. Top terrace contain 16 little stupas, with radius = 24 m. Middle terrace contain 24
little stupas, with radius = 37 m. This terrace is 1.5 m lower than top terrace. Bottom
terrace contain 32 little stupas, with radius = 53 m. This terrace is (also) 1.5 m lower than
middle terrace. The stupas of each terrace distributed evenly at the edge of each terrace.
The main stupa with three terraces called Arupadhatu. We suspect this Arupadhatu
configuration is serve a purpose as a chronometer, with the main stupa as the gnomon. In
this work we reconstruct Borobudur as if how it was suppose to looks like at the time it as
built. We include cakra, part of main stupa that is now detached from main stupa for some
technical reasons. Cakra adds 7.5 m to the height of main stupa, making it 20.44 m in total,
relative to top terrace. Javanese culture recognize a system to track time for everyday use,
known as pranotomongso. Pranotomongso use bencet (a kind of sundial) to measure time.
With this in mind, we try to incorporate pranotomongso as a time tracking system to
Borobudur as a chronometer. The Main Stupa of Borobudur and Pranotomongso Calendar
System 505 2.
the Shalivahana Shaka calendar. used in Java and Bali among Indonesian Hindus. Nyepi,
the "Day of Silence", is a celebration of the Saka new year in Bali. Nepal's Nepal
Sambat evolved from the Saka calendar. Prior to colonization, the Philippines used to apply
the Saka calendar as well as suggested by the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.
The term may also ambiguously refer to the Hindu calendar; the Shalivahana era is also
commonly used by other calendars.The historic Shalivahana era calendar is still widely
used. It has years that are solar.
Structure: The calendar months follow the signs of the tropical zodiac rather than the
sidereal zodiac normally used with the Hindu calendar.

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 Name Start date Tropical Tropical zodiac
# Length
(Sanskrit) (Gregorian) zodiac (Sanskrit)
1 Chaitra 30/31 March 22/21 Aries Meṣa
2 Vaishākha 31 April 21 Taurus Vṛṣabha
3 Jyēshtha 31 May 22 Gemini Mithuna
4 Āshādha 31 June 22 Cancer Karkata
5 Shrāvana 31 July 23 Leo simha
6 Bhaadra 31 August 23 Virgo Kanyā
7 Āshwin 30 September 23 Libra Tulā
8 Kārtika 30 October 23 Scorpio Vṛścika
9 Agrahayana 30 November 22 Sagitarius Dhanur
10 Pausha 30 December 22 Capricorn Makara
11 Māgha 30 January 21 Aquarius Kumbha
12 Phalguna 30 February 20 Pisces Mīna
Chaitra has 30 days and starts on March 22, except in leap years, when it has 31 days and
starts on March 21. The months in the first half of the year all have 31 days, to take into
account the slower movement of the sun across the ecliptic at this time.The names of the
months are derived from older, Hindu lunisolar calendars, so variations in spelling exist,
and there is a possible source of confusion as to what calendar a date belongs to.
Years are counted in the Saka era, which starts its year 0 in the year 78 of the Common Era.
To determine leap years, add 78 to the Saka year – if the result is a leap year in the
Gregorian calendar, then the Saka year is a leap year as well. Its structure is just like
the Persian calendar.
A model was made of the ideal Borobudur, based on the position, size and orientation of
actual Borobudur. In the model, correction for precession was incorporated. This puts
Borobudur at circa 800 CE, around the time it was built. A pattern of shadow of main
stupa (+cakra) relative to little stupas position in each terrace (series of pictures to the right)

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was studied in the search for interesting pattern of the falling shadow, that could be used as
a marker of time for them who use Borobudur as a chronometer .
Series of shadow of main stupa for 12 mongsos. Edge of the shadows with dark color is
signified the shadow of beginning of that mongso. 3. Discussion In Figure 1, we present
regular pattern of the shadow cast by main stupa during each mongso. During the
beginning of each mongso, the shadow falls (more or less) exactly on specific stupa(s),
marked by filled red circle. From the repeating pattern we suspect that those stupas may
play important role as time marker for the ancient people. To verify this, we have to figure
out a mathematical pattern behind it. For this work, we just identified a specific stupas
suspected as marker on specific time (mongso). There is an indication that ancient
mathematical of sanskrit might hold the clue on astronomical calculation by ancient people.
We will elaborate the mathematical sanskrit as the means to define the pattern and the
specific astronomical purpose (if any) of Borobudur.
Algorithmic way that was incorporated in constructing Borobudur’s architecture is a
strong possibility for some issues related to the lack of standard metric system attached to
ancient Javanese society and the closeness of Javanese culture with the fractal geometry
that also found in traditional fabric, batik. Thus, we can say that while the inspiration of the
building of Borobudur temple is religious issue, i.e.: Buddhism, the architecture is more
likely strongly connected to the ancient Javanese culture. Borobudur temple was built as
building a single and small stupa, but the way to making it was incorporated the technique
of self-similarity. However, the emerged construction is eventually a kind of algorithmic
fractal mega-architecture. The complexity of Borobudur is emerged from simple rules of
building stupa as the fractal geometry applies.
The calculated fractal dimension of Borobudur is 2.325, a number that shows the realm of
the structure that is in between the two dimensional form and the three dimensional conic
(or bell) shaped construction. This shows how self-similarity does exist and it is a
theoretical challenge for interdisciplinary works among geometry, statistical analysis,
computer sciences, anthropology, archaeology as well as mechanics to reveal deeper
insights related to the dimension calculated. While in the previous works (Situngkir, 2008)
the discussions have brought us to the interesting facts related to tradition fabric that also
emanated applied fractal geometry, more observation and analysis related to the fractal
aspects in cultural heritage might be appealing.

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The self-similarity of Indonesian Borobudur Temple is observed through the
dimensionality of stupa that is hypothetically closely related to whole architectural body.
Fractal dimension is calculated by using the cube counting method and found that the
dimension is 2.325, which is laid between the two-dimensional plane and three dimensional
space. The applied fractal geometry and self-similarity of the building is emerged as the
building process implement the metric rules, since there is no universal metric standard
known in ancient traditional Javanese culture thus the architecture is not based on final
master plan. The paper also proposes how the hypothetical algorithmic architecture might
be applied computationally in order to see some experimental generations of similar
building. The paper ends with some conjectures for further challenge and insights related to
fractal geometry in Javanese traditional cultural heritages.
Fractal structure of Borobudur was built by Modern Mathematical Sciences( See next
Chapter)
New mathematical calculations were used to built Borobudur Temples as far back as in the
years 750 and 842. Fractals are geometric shapes that have elements similar to the overall
shape. Often a fractal has a certain pattern that repeats with a recursive and
iterative.Confirming the hypothesis is the work of Hokky Situngkir, researcher and
president of Bandung Fe Institute. According to him, Borobudur was built space that has a
similarity with the elements themselves. In the Borobudur, for example, there are many
forms of geometry stupa. “Candi Borobudur stupa itself is a giant in which consists of
stupas of other smaller ones. Keep up to infinity,” he explains.
In addition, Hokky explains, it is also verified by measurements Parmono Atmadi from
UGM, which sees order Borobudur buildings that meet the elements of 9:6:4 ratio.
Ratios, for example, is present at high proportions of three parts of the temple, which is part
Arupadhatu (formless world) – the main stupa and stupas that form a circle, the Rupadhatu
(the form) – the part that covers stupas are located on the runway square shaped, and the
Kamadhatu (lust of the world) – the legs. The actual stupa itself is a form of three-
dimensional ellipsoid that satisfy the ratio 9:6:4. “This order we meet in all parts of
Borobudur, either horizontally or vertically,” Borobudur meet the dimensional fractal
dimensionality between 2 and 3.4

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 REFERENCES
1, Hariawang, I.I., Simatupang, F.M., Radiman, I., and Mumpuni, E.S.,2011. Orientation
of Borobudur’s east gate measuredagainst the sunrise positon during the vernal equinox.
In Nakamuraet al., 37–42.
Hidayat, B., 2000.

2. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur.
Philica, Philica, 2017. ffhal-01677101f. See also

The Main Stupa of Borobudur as Gnomon and Its Relation With Pranotomongso Calendar
System Ferry M. Simatupang , Irma I. Hariawang , Emanuel Sungging Mumpuni1,
1Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Institut
Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40135, Indonesia and National Institute of
Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Center of Space Science, Jl. Dr. Djundjunan 133,
Bandung 40173, Indonesia.
Proceedings of The 11th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting 2011 NARIT Conference
Series, Vol. 1, c 2013 S. Komonjinda, Y. Y. Kovalev, and D. Ruffolo, eds.
3. Giulio Magli School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering,
Politecnico di Milano, Italy,Giulio Magli, Researchgate December 2017.

4. Borobudur was Built Algorithmically ,Hokky Situngkir

Dept. Computational Sociology, Bandung Fe Institute ,Center for Complexity, Surya
University
5.Borobudur Was Built Algorithmically,Article in SSRN Electronic Journal · September
2010

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 CHAPTER V
Mathematics and Numerology in the Borobudur Temples

Mostly in Eastern religions, particularly in Indonesia the ancient Imperial cults of

Borobudur temple as Buddhism, ritually celebrate their beliefs as a congregation where
prayer and religious addresses are a communal activity. This culture is interesting to study
whether building a place of worship is built on the cultural elements or there is a
correlation with formula or complicated calculations about how the building is erected .
The mathematical study for Borobudur’s architectural design has once related to answer the
question about the metric system used by ancient Javanese to build such giant buildings
with good measurement.
Borobudur was constructed during the eighth century as a guide to the Noble Path of the
Buddha. Born from silence and unfolding into the serenity of the other shore, it expresses
the glory of Indonesia's awareness and creativity, the smile of her plastic forms over the
centuries as well as her travels along the edge of thoughts that cross the endless corridors of
memory. Though the Western world rediscovered this magnificent structure almost 200
years ago, this sacred place nonetheless remains seated in its enigmatic depth, engulfed in
vaporous illusions, waiting for someone to find the base simplicity of its Truth. This temple
is a catalyst and invites adventurous minds to find new directions by bringing into focus the
vast universe of the Borobudur in order to cultivate the way its designers found to weeding
out error in its construction. The questions posed or solutions offered herein are like water
and waves: different yet identical in essence. They stir discussion. One of the special
contributions lies in its correlating the cyclical movements of the Sun and Moon with the
numerical symbolism. The magical effect of the Sun suddenly appearing out of the volcano
Merapi and empowering the Borobudur-mountain with its radiant energy in poetic imagery
is the vision of the creator of this edifice. This magic moment of satori or enlightenment
echoes the experiences of the unknown Shailendra monarch who had commissioned the
monument's construction and the inspiration that made the architect envision this Buddhist
wonder.1
As a a legacy from the greatness of the past, there have been still a lot of mysteries behind
the structures of Indonesian Borobudur Temple. Some of them are described eloquently .

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The hypothetical propositions backed by science are still a few, especially when it is related
to mathematical one. Yet, Borobudur has been worldly recognized as one of biggest
wonders in human civilizations. The Borobudur was a built in the theological tradition
from 760 to 825 AD Mahayana Buddhist, located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.
Glance view of the Borobudur brings us to see the complexity of architectural design
implemented to the temple with specific and unique appearance relative to other
architectural and historical wonders, e.g.: Egyptian and Mayan Pyramid, Cambodian
Angkor Wat. The temple is built upon 123 x 123 m2 land and comprises 6 square platforms
and 3 circular platforms on top with a dome as the highest points. The decoration of the
temple presents 2,672 detail relief panels narrating Buddhist mythologies. There are 504
Buddha statues in Borobudur and various stupas, the Buddhism related mound-like and
bell-shaped structure. At the circular platform of the temple, there are 72 Buddha statues
seated inside perforated stupa. A description related to history of reconstruction, site
description, anthropological and archaeological perspective of the site are elaborated by
Soekmono (1976)2 as the temple is closely related to Indonesian social living, even at the
modern times (Vickers, 2005). It is also worth to note a good introduction the functional
part of temples, in general , in Indonesian culture as described in Soekmono (2005). The
late traditional kingdoms in Indonesian archipelago inherited various temples, and
Borobudur is one of the greatest.3

Space is a term used to describe dimensional aspects existing between other, significant
phenomena.The semiotics of space is a descriptive process enquiring into the
relevantsignificance of the relationships between objects and theirspatial contexts. Since
semioticsisthe disciplined study of the life of signs that ‘stand for or represent’ something,
space is generally overlooked as the background to other objects of attention.

Mathematical ideas have formed new semiotic spaces, where those without a mathematical
background can only "feel" the effects and many of their consequences in real life
space. The truth of a theorem, equations, and many mathematical relations are basically
correct, depending on what is meant by theorems, equations, and conceptual relations of
mathematics itself. Mathematics that we know today tells the long road of human thought

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from ancient simple concepts and abstractions, which have relations and connectedness
with each other with concepts.
This then leads us to the intriguing question when looking at the splendor of the diverse
ethnographies in the cultural landscape of the archipelago. The splendor of Borobudur
Temple which is known as one of the largest and most complex Buddhist sites on our
planet, has extraordinary architecture, from its construction structure, to the ornamentation
and decoration carved there. And we are also increasingly intrigued, when we also
understand that at the time of the great temple was built, we do not use mathematical
thinking as architects or civil engineers today build a mega-structure similar to Borobudur.

4:6:9 Ratio: A survey conducted in 1977 revealed frequent findings of a ratio of

4:6:9 around the monument. The architect had used the formula to lay out the
precise dimensions of the fractal and self-similar geometry in Borobudur's design.
This ratio is also found in the designs of Pawon and Mendut, nearby Buddhist
temples.There is an interesting geometric fact shown in Borobudur, These are as related to
the mythology, about the parts of the temple, including the legs, body, and head of a human
being representing the celestial body of the Buddha.. A comparison is also found in an
existing stupa, which is part of Borobudur, both large-sized stupas (on the upper floor), and
small stupas on the ground floor. Stupa size variations look different, but it's really
interesting to see that the ratio of the size of the foot: body: head remains as obeyed in
accordance with the large cross section of Borobudur.

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 Figure 1. Cross-section of the Borobudur Temple: foot-body-head.

By making detailed measurements of all the stupas to the very small shapes that have a
similarity to the stupa which is an element of the temple, it is shown that as if the temple
builder does not care about the dimensions and scaling dimensions of the temple, but
always "filling" the temple building in 3 -dimensional in the form of stupas which between
levels in the parts obey the ratio ...: 4: 6: 9: .... [14]. It is as if the change in size of the
stages in a stupa if the geometric shape is continued continuously from the size of the stupa
that is built continues to infinity.
But the concept of "infinity" is certainly a mathematical concept that is difficult to find in
relation to everyday reality. "Unlimited" is a metaphor derived from various conceptual
structures that are interrelated in the mathematical treasures]. The concept of "infinity" is a
concept that is often found in geometry when we talk about aspects with extraordinary
symmetry, namely in geometric shapes with structures that have similarities in
themselves. Wake structure that has a dimension that is not an integer (1, 2, 3, ...) but
fractions ( fraction ), which wake geometric, known as the "fractal" ( fractal ).
The similarity test on yourself at Borobudur Temple was also carried out. Detailed
measurements ranging from large landscapes stupa temple to form the smallest performed,
followed by calculation of the counting-box ( Box- counting) to wake up with a 3-
dimensional Minkowski Dimension-Bouligand method. Borobudur was calculated to have
a fractal dimension D ~ 2.3252 . As a geometric shape with dimensions 2 <D <3,
Borobudur Temple is shown to have a 3-dimensional "fragmented" shape. Borobudur
Temple provides 2-dimensional "experience" despite its 3-dimensional shape. Borobudur
cannot be equated as a cone, even though it is a cone. Borobudur is a giant stupa in which
there are other stupas that compose it. Like batik art crafts , similar patterns of self-fractal
geometry were detected in the Borobudur Temple.
The order and patterns that emerge in the Borobudur Temple, however, are a mathematical
method. It's just that the method of mathematics is not as common as is known by modern
society. Borobudur was built by stacking one stone with another stone. The geometric
method of Borobudur Temple is different. It does not begin with standard geometrical
patterns. It starts with stupas of various sizes, and with certain rules, stones are stacked
with certain "algorithms" so that, as a whole, Borobudur itself has the form of a giant stupa
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. This same mathematical method is also found in pigmentation patterns in animals, such as
the shellfish shell pigmentation pattern. Nature also seems to have geometry , and this
similar pattern was also adapted by the people with primitive geometry that built the
Borobudur Temple. An geometric method that fills emptiness with patterns and shapes that
ultimately form patterns and shapes that are similar to the patterns and shapes of the
constituents themselves .No standard meter is used other than the size ratio between one
part and the other. Stacking stones with certain rules to create great works such as
Borobudur. A unique mathematical method, which even tempts physicist Stephen Wolfram
to call it a new "science" way: Stacking stones with certain rules to create great works such
as Borobudur. A unique mathematical method, which even tempts physicist Stephen
Wolfram to call it a new "science" way: Stacking stones with certain rules to create great
works such as Borobudur. A unique mathematical method, which even tempts physicist
Stephen Wolfram to call it a new "science" way:the new kind of science .
If these are the mathematical traces of the inhabitants of the archipelago in the past, we as a
generation that inherited the Borobudur Temple have a call to dig further. Explores
metaphors and how our conceptual relations abstraction of life in nature and socially. There
is as much collective intelligence as Borobudur is along the vast archipelago of our
archipelago. Starting from agricultural techniques such as subak in Bali, the procedure for
the transformation of natolu in the Batak tribe, state and bureaucratic patterns , to the
creation of art crafts that can inspire our modern civilization today and the future .
We live in an era filled with social and ecological crises. It is possible that further
excavation of traditional life management that has been proven to be able to maintain the
harmony of life as printed on the splendor of Borobudur Temple can be an inspirational
footing .We also live in the information age, where creativity plays a very important role in
it. It could be that further excavation of this unique way of crafting can inspire modern
aesthetic works that can add value to our modern civilization , now and in the future.
Fractal Geometry: term ‘Fractal’ actually comes from the Latin word ‘Fractus’ which
means ‘broken’. Fractal means, the recursive geometrical forms, bearing self-similarity on
different scales. According to the Fractal foundation – “A fractal is a neverending pattern.
Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They
are created by repeating a simple process repeatedly in an ongoing feedback loop. Driven
by recursion, fractals are images of dynamic systems – the pictures of Chaos.

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Geometrically, they exist in between our familiar dimensions. Fractal patterns are
extremely familiar, since nature is full of fractals. For instance: trees, rivers, coastlines,
mountains, clouds, seashells, hurricanes, etc. Abstract fractals – such as the Mandelbrot Set
– can be generated by a computer calculating a simple equation over and over.”
The self-similar recursive geometry is known as Fractal. Hindu Philosophy describes the
cosmos as holonomic and self-similar in nature. In the connection of this context,fractal
theory is being followed in Indian Hindu Temple Architecture much before the discovery
of Fractal Theory. From the site plan level to the minute detailing level, the basic structure
of Hindu temples with supportive structures in Hindu temple architecture, geometry always
plays a vital and enigmatic role. The geometry of a plan started with a line,forming an
angle, evolving a triangle, then a square and distinctly a circle and so on, ultimately
deriving complex forms. As per the previous discussion, the occurrence of complexity,
results into self-similarity and further it leads to the occurrence of fractal geometry.
Geometry is a disciplined field and the fractals follow it. Both of them have definite paths
of action.Ancient Indian mathematicians were very skilful in geometry. They used the
knowledge of geometry in other disciplines also. They derived many of the comprehensive
conclusions with the help of geometry. The Indian old scripts are the evidences of those
practices. The concept of progression can also be applied in the geometry. When this
progression held in a proper manner or following a rule, it becomes a process, which has
several names like iteration, repetition etc.

However, at the end of the process, the outcome turns into a beautiful illusion. The Indians
understood this beautiful illusion by practice. They were creative minds. They proved their
efficiency not only in applied science but also in arts and crafts. They worshipped the
nature and they were very eager to reveal the mystery of creation. Somehow they got the
hints of creation; the principles of self-similarity, iteration, repetition. They observed that,
in the mountains, in the trees, in ground covers, in water; everything follows those
principles.
How to build using fractal Dimensions 4: There are no evidence that ancient Indonesian
society had a metric standard for the precisions and geometry on which they built the
civilian constructions. Yet, ruins of buildings and artifacts expressing complex mega-
constructions are there, spreading throughout the archipelago. Computationally elaborated

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study, we can see that the Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist temple and heritage from
ancient Indonesian civilization, use some sort of ratio conjectured to be used by the
architect of the temple in overcoming the lacking standard of measurement. In the latter,
the algorithmically built temple has fractal geometry with dimension ± 2.3252. The self-
similarity of the building is shown to be emerged from the way of building stupa,
Buddhist’s relic as the basic shape from which the Borobudur was built. Apparently, the
shape of the stupa, with the hypothesized ratio applied, is obvious in a lot of sizes, from a
small 3-dimensional ornaments to the shape of the temple itself. Fractal dimension is
calculated by using the cube counting method and found that the dimension is, which is
laid between the two-dimensional plane and three dimensional space. The applied fractal
geometry and self-similarity of the building is emerged as the building process implement
the metric rules, since there is no universal metric standard known in ancient traditional
Javanese culture thus the architecture is not based on final master plan. The hypothetical
algorithmic architecture might be applied computationally in order to see some
experimental generations of similar building. The paper ends with some conjectures for
further challenge and insights related to fractal geometry in Javanese traditional cultural
heritages.5 Observing the complexity of architectures from ancient social life, like temples,
that are found a lot in Indonesian archipelago, is often bringing question on how such
simple civilization could erect them regarding to the known technical simplicity they had.
This question is sometimes followed by appearing mysteries related to detail within them
as our modern eyes scrutinize each of them. The simple method emerging complex patterns
as shown in cellular automata is hypothesized to be able answering the question. The paper
reports the utilization of three-dimensional forms emerged by the two-dimensional
totalistic cellular automata with some modifications related to the delimitation of the
growing sites horizontally.
The emerging 3-dimensional forms are compared with some ancient temples in Indonesia.
The more detailed observation of the emerged 3-dimensional shape gives more interesting
result, related to the ratio 4:6:9 discovered in multi-scaled measurements of Borobudur
Temple previously, which is emerged from more elementary and simple rules of particular
cellular automata. Furthermore, our discussions conclude some characteristics of the
utilized cellular automata used in the observation. This observation confirms the
explanatory power of cellular automata to ancient architectures. This is a supplementary to

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the widely recognized exploratory power of cellular automata as inspiration to the modern
and contemporary architectural designs.
REFERENCES
1.Borobudur, Mark Long (Author), Voute Caesar (Author), Fitra Jaya
Burnama (Photographer) DK Printworld, 2008
2.Chandi Borobudur: A monument of mankind,Soekmono, The Unesco Press (1976)
3. Ethnic vs Math: The Secret inside Borobudur Temple, Wanda Nugroho Yanuarto,
Indonesia,2017
Borobudur was Built Algorithmically Hokky Situngkir , Dept. Computational Sociology,
Bandung Fe Institute Center for Complexity, Surya University, Indonesia
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1508/1508.03649.pdf
4. Some architectural design principles of temples in Java : a study through the buildings
projection on the reliefs of Borobudur Temple,Parmono Atmadi,Yogyakarta : Gadjah
Mada University Press, 1988.
5.Exploring Ancient Architectural Designs with Cellular Automata Hokky Situngkir
[hs@compsoc.bandungfe.net] Dept. Computational Sociology Bandung Fe Institute BFI
Working Paper Series WP-9-2015.See also Adapting cellular automata to support the
architectural design process, Christiane Herr, Automation in Construction, January 2007
6..Role of Fractal Geometry in Indian Hindu Temple Architecture, Dhrubajyoti Sardar, S.
Y. Kulkarni, International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), 2015

7.Reading Borobudur, Presented at the Indonesian Mathematics Student Association

(IKAHIMATIKA) Association " Nothing without Math ," Jakarta, November 3, 2012.
https://qact.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/matematikaborobudur/

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 CHAPTER VI
Fractals & Lotus-Design Elements of Borobodur

Deservedly so, when one visits Europe one can marvel at the building they built in the
1600s and 1700s. What impressive feats they accomplished. But then Borobudur was built
in the 800s.Its engineering-
its base is 123 m x 123 m. Its superstructure is 3 tiered with a head, body, feet ratio of
9,6,4. Creating a level base that measures 123m x 123m to be very tough, I mean, the
italians cannot even create a level base for the Pisa tower .If you ask a civil engineer now
how he/sahe is going to create a level base that measures 123m x 123m, he will need a laser
rangefinder, possibly one that can adjust for the earth's curvature.

Based on inscriptions found on some of the stones of the monument, archaeologists agree
that construction of Borobudur was probably begun around 760 AD and completed by
about 830, the Golden Age of the Sailendra dynasty, under the reign of King Samaratunga.
Sailendras dynasty kings were of foreign origin, either from South India or from Indo-
China, and ruled Sumatra and Java from the 8th through the 13th centuries. Under their
rule, the islands were major centers of Buddhist scholarship. The Javanese had been
carving stone statues and inscriptions since about 400 AD, but between 700 and 900 AD,
many of the Island's greatest shrines were erected.

Javanese society of that time must have been healthy and wealthy enough to support an
endeavor such as the building of Borobudur. It would have required plentiful manpower to
haul the stone – as much as 45,700 cubic yards taken from nearby streams and rivers, all
fitted perfectly together without mortar. Skilled craftsmen would have been needed to carve
the images, which were completed after the stones were in place, and abundant agricultural
resources to provide food.
By the middle of the 9th century, Borobudur was completed with a large monastery at the
southwest foot of the hill. "Today it takes a trained eye to see Borobudur from a distance,"

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says Asian art historian, Jan Fontein. "But we know that, in ancient times,this stone was
covered with a kind of white plaster – called "plaster as hard as diamond" or "vajalaypa" –
which may have been a base for colors and just as the pilgrim who went to Chartres saw
the cathedral rise up from miles away, so the pilgrim who came to Borobudur may have
seen the monument in ancient times, hours before he reached it."
Records from the 9th and 10th centuries show that Borobudur was a center of pilgrimage
for about 150 years during a short but intense period of Buddhism. Chinese coins and
ceramics found at Borobudur from the 11th to the 15th centuries suggest that pilgrims
continued to visit Borobudur during that time.1

Incredible Hindu temples were made with incredible thought about positioning, with size
and geometry taken into consideration. All optimised using numerics. Today it looks like
we've lost a chapter in human history as to how Vedic structures were created with such
elegance. According to ancient architectural tradition, Hindu temples are symbols of the
model of the cosmos and their form represents the cosmos symbolically. The human being
is said to contain within itself, the entire cosmos – ‘Aham Bhramosmi’ philosophy. The
term comes from the Sanskrit, aham, meaning “I” and brahma, meaning “divine,” or
“sacred”. While Brahms is the Hindu creator god, Asmi translates to “I am.” Aham
Brahmasmi is a term that is used in Hindu and yoga philosophy to describe the unity of the
Atman (individual self or soul) with Brahman (the Absolute)., thus reinforcing the idea of
‘part in whole’ and ‘whole in part’. Aham Brahmasmi is one of the main Mahavakyas-
the short statements known as the "Great Utterances" from the Upanishads. 2

Traditionally, temples have been the most prominent religious institution in India and
fractals form an integral part of those temples. A single gaze at a temple and you will find
fractal-like spires (shikharas) or a tower surrounded by smaller towers, surrounded by still
smaller towers, and so on, for eight or more levels. Each part of the facade is designed to
look like a miniature reproduction of the whole Since Hindu philosophy views the cosmos
to be holonomic and self-similar in nature – each fragment of the cosmos is believed to be
whole in itself – temples are designed and constructed as models of the cosmos.The
architecture of the Hindu temple symbolically represents the quest for moksha– ultimate
spiritual liberation, the realization of oneness by setting out to dissolve the boundaries

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between man and the divine. or this purpose certain notions are associated with the very
forms and materials of the building.
Paramount is the identification of the divinity with the fabric of the temple, or, from
another point of view, the identification of the form of the universe [for example the
cosmic mountain] with that of the temple.Such an identification is achieved through the
form and meaning of those architectural elements that are considered fundamental to the
temple.

Vishnu temple in Varanasi. This single-pointed wholeness composed of many self-

similar peaks at various points in the structure displays a striking fractal quality

Temples are of different sizes populated by sculptures and images of deities, animals,
mythical beings and varied symbols to create a distinctive visual and spiritual experience.
Not all Hindu temples are based on sacred geometry but many are.

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The temple is a fractal part of the whole of Hinduism, and that the use of fractal geometry
has a special symbolic meaning in the forms of Hindu temples. Like the whole is reflected
and celebrated in each part!

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Indian temples are like 3-dimensional structure based on fractal geometry

It’s not just that these temples appear to be algorithmically generated, the ancient Vastu
Sustra texts provide procedural rules or recipes for their design, layout and build (including
the positions of ornaments). The texts transmit recursive programs, by verbal instruction, to
masons so that the Hindu Temple becomes a model of a fractal Universe. A model which
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represents ‘views of the cosmos to be holonomic and self-similar in nature’. The idea
of fractal cosmology is no stranger to western academia. In 1987 the Italian physicist
Luciano Pietronero argued, in his paper, that the Universe shows ‘a definite fractal aspect
over a fairly wide range of scale’ based on correlations of galaxies and clusters, their
spatial distribution and average mass density.

‘According to Hindu philosophy the cosmos can be visualised to be contained in a

microscopic capsule, with the help of the concept of subtle element called ‘tammatras’. The
whole cosmic principle replicates itself again and again in ever smaller scales’ – Kirti
Trivedi.3

Symmetries of the cosmos manifest themselves in the designs and representations made by
man. This is most relevant in the case of Hindu temples, because of the obvious necessity
to relate with the cosmic dynamism. The notion of temple as a model of the cosmos has
existed over 3000 years in texts and for more than 1000 years in actually realised
monuments has explored the connections that tie the details of the temple form and its
iconography to fundamental Vedic ideas related to transformation.4
Kak
If we trace the artistic forms of things, made by man, to their origin, we find a direct
imitation of nature. This does explain the common processes used for the creation of art. It
should be noted that sometimes the aesthetic appeal of fractal-like patterns is also explained
by the fact that the nervous system is governed by fractal-like processes. There is enough
evidence to prove that nature, cosmos, human body and human mind all follow the same
algorithm in geometrical progression.

2. Temple architecture – manifestation of the philosophy

“As the pigments are but the vehicle of painting, so is the building but the vehicle of
architecture, which is the thought behind form, embodied and realised for the purpose of its
manifestation and transmission. Architecture, then, interpenetrates building, not for
satisfaction of the simple needs of the body, but the complex ones of the intellect.”
(Lethaby, 1891, 2005 ) 4

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How humans experience architecture, is an extensively talked about subject. The
conclusions can be drawn only after certain connect and relationship has been formed
between the building and the observer. This connection needs a basis or connecting thread
to be formed. The scales at which human beings can comfortably perceive things and
interpret to understand, is limited. The cosmic scale and the atomic scale – the two ends of
scale – are unperceivable to the human naked eye, and therefore contribute only
conceptually to the ideas of homogeneity, isotropy, self similarity etc. So, the eternal truth
embedded within these concepts geometrically, needed to be manifested into a scale which
human eye can perceive and interpret in their own right, also being an inherent part of their
worldly experience.
Many scientists have found that fractal geometry is a powerful tool for uncovering secrets
from a wide variety of systems and solving important problems in applied science. The list
of known physical fractal systems is long and growing rapidly.

Fractals is a new branch of mathematics and art. Perhaps this is the reason why most
people recognize fractals only as pretty pictures useful as backgrounds on the computer
screen or original postcard patterns. But what are they really? Most physical systems of
nature and many human artifacts are not regular geometric shapes of the standard geometry
derived from Euclid. Fractal geometry offers almost unlimited waysof describing,
measuring and predicting these natural phenomena. But is it possible to define the whole
world using mathematical equations?

The image of lotus flower is very important to Buddha. This flower symbolizes modesty,
simplicity, and compassion. The image of lotus flower on the Borobudur Temple can be
captured by using bird eye angle perspective, using aerial photography just like the forms
made from silhouette lines of the temple. Meanwhile the circle at Arupadhatu with its
stupas symbolizes the hump of lotus flower which is associated with encircled stupas on
the Arupadhatu level. This aerial photography show a simplified geometrical shape of the
hump of lotus flowe. The imagery of Borobudur Temple as a lotus flower with leaves,
hump and veins of leaves remind the idea that interprets Borobudur Temple and its
landscape as a lotus flower on the pond. This image confirms the possibility of Borobudur
Temple which was built in the middle of water environment.5

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Many people are fascinated by the beautiful images termed fractals. Extending beyond the
typical perception of mathematics as a body of complicated, boring formulas, fractal
geometry mixes art with mathematics to demonstrate that equations are more than just a
collection of numbers. What makes fractals even more interesting is that they are the best
existing mathematical descriptions
of many natural forms, such as coastlines, mountains or parts of living organisms.
Although fractal geometry is closely connected with computer techniques, some people had
worked on fractals long before the invention of computers. Those people were British
cartographers, who encountered the problem in measuring the length of Britain coast. The
coastline measured on a large scale map was approximately half the length of coastline
measured on a detailed map. The closer they looked, the more detailed and longer the
coastline became. They did not realize that they had discovered one of the main properties
of fractals.

Fractals’ properties
Two of the most important properties of fractals are self-similarity and non-integer
dimension.
What does self-similarity mean? If you look carefully at a fern leaf, you will notice that
every little leaf - part of the bigger one - has the same shape as the whole fern leaf. You can
say that the fern leaf is self-similar. The same is with fractals: you can magnify them many
times and after every step you will see the same shape, which is characteristic of that
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particular fractal.In the Hindu temple, the potentially divine becomes visibly manifest and
therefore approachable by man. Temple construction manuals of the ancient world
Brihatsamhita and Sthapatyaveda give the solution as the temple which should act as the
microcosm of the cosmos .

Though Borobodur is no Hindu temple, the construction and technology is definitely

inspired,to say the least, by Hindu Temple Architecture. Even the artisans and the Architect
may have been brought from India to undertake this gigantic task. Hindu temple
architecture is vast and requires an understanding of not only Hindu philosophy, but also
the nature of religious practices, rituals and temple worship in Hinduism combining
subjects of philosophy, cosmology, psychology, mathematics, geometry and in-depth
understanding of the social and cultural life of the people and the times.
Architecture, described as thought behind form, is the most appropriate vehicle, for he
messages addressed for human mind. This special relationship formed between the
structure and the human mind, substantiates the experience through symbolism. Therefore
the connecting basis may be developed through the use of symbolism, which touches the
intellect in more than one way.

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Figure: Outer fractal Fascade, Kandaria Mahadev Temple, Khajuraho

3. Symbolic expression and perception

“The history of symbolism shows that everything can assume symbolic significance:
natural objects (like stones, plants, animals, men, mountains and valleys, sun and moon,
wind, water, and fire), or man-made things (like houses, boats, or cars), or even abstract
forms (like numbers, or the triangle, the square, and the circle). In fact, the whole cosmos is
a potential symbol.” (Carl Gustav Jung, Man and His Symbols, 1964)
The Borobodur monument is a symbolic structure that represents certain fundamental
concepts of Buddhist philosophy about the nature of cosmos, The very dynamics of the
cosmos are expressed in the tensions of the conflict between good and evil rather than in an
ultimate resolution which never takes place
Geometry and its Application
In Hindu thought, number is considered an expression of the structure of the universe and a
means of effecting the interplay between the universe and man . When numbers are given
shape and form, geometry comes into play. The existence of the phenomenon of self
similarity in the natural world has been observed and known since antiquity, but its
mathematical understanding and the process of arriving at it began with Mandelbrot’s work
in 19776

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The geometrical basis of the Hindu Temple plan -Vastu Purush Mandala, is the result of
fractal iterations. The hidden fields of forces within the square where each side of the
square applies force towards the centre. Thus increasing the number of squares in
a Mandala helps the diagram to contain the (cosmic) energies more concretely where the
field of forces is increased in a fractal manner. These restored energies in the Mandala
radiate outwards to the physical world eternally from the centre. With time, the final shape
of Mandala turns into a complex matrix through various transitional stages.

The well-controlled zigzag plan of the temple creates the vertical visual rhythm,
accentuated in the elevation through its sharp recessions and projections, whereas the
horizontal friezes on the elevation create the horizontal rhythmic growth upward (Md Rian
I, et. al., 2007). In the shikhara, the amalgamation of the form of lotus the circle depicts the
endless cycles, of time the wholeness and the consciousness due to its never-ending shape.
Each iteration starts from the intersection between a side of the diagonal square and the last
iterated line, and stops at the intersection between grid line and the circle. This iteration
stops at the corners of the square. Hindu cosmology, manifested in the plan of Hindu
temple two dimensionally, was also manifested in its elevation but three dimensionally and
more symbolically. Looking at a well known and well researched Shiva temple of India,
the Kandaria Mahadev Temple, Khajuraho, in the light of the previous discussion, it is
brought about superficially, that these Hindu temples confirm to the idea which is a
beautiful combination of the religious faith, geometrical achievements, understanding of
human comfort and aesthetics, how human beings perceive (psychology), fractal geometry
and its concept, knowledge of cosmology and its philosophy, and most importantly,
symbolism.

Fractal geometry comes in to help understand, decipher and interpret the temple in its
magnificence. Buildings satisfying certain rules are sub-consciously perceived as sharing
essential qualities with natural and biological forms , and as a consequence, they appear
more comfortable psychologically . From a study of natural entities Salingaros concludes
that the scaling relationship between these elements should obey the ration of 2.7, to be
aesthetically pleasing . Scaling coherence, which is the basis of fractal geometry, is a major
feature of Temple Architecture . The ratio of 2.7 walks along the lines of fractal geometry

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and supports the argument. It becomes evident that the various relationships established,
through fractal geometry, are not manifested with similar physical appearances, but similar
aesthetic appeal. This is because the algorithm or process used to develop the physical
arrangement is similar.

The need to relate all these streams of thought and study is to be able to demonstrate that
even though the integrated whole doesn’t form a part of imparted knowledge of a person,
the concept and idea manifested, does impact the human mind in the way discussed above.
This fact is due to the philosophical connotations of the various strategies and tactics
employed in its construction, which meets not only the human eyes but the intellect, and
touches it deeply.
Samit Datta advocated that the primitive, but beautifully complex, and satisfying form of
these temples has been arrived at; not through the use of complex computer algorithms,
generative of structures; but by intuitive processes, giving a fair idea of human intrinsic
affiliations, satisfying intellectual needs. It is estimated that, had fractal geometry not been
used in the physical manifestation of the temple philosophy, it would have been difficult to
impart the knowledge intended by temple construction.
Every element in the temple structure, the prasada, the shikhara, the finial, the sculpture on
the exterior and interior walls, the jagged plan form and the appearance in totality, take
help of fractal geometry; within the perceivable scales; to promote their idea and concept.
The implementation of fractal geometry ensures that the underlying structure resemble the
structure found in nature and hence provides the temple with its aesthetic appeal. It has
been noticed that, not only does the physical manifestation follow the principles of fractal
geometry, but also the idea of construction, i.e., the concept of the temple and its
philosophy, is akin to the concept ofractal geometry and fractal progression. This, points
towards the conception that even though the formal theory of fractals had not been
developed; like today; at the time of temple construction, the concept existed in the minds
of the priest and sthapaty. This concept is in tune with the cosmological and philosophical
theory attested by the temple structure. This attempt has been directed, not so much,
towards creation, or recreation, of a temple form, but focus has been on the process for
arriving at these forms.

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An analysis of the cosmological and philosophical requirements of the temple structure
aims to fulfil symbolically, alongside the theory of fractals. Fractals play a mediatory role
in the theoretical application, of the relationship of the philosophical concept and the
physical manifestation of a Hindu temple. 7
From its early origins to the tenth century, the Hindu temple embodied a progressive
elaboration of a simple formal schema based on a cuboidal sanctum and a solid form of
distinctive curvature. Pointed out Prof. S.Datta. The architectural form of the temple was
the subject of wide experimentation, based on canonical sacred texts, within the regional
schools of temple building in the Indian subcontinent. This paper investigates the practice
of this knowledge in the constructive geometry of temple superstructures, with attention
focused on the canonical rules for deriving the planar profile of a temple using a mandala
(proportional grid) and the curvature of the sikhara (superstructure) using a rekha sutra
(curve measure).

Using a computational reconstruction he develops a mathematical formulation of the

superstructure form and a detailed three-dimensional reconstruction of a tenth-century
superstructure, Through these reconstructions, a more complete explanation is provided of
the architectural thinking underlying superstructure form and temple ornamentation. This
inquiry raises a broader question that merits further exploration and dialogue. Considering
the philosophical and mathematical concepts revealed by this method of reconstruction,
were ancient Hindu temple builders grappling with a method for encoding a notion of
infinity through their use of geometric sequences? 8
In another paper the visual complexity in the temple forms of Pallava Architecture is mainly created byrepetition of
architectural elements in the Vimana-likeSala and Kuta in an orderly way in diminishing scale . In the south indian temple
architecture (Dravidian Style) the superstructure of the vimana or its several storeys are set with small temple
shapes,Similar to the originalshape. The smaller shapes are aligned in a definite pattern at each horizontal level, the
repetition ofthese shapes at each band forming a kind of garland at each level. The repetition of identical shapeseither in
the vertical or in the horizontal or vertically as well as horizontally, is another frequentlyused procedure to add
visual complexity to the temple form. The same pattern of design can be observed in the
Borobodur edifice.9

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Unlike other temples, built on a flat surface, Borobudur sits on a bedrock hill, 265 m
(869 ft) above sea level and 15 m (49 ft) above the floor of the dried-out paleolake. Lotus
flowers appear in almost every Buddhist work of art, often serving as a throne for buddhas
and base for stupas. The architecture of Borobudur itself suggests a lotus depiction, in
which Buddha postures in Borobudur symbolize the Lotus Sutra, mostly found in many
Mahayana Buddhism (a school of Buddhism widely spread in southeast and east Asia
regions) texts. Three circular platforms on the top have been thought to represent a lotus
leaf.[In every part of the world the landscape has its own distinctive appearance, shaped
both by the forces of nature and the design of mankind. To the natural scene - mountains,
hills, plains, barren deserts or lush forests - human beings contribute architectural features
of many kinds: mud huts, magnificent pyramids, soaring church spires or the modern
clusters of skyscrapers. Since its beginnings in India, Buddhism has spread over an area
extending from the deserts of Central Asia in the west to the islands of Japan in the east,
and from the icy regions of Tibet in the north to the sun-drenched tropical island of Sri
Lanka in the south. The natural features of all these regions are very different, and so are
their architectural features. But wherever you travel throughout this vast area, there is one
type of architectural monument which is everywhere; whether on bleak mountain tops, in
pleasant valleys, in the midst of vast plains, or even by the seashore. This ubiquitous
Buddhist monument is the stupa. There is an interesting legend behind the origin of the
stupa.
The ancient text 'Maha-parinibbana Sutta' tells us that it was the Buddha himself who
outlined the basic design of the stupa. The story begins at Buddha's deathbed. When he
realized that death was imminent, Buddha gave instructions about the disposition of his
body. He said that his body should be cremated, and the relics divided up and enclosed in
four different monuments. These monuments were to be erected at the following places,
marking important milestones in the Buddha's spiritual journey: 1). Lumbini: The place of
Buddha's birth. 2). Bodhgaya: Where the Buddha attained enlightenment under the bodhi
tree. 3). Sarnath: Where he gave his first teaching. 4). Kushinagar: Place of Buddha's death
(parinirvana) His intrigued disciples naturally asked what form this monument should take.
In reply the Buddha did not say anything, but gave a practical demonstration. He took his
outer yellow robe folded it in two and two until it formed a rough cube. Then he took his
begging-bowl, which of course was round, turned it upside down, and put it on top of the

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robes. 'Make the stupa like this,' he said. Indeed till today, whatever its geographical
location, the basic form of the stupa retains this elemental character.

Fundamentally, a stupa is essentially made up of the following five constituents: a). A

square base b). A hemispherical dome c). A conical spire d). A crescent moon e). A
circular disc Each of these components is rich in metaphoric content and is identified with
one of the five cosmic elements said to make up the entire manifested existence. These are
earth, water, fire, air and space. Square Base: This symbolizes the element earth. The
phenomenal world spreads out in the four directions and the square with its four sides is an
appropriate metaphor for the same. These four directions define the earth and bind it in
order. Hence the square is the perfect symbol to denote the terrestrial world. Often a stupa
would have four gates, one for each direction, and various deities protecting the specific
directions would stand guard over them. The Hemispherical Dome: The main mass of the
classical form of the stupa consists of a solid, hemispherical dome.
Early Buddhist texts refer to this as the garbha, meaning 'womb' or 'container.' With this
reference the stupa as a whole is called the 'dhatu-garbha.' Dhatu is Sanskrit for element.
Herein lies the derivation of the word 'dagoba,' which is the short form of dhatugarbha and
which is the most usual designation of the stupa in Sri Lanka. Thus this section of a stupa is
an allusion to the primordial, creative waters. Indeed in all the major cosmologies, life
arose from the archetypal waters, a female symbol of formless potentiality. The dome by
virtue of representing the womb from which issues all manifested existence signifies this
creative matrix. In a beautiful ritual of devotion, the hemisphere of the stupa is identified
with the golden cosmic egg of Yogic thought called 'Hiranyagarbha.' Hiranya is Sanskrit
for golden and garbha, as mentioned above, means womb. According to Vedic cosmology,
this golden womb was the nucleus from which all creation evolved. As a matter of fact it
was often the practice to carve small recesses in the curved wall of the stupa to hold rows
of oil lamps, so that the whole mound may be illuminated at night. The effect was to render
the abstract concept of the golden womb or egg into a visible reality. The dome is a symbol
of both the womb and the tomb.
According to Buddhist thought, before we are invested with a material body our souls are
free and fully alive in the spiritual world. Our physical conception in the womb follows our
death in the spiritual realm. The womb is thus the symbol of the tomb. This is the

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metaphysical counterpart of the historical view that the stupa evolved out of the ancient
funerary mound. In this context the stupa is often referred to as the 'chaitya,' a word which
is derived from the Sanskrit word for funeral pyre 'chita.' The Conical Spire: This signifies
the element of fire. Fire, of course, always rises upwards. When we kindle a fire it never
burns downwards but always goes straight up. So fire symbolizes energy ascending
upwards. It represents wisdom which burns away all ignorance. The Crescent Moon: This
denotes the element of air. Air has the capacity to expand. The female of the species shares
this property with air. This is exemplified in the expansion of a pregnant woman. Indeed
the crescent moon is an ancient symbol denoting femininity since the waxing and waning
of the moon is said to mirror a woman's menstrual cycle. The Circle: The perfect shape of
the circle expresses wholeness and totality. It represents the principle which has no end or
beginning. It thus signifies the element of space. Finally crowning the apex of the stupa is a
jewel like shape. This surmounts all the five elements and hence expresses a higher state of
reality than that characterized by these elements. This protruding jewel is found not only on
top of stupas but also crowns the heads of Buddha-images of all countries and all periods.
This is the ushnisha which sometimes looks like a flame springing from Buddha's head,
and sometimes like a lotus bud growing there. This protuberance signifies the Highest
Reality, namely the Enlightenment of the Great Buddha himself. Hence in a sense, the
journey to the stupa's top is a process of spiritual ascension, where the jewel lying at the
end of the quest is Nirvana itself. The identification of the highest point in the stupa with
the highest point in Buddha's image leads us to ponder as to whether a more deeper
correspondence can be established between the stupa and Buddha's physical body.
According to Yogic thought, the five elements are correlated with the five psychic centers
within the human body. This correlation is as follows:
1). The earth (prithvi) is the lowest psychic center. This is located between the feet and the
knees.
2). Water (apas) lies between the knees and the anus.
3). Fire (agni) lies between the anus and the heart.
4). Air (vayu) lies between the heart and the middle of the eyebrows.
5). Space (akasha) lies between the middle of the eyebrows to the top of the head.

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Sahasrara chakra:Finally above the head is the final seat of enlightenment. This is
identified with the Sahasrara chakra, which is said to be the seat of pure consciousness or
ultimate bliss. This is the Buddha' s ushnisha. According to the principles of yoga, our
composite selves are made of two superimposing constituents. These are the physical self,
known as the gross body, and the other is the higher self, which is the microcosm of the
universe, known as the subtle body. The subtle and the gross bodies are both analogues of
each other. We have seen above how the subtle body is presented in the stupa. The
Buddha's physical form too finds an echo in the stupa. In such a visualization, the base is
Buddha's legs, the dome is his torso, and to represent the head a second cubical structure is
added between the dome and the spire. This cube known as the harmika is exactly at the
place where Buddha's eyes should be. This can be seen in the typical stupas of Nepal
where, on each side of the harmika, a pair of eyes is painted. Conclusion There is an
amusing story told about an old man who had led a rather negative and unhelpful life,
marked by constant conflicts over petty matters. Nevertheless, he wanted to become a
monk for good luck. The head monks, however hard they tried, were having difficulty
ordaining him, since tradition decreed that a prospective candidate for priesthood need to
have performed at least one good deed. Mobilizing all their clairvoyant powers and
searching even his former lives, they could find no good deed. Not wanting to give up, the
compassionate monks then took him to see the Buddha himself. Now the Buddha's power
of clairvoyance was far more powerful than even the most saintliest of his followers.
Looking back the man's many, many lifetimes the Buddha finally said, 'Ah! It's all right,
you can ordain him - I've found something good in his past.' 'What is it?' they enquired. The
Buddha replied, 'Long ago, he was reborn as an ant, and he came with his clan to the great
stupa of Bodhnath (Nepal), where some people had gathered to pay homage to the
monument. At the moment when the head of the family began his pious
circumambulations, our man here was crawling across his boot, trying to get more crumbs.
He was able to hang on to the boot while the pilgrim made it three times around the stupa!
This was a meritorious deed, good enough to gain a monkhood for him.' In the traditional
view, a building needs to satisfy both the physical and metaphysical needs of man. As an
expression of artistic intent, it will elaborate upon the manner in which phenomenal world
relates to the spiritual one. Architecture being by nature three-dimensional is eminently
suitable to act as a metaphor, since any construct is bound to be rooted in the phenomenal

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world, and then must begin the ascent to the Higher levels. The stupa by virtue of being the
monument of Buddha's choice is deemed especially sacred as exemplified in the above
story. The spiritual merit of this monument is enhanced no less by it being a reflection of
the Cosmic Man, visualized in the ideals of Yoga, who resides in each of us.
Early stupas
Before Buddhism, great teachers were buried in mounds. Some were cremated, but
sometimes they were buried in a seated, meditative position. The mound of earth covered
them up. Thus, the domed shape of the stupa came to represent a person seated in
meditation much as the Buddha was when he achieved Enlightenment and knowledge of
the Four Noble Truths. The base of the stupa represents his crossed legs as he sat in a
meditative pose (called padmasana or the lotus position). The middle portion is the
Buddha’s body and the top of the mound, where a pole rises from the apex surrounded by a
small fence, represents his head. Before images of the human Buddha were created, reliefs
often depicted practitioners demonstrating devotion to a stupa.
The ashes of the Buddha were buried in stupas built at locations associated with important
events in the Buddha’s life including Lumbini (where he was born), Bodh Gaya (where he
achieved Enlightenment), Deer Park at Sarnath (where he preached his first sermon sharing
the Four Noble Truths (also called the dharma or the law), and Kushingara (where he died).
The choice of these sites and others were based on both real and legendary events.The
stupa (“stupa” is Sanskrit for heap) is an important form of Buddhist architecture, though it
predates Buddhism. It is generally considered to be a sepulchral monument—a place of
burial or a receptacle for religious objects. At its simplest, a stupa is a dirt burial mound
faced with stone. In Buddhism, the earliest stupas contained portions of the Buddha’s
ashes, and as a result, the stupa began to be associated with the body of the Buddha.
Adding the Buddha’s ashes to the mound of dirt activated it with the energy of the Buddha
himself.
"Stupa of Heaped Lotuses" or "Birth of the Sugata Stupa"refers to the birth of
Gautama Buddha when it is said he took seven steps in each of the four directions" (East,
South, West and North). In each direction lotuses sprang, symbolizing the brahmavihāras:
love, compassion, joy and equanimity. The four steps of the basis of this stupa is circular,
and it is decorated with lotus-petal designs. Occasionally, seven heaped lotus steps are
constructed. These refer to the seven first steps of the Buddha.

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This stupa is not just a souvenir for decoration. It has been also designed for ritual purpose:
there is empty space inside to be filled with mantras and other substances.
We tend to think of a mandala (मण्डल) as a graphic pattern, though the Sanskrit derivation
of the word is from the ‘cycles’ or ‘circles’ (ie ‘sections’ or ‘books’) of the Rig Veda. The
Vedas were hymns recited on ritual occasions. Mandala patterns were developed to
symbolise the rituals and the ideas underying the rituals. Buddhists took on the idea from
Hindus and used mandala patterns in the design of stupas (chortens), tankas and many other
things. Used in this way, a mandala symbolises the geography of the cosmos. Early
mandala patterns had a lotus flower with open petals and the Buddha at its centre. Circles
and squares were added and a mandala came to represent the four material elements of the
universe (earth, water, fire, wind) with Mount sumeru as the world axis. Energy moves in a
cosmic dance from the centre to the periphery, and then back to the centre, encompassing
inanimate and living things.
Buddhist Chinese and Japanese gardens are also mandalas. The word ‘Pagoda’ derives
from ‘stupa’ and these gardens symbolise the cosmos, with the temple as a house for a
Buddha. In later Chinese gardens temples evolved into garden pavilions for the delight of
their owners.
Structure of Chorten
The shape of the Stupa represents Buddha with a crown who is seated in a posture of
meditation on a lion throne. The top of the spire, with the well-known ‘twin-symbol’
uniting the sun and moon, is the crown, the square at the spire’s base is his head, the vase
shape symbolizes his body, the steps (four) of the lower terrace are his legs while the
square foundation base is his throne.
Types of Chortens
In Tibetan Buddhism, there are eight different kinds of chortens, each signifying a major
event in the life of Buddha Shakyamuni.
1. Lotus Blossom Stupa
The Lotus Blossom Stupa, also known as Stupa of Heaped Lotuses, represents the birth of
Buddha. It is said that at the time of his birth, he took seven steps in all four directions
signifying love, joy, compassion, and equality. This chorten generally has four circular
steps at the base and is decorated with designs of lotus petals.
2. Enlightenment Stupa
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Also termed as Stupa of the Conquest of Mara, this stupa signifies the time when Buddha
under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya attained enlightenment. It is said that the demon Mara
tried to tempt and attack him, but Buddha come out the conqueror.
3. Stupa of Many Doors or Gates
Buddha then preached his teachings to his followers near Sarnath. The doors on this
monument signify the opening of the doors to Dharma and point to the teachings: Four
Noble Truths, Noble Eightfold Path, Twelve Links in the Chain of Dependent Origination,
and Six Perfections.
4. Stupa Of Descent From The God Realm
When Bhudda’s mother was reincarnated in another realm, he went there to teach her
Dharma. This chorten consists of a ladder on each side and commemorates the return of
Bhudda back to earth.
5. Stupa of Great Miracles or Stupa of Conquest of the Tirthikas
When Buddha was 50 years old, he performed various miracles to prove his spirituality and
even overpowered several demons.
6. Stupa of Reconciliation
This octagonal chorten honours Buddha’s efforts in solving a conflict among his monastic
followers. It was built in the kingdom of Magadha where the conflict resolution took place.
7. Stupa of Complete Victory
This chorten has only three circular steps which are undecorated. It honors Buddha’s
extension of his life by three months when his followers pleaded him to stay.
8. Stupa of Nirvana
The Nirvana chorten represents Buddha’s death and him achieving a state of true peace.
This monument is undecorated and appears to be bell-shaped.
The ninth-century world-heritage Buddhist monument of Borobudur (Java, Indonesia)
stands above the floor of a dried-out palaeolake, but it remains uncertain as to whether it
was ever constructed on a lake shore. Here we reveal through new chronological and
palaeoenvironmental data on the extant sediment record of the area that Borobudur
intentionally stood by an existing lake. For the first time, evidence of this conjunction
validates quite literally the debated cosmological interpretation of the edifice as an aquatic
lotus symbol upon which Buddha is seated. The fluctuating life history of the lake spanned
at least 20 000 years.

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 REFERENCE

1.Symbolism in Hindu Temple Architecture and Fractal Geometry – ‘Thought Behind

Form’
Tanisha Dutta – PhD Research Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning,
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India
Vinayak S. Adane – Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, Visvesvaraya
National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India
1. The Fractal Structure of Hindu Temples,byBhavika
https://fractalenlightenment.com/14556/fractals/the-fractal-structure-of-hindu-temples
2. Aesthetics of Asian Art and Design,Kirti Trivedi, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018
3. Architecture, Mysticism and Myth,W. R. Lethaby,Cosimo, Inc., 2005

4. Cultural Messages of the Borobudur Temple’s Symbols Seen from Aerial Photography
Media, 2013, Ade Dani Setiawan ,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286166143_Cultural_Messages_of_the_Boro
budur_Temple's_Symbols_Seen_from_Aerial_Photography_Media
5. Mandelbrot, B. B., Fractals: Form, Chance, and Dimension. San Francisco. W. H.
Freeman and Company. 1977.
6. Symbolism in Hindu Temple Architecture and Fractal Geometry - 'Thought Behind
Form' Tanisha Dutta1 , Vinayak S. Adane, International Journal of Science and
Research (IJSR)2012
7. Infinite Sequences in the Constructive Geometry Of Tenth-Century Hindu Temple
Superstructures, Sambit Datta School of Architecture and Building Deakin
University 1, Gheringhap Street Geelong VIC 3219 AUSTRALIA
8. T h e V i s u a l C o m p l e x i t y i n t h e T e m p l e f o r m s
o f P a l l a v a
A r c h i t e c t u r , Jaikumar Ranganathan Dr.G.SubbaiyanPh D Research Schola
r
https://www.academia.edu/37140454/The_Visual_Complexity_in_the_Temple_forms_of_
Pallava_Architecture

9. Borobudur monument (Java, Indonesia) stood by a natural lake: chronostratigraphic

evidence and historical implications,H. Murwanto, Y. Gunnell, S. Suharsono,
2004 Researchgate, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1191/0959683604hl721rr

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 CHAPTER VII
The Borobodur Temple as a MANDALA

Empires such as Bagan, Ayutthaya, Champa, Khmer, Srivijaya and Majapahit are known as
"mandala" in this sense. Our temple is the second largest Buddhist temple in the world
after Angkor Wat. Constructors erected this monument in the shape of a mandala and an
opening Lotus flower on a square base (118 x 118 m) that smoothly turns into a circle.1

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Borobudur has eight tiers: the five lower ones are square, whereas the three upper ones are
round. The shape of the building itself resembles a mandala and represents a scheme of the
universe according to Buddhist beliefs, where heaven and earth are united. On the upper
tier there are 72 small stupas around a big central stupa. Every stupa is bell-shaped. Inside
the stupas, there are Buddha statues.
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The temple complex contains 1,460 bas-reliefs with religious motifs. Relief panels describe
the world of passions and the world of human perceptional development. Gradually
ascending the helical serpentine road, a traveller perceives the world of matter and reaches
the spiritual world.
The temple structure may be divided into three components:
 the temple base,
 the temple summit.
 the temple body,
The temple base is 118 x 118 m in width and 4 m in height. It is made of smooth plates
with three tiers and 20 corners. The temple body consists of five square platforms-tiers: the
higher one ascends the smaller every next tier is. The very first platform of the “monument
body” is located 7 metres away from the edge of the base. Every subsequent platform is
shifted 2 metres relative to the previous platform. The temple summit consists of three
rounded platforms, on which 72 small stupas and the main stupa in the centre are installed.
The central stupa is the highest point of the monument, towering 35 metres above the
temple foot. It represents a bell-shaped stupa, 7 metres in height, topping the huge pyramid.
1.The lowest level of the temple complex, called Kamadhatu, represents the world of
passions. 160 images of sensory manifestations have not been preserved to nowadays – we
know about the existence of those from ancient manuscripts only.
2.The second level – the five tiers called Rupadhatu – symbolizes the real world and
contains religious themes. The entire history of Buddhism is reflected in sculptures and
bas-reliefs. Here, there are 432 Buddha statues: 104 on the first and second terraces (each),
88 on the third terrace, 72 on the fourth, and 64 on the fifth.
3.The remarkable beauty is completed by the three upper rounded terraces. This is the
Arupadhatu level. There are 32 stupas on the lowest terrace, 24 on the middle, and 16 on
the upper. A natural-sized statue of Buddha is inside each of the stupas. The largest stupa –
the symbol of eternity – finishes the building.
32+24+16 = 72: an interesting interpretation of the structure of the world.

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10 th: The most interesting is the secret of the “tenth terrace”. It was discovered totally
accidentally that bas-reliefs are carved under the ground on Borobudur base walls, just like
on the six lower terraces of the stupa. About 1,500 square metres of valuable bas-reliefs
have turned to be hidden under the ground. The lower tier of the bas-relief describes the
afterlife, and we can assume this was the reason why human eyes were not supposed to see
it. An enormous piece of work was deliberately concealed from people, since only all-
seeing deities could admire the bas-reliefs.

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There is an assumption that Borobudur was constructed in a shape of Buddha sitting on a
Lotus flower. In 1949 geologists discovered deposits that were interpreted as the bottom of
a lake. There is a probability that the temple complex was located on a lake. By the
constructors’ plan, the entire magnificence of the temple was above the lake surface, and
Buddha statue crowned the entire structure.

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Buddhist monks who were building Borobudur implemented the idea of “a bible in stone”,
having left the knowledge to descendants for many centuries. Images on the walls told
about Buddha’s life. Following the way along the galleries, a person approached
enlightenment. In order to read this textbook in stone, one needed to cover almost 5 km.
Visitors covered the way to the very top of the temple, moving clockwise through all the
eight tiers. Every platform represents a stage of education on the way of transition from the
earthly plane to the heavenly plane.2

Biggest Mandala in the world

Borobudur is biggest Mandala in the world, when You see from sky You can see the
Mandala, if You see further, You can see 3 Temple in one straight line ( Mendut Temple,
Pawon Temple and Borobudur Temple ) betwen that, there is Elo river and Progo river and
it was built at 8th century

Thus, most likely the architecture of the Borobudur is based on a Javanese variant of
Buddhism, for if we look at the decoration in greater detail we obviously can confirm that
its origin is based on Indian mythology and Buddhist iconography, however, we can also
clearly see how these fundamental elements have been strongly combined with local (that
is, Javanese) influences. The style in which the characters are depicted on the Borobudur
differ greatly from the traditional Indian (Buddhist) iconography. The statues are depicted
in other bodily postures, and with less refined details as they have in India; the Javanese
obviously had a different idea of physical beauty and how this ought to be depicted, and
that’s why on the Borobudur the voluptuous curves of the body as familiar in Indian
iconography are altered according to local Javanese perception of beauty (by which the
female body is dressed in more clothes, and often can only be distinguished from the male
body by the curves of their breasts).

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If we consider the assumption of the Borobudur representing a maṇḍala, then the
main stūpa signifies the final destination of the spiritual path, which is situated in the center
of the cosmos. At this point one becomes united with the five transcendental Buddhas of
the Formless Realm: Vairocana in the center, Akṣobhya in the East, Ratnasambhāva in the
South, Amitābha in the West, and Amoghasiddhi in the North. This particular line-up
corresponds with the Vajradhātu Maṇḍala and the Garbhadhātu Maṇḍala in Tibet and
Nepal. One could gain access to the center of the cosmos by entering the maṇḍala from the
outside, and gradually moving further inwards. In this context, a maṇḍala can be
interpreted as a palace with four entrance gates at the four cardinal points of the Universe,
stretching the entire cosmos. The palace is a metaphor for human manifestation in this
world, which, by means of using the maṇḍala as a meditation object, guides the practitioner
to the ultimate (spiritual) goal in life. Visualization techniques such as these are still being
practised in Vajrayāna Buddhism today.

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Though the assumption of the Borobudur as a maṇḍala seems possible, this view remains
yet impossible to prove. In spite of the previously mentioned similarities with
the maṇḍalas, there are, however, also many differences. Beside the five transcendental
Buddhas many other deities – both male and female – are often seen depicted in maṇḍalas.
However, neither of these deities can be found on the Borobudur. Instead we do find many
other depicted Buddhas on the Borobudur, but these do not display any of the features
similar to other male or female deities. Thus, the other Buddhas do not function as a mere
substitution for the various other deities (like guards, gatekeepers, goddesses of worship or
Taras) commonly seen in maṇḍalas. Therefore, we may assume, that, as already had been
suggested, the Borobudur displays a variant of Buddhism in the way it manifested in Java
at the time of the reign of the Sailendra dynasty. This particular local variant of Buddhism
was based on Indian influences and Mahāyāna Buddhism, which came to Java from China
during the heydays of the Tang dynasty (618-906). The unique combination of these
aspects would eventually become the Buddhism of Java. Then there also was the Hindu
dynasty of Sanjaya that ruled on Java during the same period of the Sailendra dynasty. The
fact that the Sanjaya shared their power with the Sailendra dynasty – for example, through
donations for the construction of the Kalasan temple – illustrates, that, apart from its
religious function, the Borobudur also formed an important expression of power.3

The role of royal patronage and religious institution4

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The Borobudur monument combines the symbolic forms of the stupa (a Buddhist
commemorative mound usually containing holy relics), the temple mountain (based
on Mount Meru of Hindu mythology), and the mandala (a mystic Buddhist symbol of the
universe, combining the square as earth and the circle as heaven). The style of Borobudur
was influenced by Indian Gupta and post-Gupta art.In all the regions of Southeast Asia, the
arts flourished under the patronage of the kings. About the time of the birth of Christ, tribal
groups gradually organized themselves, after some years of settled life as rice cultivators,
into city-kingdoms, or conglomerations of villages. A king was thus little more than a
paramount tribal chieftain. Since the tribes had been accustomed to worshiping local
spirits, the kings sought a new spirit that would be worshiped by the whole community.

One reason that the gods of Hinduism and Buddhism were so readily acceptable to
Southeast Asia was this need for new national gods. The propagation of the new religions
was the task of the kings, and consequently the period from the 1st to the 13th century was
a great age of temple building all over Southeast Asia.

Architecture, sculpture, and painting on the temple walls were the arts that flourished. In
the ancient empires of eastern Indochina and the islands, scholars of Sanskrit, the language
of the sacred works of Hinduism, became part of the king’s court, producing a
local Sanskrit literature of their own. This literary activity was confined to the hereditary
nobility and never reached the people, except in stories from the great Hindu
epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. Because the Hindu religious writings in Sanskrit were
beyond the reach of the common people, Hinduism had to be explained to them by Hindu
stories of gods and demons and mighty men. On the other side of the peninsula, in the Pyu-
Burmese empire of Prome, which flourished before the 8th century, there was no such
development—first, because Hinduism was never widely accepted in Burma and, second,
because the more open Burmese society developed neither the institution of a god-king nor
that of a hereditary nobility. Although Pali scholars surrounded the king in later Pagan, Pali
studies were pursued not at the court but at monasteries throughout the kingdom so that
even the humblest villager had some faint contact with Pali teachings. While the courts of
the kings in Cambodia and Java remained merely local centres of Sanskrit
scholarship, Pagan became a centre of Pali learning for Buddhist monks and scholars even

144
from other lands. As in the case of stories from the Indian epics, stories of the Jatakas (birth
stories of the Buddha) were used to explain Buddhism to the common people, who could
not read the scriptures written in Pali. Just as scenes from the great epics in carving or in
fresco adorned the temples in Cambodia and Java, scenes from the Jatakas adorned the
Pagan temples.
.
The patronage of the king and the religious enthusiasm of the common people could not
have produced the great temples without the enormous wealth that suddenly became
available in the region following the commercial expansion. With the Khmer and Javanese
empires, the wealth was produced by a feudalistic society, and so the temples were built by
the riches of the king and his nobles, combined with the compulsory labour of their
peasants and slaves, who probably derived some aesthetic pleasure from their work because
of their religious fervour. Nonetheless, their monuments, such as Borobudur, in Java,
and Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, had an atmosphere of massive, all-conquering power. At
Pagan, where wealth was shared by the king, the royal officials, and the common people,
the temples and the monasteries were built by all who had enough not only to pay the
artisans their wages but also to guarantee their good health, comfort, and safety during the
actual construction. The temples were dedicated for use by all monks and lay people as
places of worship, meditation, and study, and the kings of Pagan did not build a single
tomb for themselves. The Khmer temple of Angkor Wat and the Indonesian temple of
Borobudur were tombs in that the ashes of the builders would be enshrined therein; the
kings left stone statues representing them as gods for posterity to worship, whereas at
Pagan there was only one statue of a king, and it depicted him on his knees with his hands
raised in supplication to the Buddha. Consequently, the atmosphere that pervaded the
temples of Pagan was one of joy and tranquillity.
The mandala is likened by some to a "floor plan of the universe." The type most familiar
in the West is an intricately patterned painting on cloth or paper that often takes the general
form of a circle within a square.
The word "mandala" comes from the Sanskrit verbal root "mand" (meaning to mark off,
decorate, set off) and the Sanskrit suffix "la" (meaning circle, essence, sacred center).
The mandala's symbolic power can be traced back to millennia-old roots in Indian temple
architecture, which created sacred spaces linking the worshiper to the larger cosmos. In

145
these temples, time and space were represented in a vocabulary of circles and squares.
Similarly, a mandala helps believers visualize the universe and their place in it, often in
relation to a specific deity found in the center of the image.

the evolution of the symbol has happened throughout Asia under the influence of various
religious and artistic traditions over a period of several thousand years-some complex;
others quite simple offerering proof of the continuing vitality of the mandala and its role in
Buddhist devotions. The mandala is of significant importance in both Hinduism and
Buddhism. Both religions adopt the mandala as a peaceful and creative symbol. Hence, the
speculative project finds a balance to build a memorial, which will signify peace and
harmony of the Tamil community. The scale of the mandala here is monumental imposing
the idea of spirituality and peace. Contemplating the mandala does not only provide insight
into reality, the Cosmos but also communion with it.
Mandala is the mystery that pervades all existence. Mandala alleviates suffering
individually as well as in society. Contemplation can help overcome antagonism, conflict,
stress and even war. Bindu as a symbolism is the beginning of the process that culminates
into a mandala.
In Buddhism, the mandala is a ritual instrument, much like a mantra, used to assist
meditation and concentration. Throughout history, these pictorial temples--intricate, two-
dimensional, multi-colored patterns
of concentric circles, squares, and other shapes--have signified the human need for
wholeness, order, and balance. But while many people of the West accept mandalas as
representative of a cosmic force, few understand they are meant to be blueprints as well.
Indeed, a Tantric Buddhist meditator studies a two-dimensional mandala like an architect,
building up in his mind the image of a palace encompassing the sacred principles of
Buddhist philosophy.

MANDALA AND BUDDHIST TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

The mandala in Buddhism is a cosmic model depicting Buddha’s dwelling place as the
center of the universe. Like in the Hindu temples, the structuring of the Buddhist temples
has also been predominantly based on the spiritual model of the mandala. Illustrations can
be seen both in the form of two-dimensional mandalas as well as three-dimensional

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mandalas. The two-dimensional mandalas which are drawings composed of squares and
concentric circles could be temporarily painted on various material or drawn on the ground
or sand or other natural substances using coloured powder. Customs involving ceremonious
gatherings along with prayers and chantings while drawing the mandalas are believed to
alleviate difficulties and be of greater good to an individual or a community. These
ceremonies could even last up to a number of days.
Three-dimensionally, the mandala diagram becomes a visual model of the built
environment. In the Buddhist worship place, the central space is significant having a statue
of the Buddha fronted by a worshipping space surrounded by walls. This is encircled by a
circumambulating space. The circumambulation pathway is a space of psychological
awakening before reaching the spiritual pinnacle

MANDALA AND HINDU TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

Although there have been various arguments by authors of Indian temple architecture like
Stella Kramrisch and Michael W. Meister about the applicability of the Vastu Purusha
Mandala as a governing device for temple architecture, it is safe to say that for formulating
the layout of the temple, the Vastu Purusha Mandala has been an imperative tool. Though
the 8 x 8 grid or the Manduka Vastu Mandala has been used in various temples of Indian
architecture, it is to be noted that regional differences have played a major influence on the
workability of the mandala design.throughout.India.
Customarily, mandalas were spaces for the symbolic consciousness of universal theories
which help in the awakening of the individual psyche. The mandalas can be thought of as
diagrams that function as a cue to reach a contemplational state which is the primary aim of
the tradition. The form of the temples that are based on the regulating lines of the mandala
were meant to create spaces that bring about a “physical and spatial” communion between
God and man.
A mandala (emphasis on first syllable; Sanskrit मण्डल, maṇḍala – literally "circle") is a
geometric configuration of symbols with a very different application. In various spiritual
traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as
a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid
to meditation and trance induction. It is used as a map (in Shintoism) in the Indian

147
religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Japanese religion of Shintoism representing
deities, or in the case of Shintoism, paradises, kami or actual shrines.
In New Age, the mandala is a diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents
the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a time-microcosm of the universe, but it
originally meant to represent wholeness and a model for the organizational structure of life
itself, a cosmic diagram that shows the relation to the infinite and the world that extends
beyond and within minds and bodies.
he basic form of hinduism mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with
a center point and it is called also a yantra. Each gate is in the general shape of a T.
Mandalas often have radial balance.
A yantra is similar to a mandala, usually smaller and using a more limited colour palette. It
may be a two- or three-dimensional geometric composition used in sadhanas, puja or
meditative rituals, and may incorporate a mantra into its design. It is considered to
represent the abode of the deity. Each yantra is unique and calls the deity into the presence
of the practitioner through the elaborate symbolic geometric designs. According to one
scholar, "Yantras function as revelatory symbols of cosmic truths and as instructional
charts of the spiritual aspect of human experience"[5]
Many situate yantras as central focus points for Hindu tantric practice. Yantras are not
representations, but are lived, experiential, nondual realities. As Khanna describes:
Despite its cosmic meanings a yantra is a reality lived. Because of the relationship that
exists in the Tantras between the outer world (the macrocosm) and man's inner world (the
microcosm), every symbol in a yantra is ambivalently resonant in inner–outer synthesis,
and is associated with the subtle body and aspects of human consciousness.

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Political meaning
The Rajamandala (or Raja-mandala; circle of states) was formulated by
the Indian author Kautilya in his work on politics, the Arthashastra (written between 4th
century BCE and 2nd century BCE). It describes circles of friendly and enemy states
surrounding the king's state.
In historical, social and political sense, the term "mandala" is also employed to denote
traditional Southeast Asian political formations (such as federation of kingdoms or
vassalized states). It was adopted by 20th century Western historians from ancient Indian
political discourse as a means of avoiding the term 'state' in the conventional sense. Not
only did Southeast Asian polities not conform to Chinese and European views of a
territorially defined state with fixed borders and a bureaucratic apparatus, but they diverged
considerably in the opposite direction: the polity was defined by its centre rather than its
boundaries, and it could be composed of numerous other tributary polities without
undergoing administrative integration.
Mount Meru
A mandala can also represent the entire universe, which is traditionally depicted
with Mount Meru as the axis mundi in the center, surrounded by the continents.
Wisdom and impermanence
In the mandala, the outer circle of fire usually symbolises wisdom. The ring of
eight charnel grounds represents the Buddhist exhortation to be always mindful of death,
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and the impermanence with which samsara is suffused: "such locations were utilized in
order to confront and to realize the transient nature of life". Described elsewhere: "within a
flaming rainbow nimbus and encircled by a black ring of dorjes, the major outer ring
depicts the eight great charnel grounds, to emphasize the dangerous nature of human
life". Inside these rings lie the walls of the mandala palace itself, specifically a place
populated by deities and Buddhas.
Five Buddhas
One well-known type of mandala is the mandala of the "Five Buddhas", archetypal Buddha
forms embodying various aspects of enlightenment. Such Buddhas are depicted depending
on the school of Buddhism, and even the specific purpose of the mandala. A common
mandala of this type is that of the Five Wisdom Buddhas (a.k.a. Five Jinas), the
1. Buddhas Vairocana,
2. Aksobhya,
3. Ratnasambhava,
4. Amitabha and
5. Amoghasiddhi.
When paired with another mandala depicting the Five Wisdom Kings, this forms
the Mandala of the Two Realms.
Practice
Mandalas are commonly used by tantric Buddhists as an aid to meditation.
The mandala is "a support for the meditating person", something to be repeatedly
contemplated to the point of saturation, such that the image of the mandala becomes fully
internalised in even the minutest detail and can then be summoned and contemplated at will
as a clear and vivid visualized image. With every mandala comes what Tucci calls "its
associated liturgy ... contained in texts known as tantras" instructing practitioners on how
the mandala should be drawn, built and visualised, and indicating the mantras to be recited
during its ritual use.
By visualizing "pure lands", one learns to understand experience itself as pure, and as the
abode of enlightenment. The protection that we need, in this view, is from our own minds,
as much as from external sources of confusion. In many tantric mandalas, this aspect of
separation and protection from the outer samsaric world is depicted by "the four outer
circles: the purifying fire of wisdom, the vajra circle, the circle with the eight tombs, the

150
lotus circle". The ring of vajras forms a connected fence-like arrangement running around
the perimeter of the outer mandala circle.
As a meditation on impermanence (a central teaching of Buddhism), after days or weeks of
creating the intricate pattern of a sand mandala, the sand is brushed together into a pile and
spilled into a body of running water to spread the blessings of the mandala. External ritual
and internal sadhana form an indistinguishable whole, and this unity finds its most pregnant
expression in the form of the mandala, the sacred enclosure consisting of concentric
squares and circles drawn on the ground and representing that adamant plane of being on
which the aspirant to Buddha hood wishes to establish himself. The unfolding of the tantric
ritual depends on the mandala; and where a material mandala is not employed, the adept
proceeds to construct one mentally in the course of his meditation."
Conclusions:

1. Borobudur in its base is a regular square with 118-m sides.

2. Such layout is used in meditative practices of Hinduism and Buddhism to intensify
processes of inner concentration during meditation.
3. The numbers 7, 72. were applied in the temple design and construction, which
evidences the availability of relevant knowledge at that time.
4. No wonder, the temple complex is under UNESCO protection, i.e. it is not available for
further studies.
5. If we look at Borobudur from above, we can see it represents a complete mandala.

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6. The temple has 8 tiers: 5 square and 3 round ones. On the upper tier, there is the large
stupa – a bell-shaped monument with a statue of Buddha inside.
7. Borobudur is situated approximately 2,439.85 km (1,516.05 miles) away from Angkor
Wat.

8. If we look at mutual disposition of some ancient religious sites from the North Pole,
interesting correlations may be observed.

9. At the upper tier there are 72 small bell-shaped, stupa-like towers located around the
big central tower.
10. Between Chandi Mendut and Borobudur there is the small Chandi Pavon – at a distance
of approximately 1,150 metres away from Mendut and 1,750 metres away from
Borobudur. Disposition of the structures complies with the golden ratio.

152
 A mandala and a yantra

11. Mandala in the form of a circle with an indication of a square and a point in the centre,
and a four-sided pyramid with six steps and fourfold division;

12. Kali Yantra (translated from Sanskrit, “kala” means “time”; this word originates from
the Indo-European root that means spinning; a word that is close in its meaning in Russian
is “kolo”); in Hindu mythology it means cyclical creations and destructions of the
Universe, rotation of time in the concept of rebirth of the Soul and of a subject of fate.

REFERENCE
1.https://rgdn.info/en/borobodur._buddiyskaya_stupa
2. See Chapter 4
3https://www.indomagic.com/articles/art-material-culture/architecture/architecture-of-
borobudur-temple/

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 CHAPTER VIII
Borobudur was Built Algorithmically

Hokky Situngkir
[hs@compsoc.bandungfe.net]
Dept. Computational
Sociology Bandung Fe
Institute

Abstract

The self‐similarity of Indonesian Borobudur Temple is observed through the dimensionality

of stupa that is hypothetically closely related to whole architectural body. Fractal dimension
is calculated by using the cube counting method and found that the dimension is 2.325,
which is laid between the two‐dimensional plane and three dimensional space. The applied
fractal geometry and self‐similarity of the building is emerged as the building process
implement the metric rules, since there is no universal metric standard known in ancient
traditional Javanese culture thus the architecture is not based on final master plan. The
paper also proposes how the hypothetical algorithmic architecture might be applied
computationally in order to see some experimental generations of similar building. The
paper ends with some conjectures for further challenge and insights related to fractal
geometry in Javanese traditional cultural heritages.

Keywords: Indonesia, Borobudur, fractal geometry, self‐similarity, cube‐counting method.

…the beauty and delicate execution of the separate portions, the symmetry and
regularity of the whole, the great number and interesting character of the statues and
reliefs with which they are ornamented, excite our wonder that they were not earlier
examined, sketched and described…
‐Thomas Stanford Raffles on Borobudur
(History of Java)

1. Introduction
As a a legacy from the greatness of the past, there have been still a lot of mysteries behind
the structures of Indonesian Borobudur Temple. Some of them are described eloquently in
Miksic (1990: 44‐46). The hypothetical propositions backed by science are still a few,
especially when it is related to mathematical one. Yet, Borobudur has been worldly
recognized as one of biggest wonders in human civilizations. The Borobudur was a built in
the theological tradition from 760 to 825 AD Mahayana Buddhist, located in Magelang,
Central Java, Indonesia. Glance view of the Borobudur brings us to see the complexity of
architectural design implemented to the temple with specific and unique appearance
relative to other architectural and historical wonders, e.g.: Egyptian and Mayan Pyramid,
Cambodian Angkor Wat.

154
The temple is built upon 123 x 123 m 2 land and comprises 6 square platforms and 3 circular
platforms on top with a dome as the highest points. The decoration of the temple presents
2,672 detail relief panels narrating Buddhist mythologies. There are 504 Buddha statues in
Borobudur and various stupas, the Buddhism related mound‐like and bell‐shaped structure.
At the circular platform of the temple, there are 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated
stupa. A description related to history of reconstruction, site description, anthropological
and archaeological perspective of the site are elaborated in Soekmono (1976) as the temple
is closely related to Indonesian social living, even at the modern times (Vickers, 2005). It is
also worth to note a good introduction the functional part of temples, in general , in
Indonesian culture as described in Soekmono (2005). The late traditional kingdoms in
Indonesian archipelago inherited various temples, and Borobudur is one of the greatest.

In the other hand, by the end of the previous millennium, a lot of works and researches have
shown conjectures not to approach traditional culture by using conventional geometry. The
geometry of fractal (Mandelbrot, 1983) has opened the door to see traditional cultures in the
fractal perspective. The work of Elgash (1999), for instance, discusses how traditional
ethnic groups in Africa build the fractal structure of architectures and in other crafts. The
work of Wolfram (2002) has shown some alternating point of view on traditional of Eastern
cultures and recently even put foundations to algorithmic architectural studies by
incorporating cellular automata. In Indonesia, explanation of fractal geometry on traditional
motif of fabric, batik, has even brought to implementation of generative art of batik
(Situngkir, 2008). As related to the complexity studies, fractal geometry have provided us
with a way reading the complexity emanated from aspects of Indonesian traditional culture
– as to the archipelago is one of the richest place with diverse ethnicities (cf. Situngkir,
2005).

The mathematical study for Borobudur’s architectural design has once related to answer the
question about the metric system used by ancient Javanese to build such giant buildings
with good measurement. While the anthropological revealed that Javanese used tala system
(metric system with length measurement defined as the length of a human face from the
forehead's hairline to the tip of the chin or the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip
of the middle finger when both fingers are stretched at their maximum distance), the survey
as elaborated in Atmadi (1988) showed there is a ratio used between parts of Borobudur.
There is part of Head : Body: Foot (9 : 6 : 4) that is met in horizontal and vertical
measurement of the temple. This is shown in figure 2. Furthermore, this study is related to
Buddhism cosmology as shown in Long & Voute (2008). The latest showed how the
temple is not only related to religious meaning, but also ancient astronomy.

Glance observation to Borobudur, we can see some apparent aspects of self‐similarity – a

foundation of the fractal geometry. As the shape of stupa is presented in any view as main
elements of the temple, some observers sometimes see the Borobudur itself as a giant stupa.
The paper is motivated by the incorporation of fractal geometry to see the architectural
design that would expect more progress on revealing some interesting facts of Borobudur
related to fractal geometry. The paper is constructed as follows. The next section discusses
some aspects of self‐similarity and fractal geometry in the Borobudur architectural design.
This is followed by some discussions on the geometry of stupa as the elements of the
temple. The paper ends with some further works and concluding remarks.

155
 Figure 1. Borobudur

2. Fractal Geometry of Borobudur

French scholar, Paul Mus, stated that the conical form of stupa is reflected in Borobudur in
double expression. He said that the temple is an open‐flat stupa, but as soon as people stay
inside it, the temple expressed the idea of a closed world (c.f.: Moens, 1951). This view is
obvious as we see figure 2 showing the vertical and horizontal cut of the temple as a whole.
The silhouette of the temple is more like a stupa of which becomes the basic element
comprising the whole construction. Thus, Borobudur can be seen as an 3 dimensional
object of stupas within stupas. A quick survey to the site, we could discover a lot of
construction elements showing the cone‐like stupas in various sizes. There have been a lot
of interpretations of what symbolized as stupa are (c.f.: Govinda, 1976). However, one of
the most popular among Buddhists are that stupa symbolizes the enlightened mind of
Buddha. This is what might want to be presented in the buildings of Borobudur as a giant
stupa.

In Borobudur, there are several sizes of stupa‐like‐shaped symbols in various

measurements. At the top of the building, there are 72 stupas within Buddha’s relic inside.
However, in the lower square floors (namely the Rupadhatu and Kamadhatu), stupa‐like
elements are shown as ornaments above the long balustrade decorated with reliefs telling
the story of Buddha. In fact, we can also seen a the Buddha statues (there are 104 in the first
level, followed by 104 more in the second level, 88 in the

156
third, and 54 at the top of square‐shaped floors) covered by bell‐shape forms as stupa. A
measurement of all apparent forms of stupas is shown in figure 3.

Figure 2. The Head‐Body‐Foot ratio in Borobudur vertical (below) and horizontal (top)
wise

Interestingly, the log‐log plot shown the number of the stupas (from one Borobudur treated
as stupa to the tiny ornaments within the temple) as the function of the measurement
(width/horizontally and height/vertically) draws a straight line as power function. Thus the
measurement of the stupa within our measurement show the relation,

157
N (s ) ~ s
i i

tween the number of stupa N (si ) as function of width and height of the stupa for i denotes
the

level of measurement and thus

power of the relation.

zzzz

Figure 3. Self similarity of stupas in various scales within Borobudur

Furthermore, the challenge is to calculate the fractal dimension of the Borobudur temple as a
whole building. In order to do this, we use the cub‐counting method for the Minkowski–
Bouligand dimension or box‐counting dimension (Falconer, 2003:41‐8 & Barnsley,
1988:172‐95). Since the architectural model is always in 3‐dimensional shape, if we
denote Borobudur as the three
dimensional A F ( X ) where ( X , ) is the metric space, we define that for 0 we
have

N ( A, ) as the smallest number of cubes with the length of side is 0 to cover the
whole A .
Here, Borobudur, denoted as A is defined to have fractal dimension,

ln N ( A, )
D lim ln 1 (2)

158
 0
(3)

Figure 4. Box
Count Method
calculates the
fractal dimension
of the Borobudur.

Practically, the
calculation is
brought by using
counting the
number of cubes
with side length
1 n
2
that intersect the
building, to have Nn (
A) . Thus, we have
the fractal dimension
to be
ln Nn (
D
A) lim

ln(2n ) 
n

The cube counting is shown in figure 4 depicting that we have the Borobudur fractal
dimension to be

Dborobudur 2.3252 . (4)

As noted in Mandelbrot (1983: 468), a fractal dimension 2 D 3

characterizes a fractally
fragmented 3‐dimensional object. The value also reflects that Borobudur is more likely to
be experienced as two‐dimensional object than a huge cube covering the whole temple in a
single count of huge cube. Thus Borobudur is not a cone, even though we perceived it as
cone‐like shape in general, and stupa, as the basic elements of it, is too. The latest is
discussed in the next section.

159
3. Algorithmic Architecture Hypothesis
As it has been discussed in the previous section, the traditional Javanese metric system
(tala) can vary from person to person. While Borobudur must be built by incorporating lots
of workers, the architect (named Gunadharma, but we do not know a lot about him), must
apply a rule in order to build such mega‐structures did not turn into a fiasco. Elaboration
from the proposal of Atmadi (1988) on the ratio 4:6:9 employed in Borobudur architecture,
we can hypothetically made a computational experiment using algorithmic rule in which
the temple is built from the beginning – and in advance, see it’s relation with the form of
stupa as the element of building.

We propose the rule of the construction, i.e.: placing stones next to and above on others
iteratively, horizontally and vertically. Placing stones side by side, the length of the next
level of sequence should be made as reducing one third of the previous level, while the
height should be as adding half of the previous one. Mathematically, we can write,

x(l )
  
x(l 1) x(l) (5)

y(l )
y(l 1) y(l)
(6)
2

wher x(l ) is the length and y(l ) is the height at level l . It is easy to understand that the
e
diminishing factor rhorizontal and the rvertical 1 12 , the growing
horizontally is
inverse, 2 factor
3
vertically. Should the micro‐rule of the temple following such steps, the ratio as
conjectured by Atmadi (1988) would be met.

We do computational experiment to do such algorithm as described in eq. (5) and (6) and
by changing the width of the initial level we could adjust the result with the one available to
be observed in Borobudur. When it comes to different shape of initial level (the top circle

160
levels and the square ones in lower level), we can also adjust the shape of the initial form,
be it cube or a cylinder. The experiment is presented in figure 5. It is interesting to find that
some forms are well suited with those we can see at the large scale of Borobudur.
Nonetheless, the smaller ornamentation is crafted in such away possibly also use such rules,
e.g.: making the small stupa in the lower levels as well as the perforated stupa at the above.

Figure 5. Elaborated version of the 4:6:9 hypothesis to algorithmically generate parts of

Borobudur (left) and generic one (right).

161
 Top view square lower levels

Side view square lower levels

Top view circle upper levels

Side view circle upper levels

162
hen we alternate the initial element to be a sphere, we found formation that looks similar to
the stupa, the hypothetical basic element of the temple. Some parts are having the same
starting point to erect to the top. It is worth to note that this demonstration is not related
directly to some theological or religious aspects of which stupa is frequently symbolized.
However, the curiosity might be expanded to some issues relating the structure of stupa and
it’s its symbolization with the interesting geometry that is shown here.

Figure 6. Hypothetical Algorithmic Generated Borobudur’s Stupa (left) compared to the real
one (right).

4. Concluding Remarks & Further Works

Algorithmic way that was incorporated in constructing Borobudur’s architecture is a strong
possibility for some issues related to the lack of standard metric system attached to ancient
Javanese society and the closeness of Javanese culture with the fractal geometry that also
found in traditional fabric, batik. Thus, we can say that while the inspiration of the building
of Borobudur temple is religious issue, i.e.: Buddhism, the architecture is more likely
strongly connected to the ancient Javanese culture. Borobudur temple was built as building
a single and small stupa, but the way to making it was incorporated the technique of
self‐similarity. However, the emerged construction is eventually a kind of algorithmic
fractal mega‐architecture. The complexity of Borobudur is emerged from simple rules of
building stupa as the fractal geometry applies.

The calculated fractal dimension of Borobudur is 2.325, a number that shows the realm of
the structure that is in between the two dimensional form and the three dimensional conic
(or bell) shaped construction. This shows how self‐similarity does exist and it is a
theoretical challenge for interdisciplinary works among geometry, statistical analysis,
computer sciences, anthropology, archaeology as well as mechanics to reveal deeper
insights related to the dimension calculated. While in the previous works (Situngkir, 2008)
the discussions have brought us to the interesting facts related to tradition fabric that also
emanated applied fractal geometry, more observation and analysis related to the fractal
aspects in cultural heritage might be appealing.

Acknowledgement
Author thanks Surya Research International for support in which period the paper is written
and BFI colleagues for discussions on the rough draft of the paper.

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Works Cited
Atmadi , P. (1988). Some Architectural Design Principles of Temples in Java: A study through
the buildings projection on the reliefs of Borobudur temple. Gajah Mada UP.

Barnsley. M. F. (1988). Fractals Everywhere. Academic Press

Eglash, R. (1999). "Fractals in African Settlement Architecture". Complexity 4 (2): 21‐29

Falconer, K. (2003). Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications 2nd ed. John
Willey & Sons. Govinda, L. A. (1976). Psycho‐Cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa. Dharma
Publishing.
Long, M. E. & Voute, C. (2008). Borobudur: Pyramid of the Cosmic Buddha. DK
Print World. Mandelbrot, B. (1983). The Fractal Geometry of Nature. W. H.
Freeman & Co.
Miksic, J. (1990). Borobudur: Golden Tales if the Buddhas. Tuttle Publishing.

Moens, J. L. (1951). Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon en hun onderlinge samenhang. Long, M.

(2007‐transl.). Tijdschrift voor de Indische Taai‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Het Bataviaasch
Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen 326–386.

Situngkir, H. (2005). "What is the relatedness of Mathematics and Art and why we should care?". BFI
Working Paper Series WPK2005. Bandung Fe Institute.

Situngkir, H. (2009). "Deconstructing Javanese Batik Motif: When Traditional Heritage Meets
Computation".
BFI Working Paper Series WP‐XIII‐2008. Bandung Fe Institute.

Soekmono. (1976). Chandi Borobudur: A Monument of Mankind”.

UNESCO Press. Soekmono. (2005). Candi: Fungsi dan Pengertiannya.
Jendela Pustaka.
Vickers, A. (2005). A History of Modern Indonesia.
Cambridge UP. Wolfram, S. (2002). A New Kind of Science.
Wolfram Media Inc.

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CHAPTER IX

UNESCO on Borobudur Temple

Compounds
Borobudur Temple Compounds

This famous Buddhist temple, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, is located in central Java. It

was built in three tiers: a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone

with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are

decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,500 m2. Around the circular

platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. The monument was

restored with UNESCO's help in the 1970s.

Borobudur

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Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis

The Borobudur Temple Compounds is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world, and

was built in the 8th and 9th centuries AD during the reign of the Syailendra Dynasty. The

monument is located in the Kedu Valley, in the southern part of Central Java, at the centre of the

island of Java, Indonesia.

The main temple is a stupa built in three tiers around a hill which was a natural centre: a

pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular

platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine

low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,520 m2. Around the circular platforms are 72

openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha.

The vertical division of Borobudur Temple into base, body, and superstructure perfectly accords

with the conception of the Universe in Buddhist cosmology. It is believed that the universe is

divided into three superimposing spheres, kamadhatu, rupadhatu, and arupadhatu, representing

respectively the sphere of desires where we are bound to our desires, the sphere of forms where

we abandon our desires but are still bound to name and form, and the sphere of

formlessness where there is no longer either name or form. At Borobudur Temple,

the kamadhatu is represented by the base, the rupadhatu by the five square terraces, and

the arupadhatu by the three circular platforms as well as the big stupa. The whole structure

shows a unique blending of the very central ideas of ancestor worship, related to the idea of a

terraced mountain, combined with the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana.

The Temple should also be seen as an outstanding dynastic monument of the Syailendra Dynasty

that ruled Java for around five centuries until the 10th century.

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The Borobudur Temple Compounds consists of three monuments: namely the Borobudur

Temple and two smaller temples situatued to the east on a straight axis to Borobudur. The two

temples are Mendut Temple, whose depiction of Buddha is represented by a formidable monolith

accompanied by two Bodhisattvas, and Pawon Temple, a smaller temple whose inner space does

not reveal which deity might have been the object of worship. Those three monuments represent

phases in the attainment of Nirvana.

The temple was used as a Buddhist temple from its construction until sometime between the 10th

and 15th centuries when it was abandoned. Since its re-discovery in the 19th century and

restoration in the 20th century, it has been brought back into a Buddhist archaeological site.

Criterion (i): Borobudur Temple Compounds with its stepped, unroofed pyramid consisting of

ten superimposing terraces, crowned by a large bell-shaped dome is a harmonious marriage of

stupas, temple and mountain that is a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture and monumental arts.

Criterion (ii): Borobudur Temple Compounds is an outstanding example of Indonesia’s art and

architecture from between the early 8th and late 9th centuries that exerted considerable influence

on an architectural revival between the mid-13th and early 16th centuries.

Criterion (vi): Laid out in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha, Borobudur Temple

Compounds is an exceptional reflection of a blending of the very central idea of indigenous

ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana. The ten mounting terraces of

the entire structure correspond to the successive stages that the Bodhisattva has to achieve before

attaining to Buddhahood.

Integrity

The boundaries contain the three temples that include the imaginary axis between them.

Although the visual links are no longer open, the dynamic function between the three

monuments, Borobudur Temple, Mendut Temple, and Pawon Temple is maintained.

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The main threat to the ensemble is from development that could compromise the extraordinary

relationship between the main monument and its wider setting and could also affect the

Outstanding Universal Value of the property. The approach to the property has to a degree

already been compromised by weak developmental regulations.

Tourism also exerts considerable pressure on the property and its hinterland.

There is a growing rate of deterioration of the building stone, the cause of which needs further

research. There is also a small degree of damage caused by unsupervised visitors.

The eruption of Mount Merapi is also considered as one of the potential threats because of its

deposit acidic ash as happened in 2010.

Authenticity

The original materials were used to reconstruct the temple in two phases in the 20th century:

after the turn of the century and more recently (1973-1983). Mostly original materials were used

with some additions to consolidate the monument and ensure proper drainage which has not had

any significant adverse impact on the value of the property. Though the present state of

Borobudur Temple is the result of restorations, it retained more than enough original material

when re-discovered to make a reconstruction possible.

Nowadays the property could be used as a Buddhist pilgrimage site. Its overall atmosphere is,

however, to a certain degree compromised by the lack of control of commercial activities and the

pressure resulting from the lack of an adequate tourism management strategy.

Protection and management requirements

The protection of the property is performed under Indonesian Law No. 11/2010 concerning

Cultural Heritage and its surrounding cultural landscape. It is executed under a National Strategic

Area and the Spatial Management Plan by the Ministry of Public Works in accordance with the

Law concerning Spatial Management No. 26/2007 and Governmental Regulation No. 26/2008

concerning National Spatial Planning and will be enforced further by another presidential

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regulation regarding the Management for the Borobudur National Strategic Area that is still

being drafted by the Ministry of Public Works.

The legal and institutional framework for the effective management of the property is regulated

by a Presidential Decree Number 1 Year 1992. The established zones within the World Heritage

property are respectively under the responsibility of the Borobudur Heritage Conservation Office

under Ministry of Education and Culture, of state-owned institute PT. Taman Wisata Candi

Borobudur under the Ministry of Enterprises, and of the local governments (Magelang Regency

and Central Java Province). A study on the integrated management of Borobudur Temple

Compounds has been conducted, including attention for the ecosystem, social and cultural

aspects, ecotourism, public and private partnership and organisational feasibility study. This

study is the basis of the still to be developed visitor management approach.

In order to ensure consistency between the 1992 Presidential Decree and the 1972 JICA Master

Plan zone-system indicated in the World Heritage nomination dossier and to strengthen the

regulations regarding development, a New Presidential Regulation is still being formulated by a

Coordinating Board (14 Ministries and local authorities as well as representatives of local

communities) and by formalizing the role of the proposed Management Board into the wider

zones. In addition, the protection of the property has been ensured by the regular financial

contribution by the national budget.

Monitoring programs has been effectively executed to monitor the growing rate of deterioration

of building stone and also damage by unsupervised visitors. A research is being conducted to

determine the long- term impact of deposit acidic ash of eruption of Mount Merapi to set further

protection and conservation management of the property. Furthermore, a risk preparedness plan

will be formulated in 2012.

The Borobudur Heritage Conservation Office has conducted community development programs

targeting especially at the youth to raise their awareness. In improving and empowering local

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community as specialist guide for Borobudur Temple Compounds, several training programs

have been conducted. The community development related to economical sector (small

enterprises that produce traditional handicrafts, culinaries, etc) have already being conducted by

the municipalities of Magelang Regency and Central Java Province.

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ANNEXURE
THE LIFE OF BUDDHA I N PICTURES

A beautiful picture books which portrays the events in the live of the Buddha. This book is produced and
printed by the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple in Penang, Malaysia.
(www.dhammikarama.org/(

SUMEDHA, the wise man inherited a vast fortune from his parents who left them upon their deaths.
Realizing the unsatisfactoriness he gave away his fortune and became an ascetic in the forest. He soon
gained mastery in meditation and was well known for his supernormal powers.

When ascetic Sumedha knew of the coming of Dipankara Buddha to the city of Rammavati, he took part
in preparing the road for the Buddha. He was still repairing it when the Buddha arrived but he was
determined to complete it by prostrating himself into the muddy hollow, in fulfillment of his vow to
become a Buddha. Beside him was a young lady named Sumitta bearing eight stalks of lotus flowers. She
gave the Ascetic five stalks and kept for herself three stalks for her own aspiration. When the Buddha
Dipankara saw this, He omnisciently declared the Ascetic Sumedha a future Buddha, while He stated that
the aspiring young lady Sumitta would be his constant companion and helpmate.

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The Devas (Gods) imploring the Bodhisatta Santussita Deva (whose real name was Setaketu) in Tusita
heaven to be reborn on earth to become a Buddha. He accepted their request after viewing the Five Great
Considerations (Panca Maha Vilokana); which are appropriate time, Island-continent, country, clan and
life-span of mother.

At Lumbini Park in Nepal, on Vesakha Full Moon Day, the newly born Prince walked seven steps on the
lotus flowers and pointing to the North said, “AGGOHAM ASMI LOKASSA” meaning “Chief Am I in
this world”. The birth of this baby Prince brought great joy to his royal parents, King Suddhodana and
Queen Maha Maya as well as all beings!

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The marriage of Prince Siddhattha and Princess Yasodhara (whose real name was BaddaCancana ) took
place at the Golden Palace which was presented by his father, King Suddhodana. It was a luxurious
palace full of comforts of life . The celebration lasted many days.

During his visit to the Royal park, Prince Siddhattha saw the Four Great Signs, namely — an old man, a
sick man, a corpse and a serene mendicant. These made the Prince to realize the unsatisfactoriness of life
and urged him to ponder deeply about renunciation.

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Mara (the Evil One), with his host tried without success to prevent Prince Siddhattha from his Great
Renunciation at midnight . Prince Siddhattha was riding on Kanthaka his fovourite stallion and followed
by Channa his loyal charioteer. Mara said that if the prince did not proceed on his renunciation, he would
become a Universal Monarch on the seventh day.

Prince Siddhattha cut off his hair to renounce the worldly life at the bank of the Anoma River. Ghatikara
Maha Brahma presented the Monk’s Eight Requisites to Ascetic Siddhattha, who commanded his
charioteer Channa to take his royal chattels back to the palace.
His hair was received by Sakka, King of Gods and enshirned in CULAMANI CETI (pagoda) in his
celestial abode in TAVATIMSA. Similarly, Ghatikara Maha Brahma bore his princely clothes to his
higher celestial abode, Akanittha and enshrined them in the pagoda known as DUSSA CETI.

The ascetic Bodhisatta spent six years practising austerity and meditation with steadfastness as well as
earnestness, prior to his attainment. Even though he was reduced to a mere skeleton, he did not give up
practising.

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The Bodhisatta was sitting on a Golden Throne under a Bodhi tree and being challenged by Mara (the
Evil One) riding on the ferocious elephant Girimekhala. Mara with host tried to capture the Golen Throne
just before the Bodhistta’s Enlightenment.

On Vesakha Full Moon day, Bodhisatta Siddhattha seated under a Bodhi tree at Gaya, attained Supreme
Enlightement. On the first watch of the night he gained knowledge by which He remembered past lives.
On the second watch of the night he was able to see into the future including the birth and death of other
beings. On the third watch of the night, He destroyed all defilements and became a Fully Enlightened One
(Samma-Sambuddha).

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It was in the final week (7th week) after his Enlightenment, when the two merchant brothers Tapussa and
Bhallika from Ukkalapa passed by the spot and saw the Buddha. They offered the Buddha their own
provision; then the Buddha gave eight strands of hairs from His head for them to worship as sacred
objects of veneration.The hair relics are now enshrined in the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.

At the Deer Park at Varanasi, the Buddha met the five ascetics, Kondanna, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahanama
and Assaji all of whom He had known before .He delivered His first sermon to them. It is called the
Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta which sets the wheel of the Dhamma in motion. The ascetic Kondanna
who was at His childhood Name-giving Ceremony became the first to see light in the Dhamma and
attained Sotapanna, the first stage of Sainhood.
Later, all attained Arahantship after hearing the Anatalakkhana Sutta (the Discourse which deals with No-
Self)

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The Buddha exhorted His first sixty Arahant disciples to go forth in different directions to preach the
Doctrine, using these famous words: – “Go ye, 0 bhikkhus and wander forth for the gain of many, for the
welfare of the many, in compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of the Devas
(Gods) and men . Proclaim ye, 0 Bhikkhus! The Doctrine that is glorious and preach ye a life of holiness,
perfect and pure!”

When the Bodhisatta visited Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, King Bimbisara offered his Kingdom to
the Bodhisatta. But He did not accept it because of the worldly pleasures. After listening to the preaching
of Buddha, the King attained the first stage of Sainthood (Sotapanna). He then dedicated his Royal park
known as Veluvana (Bamboo Grove) to the Buddha and His disciples.

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The Buddha performed the Twin Miracles of emitting fire and water simultaneously from His body, to
subdue the pride of his older relatives who had erroneously thought that the Buddha being the younger
would have to show respects to them.

On the seventh day after his arrival in Kapilavatthu, Princess Yasodhara dressed up Prince Rahula and
pointing to the Buddha said, “Behold, son, the great Ascetic of majestic appearance is your father. Go up
to him and ask for your inheritance!”
As advised by his mother, young Rahula came to His presence and asked for his inheritance. Instead, the
Buddha told Venerable Sariputta to ordain Prince Rahula , giving him a spiritual inheritance better than
the one he asked for.

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During a subsequent visit to Rajagaha City, the Buddha went for alms-round in the company of His Chief
Disciples and other monks. Along the way King Bimbisara and his royal family paid repects to the
Buddha and His disciples.

The Buddha delivering a sermon of peace to two powerful warning armies of Kapilavatthu and Koliya at
the opposite banks of the Rohini river before the two countries started fighting for the water supply of the
river, for pastoral use.

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The Order of Nuns (Bhikkhuni Sasana) was founded in the fifth year of the Buddha’s Enlightenment.
After the death of King Suddhodana, Maha Pajapati Gotami , who was His former foster mother desirous
of joining the Order ,approached the Buddha who was then, residing at Kapilavathu and begged
permission for women to be admitted into the Order. After hearing and turning down their pleas, Buddha
returned to Vesali for the Rains Retreat . Undaunted by the rebuff, Maha Pajapati Gotami cut off her hair
and wearing yellow garments went on foot to Vesali, accompanied by many other Sakyan ladies. They
stood outside the porch of the Pinnacled Great Hall in Mahayana where the Buddha was residing.
Interceded by Venerable Ananda , the Buddha finally consented to establish the Bhikkhuni Sasana when
Maha Pajapati Gotami and other Sakyan ladies agreed to observe the Eight Disciplinary Rules for nuns.
Henceforth Maha Pajapati Gotami and other Sakyan ladies were admitted into the Order.
Later, the Nuns Khema and Uppalavanna were appointed the two Chief female Disciples; as were
Sariputta and Moggalana the two Chief Male Disciples.

After losing in lively debate, the haughty hermit Saccaka refused to answer accordingly when the Buddha
asked a question. Only when he was threatened to be beaten up by a celestial demon for arrogance, only
then did he finally realize his own folly and listened to the Buddha’s preaching meekly. This wholesome
action of his would augur well for his future.

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On the seventh year after His Enlightenment, the Buddha preached the Abhidhamma (higher Doctrine) in
Tavatimsa Heaven. As a fulfillment of gratitude to his former mother, now a Santussita deva, the Buddha
then delivered a sermon on the Higher Doctrine to thousands of Devas (Gods) and Brahmas (higher
celestial beings) who attained the various stages of Noble Sainthood.

The non Buddhist sectarians grudgingly wanted to ruin the Buddha’s reputation. They told Cinca
Manvika , a beautiful girl to falsely accuse the Buddha for her shamed, pregnancy in a big and august
assembly. King of Devas (Gods) dispatched some Deities disguised as mice to gnaw through the strings
holding a block of wood under her garment. Her plot was exposed when the wood fell on her feet. When
the people saw that, they threw stones and chased her away. As she was walking away, the earth spilt
open and a flame sprang up to envelop and drag her down to Avici (deepest and worst) Hell.

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On the sixteenth year of His Enlightment, the Buddha tamed the carnivorous Demon King , Alavaka who
feasted on human flesh, to give up his habit on devouring at least one human being everyday. After
hearing the Buddha’s Teaching, he henceforth gave up his habit, thus sparing the small child offered to
him as food on that day.

There was a young harmless student at TAKKASILA University called Ahimsa. His jealous fellow
students poisoned the mind of their teacher against him. As a result the teacher asked Ahimsa for a
garland of one thousand right index fingers as tuition fee. Eager to discharge his obligation, he went into
the Jalini forest in Kosala and started to waylay the passing travellers to collect an index finger from the
right hand of each victim. The garland was almost completed except for one more single finger. Ahimsa
decided to kill even his own mother for the sake of completing the one thousandth finger in the garland.
However, Ahimsa was intercepted by the Compassionate Buddha who came to his aid. After listening to
His preaching and being convinced, Ahimsa now known as Angulimala (garland of fingers ) joined the
Sangha and became a Bhikkhu (monk) . The Angulimala Sutta, a discourse ascribed to this Thera
(elder/monk) and connected to this event, is well-known in Buddhist countries and often used by pregnant
ladies in travail for easy and safe delivery.

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Once the Buddha and His Disciples went to Lake Anotatta passing by the mansion of Nandopananda the
dragon king who was enjoying himself with his retinue. Angry at the apparent trespassing, Nandopananda
coiled itself seven times round Mount Meru, covered the summit with its hood and spewing hot poisonous
smoke to prevent the Buddha and his disciples from reaching lake Anotatta. Thereupon Maha Moggalana,
(the second Chief Disciple) at once transformed himself into a dragon and likewise coiled round the
mountain, crushing Nandopananda. Watched by the Buddha and His disciples, Maha Moggalana too
began spewing hot poisonous smoke which greatly distressed Nandopananda who soon lost the challenge
and upon realization of his folly, sought refuge in the Triple Gem of Buddhism.

Baka Brahma, who was bitten by the snake of tenacious heresay (in believing that the Brahma Loka is the
best and everlasting world in existence) , was duly defeated by the Buddha in a mutual contest to show
power. On hearing the Buddha’s profound expounding of the Dhamma (Buddhist Doctrine), he became
enlightened along with many other Brahmas (higher celestial beings).

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When the Buddha was on his way to the city of Rajagaha, Devadatta ordered the release of the fierce
elephant, Nalagiri, to harm Him. As the elephant charged towards the Buddha, everyone ran away leaving
a mother and her baby on the ground. The Buddha radiated His infinite Compassion to calm and subdued
the elephant before it could trample the helpless baby.

The Buddha taking care of a sick monk, named Tissa who had been neglected by his unthoughtful fellow
monks. By so doing, the Buddha wanted to foster mutual care and welfare amongst the Bhikkhus as well
as others.

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1. The Buddha at Kusinara laid himself between two Sal trees with his head to the North, determined not
to rise again. He them delivered his last admonition, “Behold, 0 Disciples! I exhort you ! Subject to
change are all component things! Strive on with Diligence !” before He entered Maha parinibbana
(attainment of Final Emancipation).
2. Dona , the Brahman divided the Buddha’s relics into eight equal portions and distributed each of them
to the Rulers of the eight countries. Then Dona decided that the golden container be kept for himself as an
object of respectful veneration.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR- S RISHTIDOKRAS

An Architect by choice and design, she completed a BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE Degree
from the now famous Institute of Design Education and Architectural Studies, Nagpur,India.

Her distinguished design and architectural experience has taken her to Mumbai, Pondicherry and
Hyderabad. She has also visited Dubai, Australia and Seattle, USA as a visiting architect. Srishti
has worked for Vivek Varma Architects , Mumbai ,Uday Dighe and Associates , Mumbai, Ashok
Mokha Architects Nagpur ,and Shama Dalvi in Auroville.Currently working in the REVIT
domain in BASE 4 corporation at Nagpur, the main work center of Base4,USA. She has been a
part of the design map of the Nagpur Metro; Google corporate office Hyderabad, residential
houses in the city of Pondicherry –AUROVILLE, India and Nagpur, India. Restaurant Designs
for Kettle and Brew Beverages Pvt Ltd, PUNE,India

She has attended the bamboo and earth construction workshop , Auroville • Attended
construction workshop organizedby Indian Institute of Engineers • Participated in N.A.S.A. 2015
• Held 1st position in Product Design/Competition “ Light em up ” at Regional Level •
Shortlisted for S.A. Deshpande Trophy/organized by Indian Institute of Architects , Nagpur

Visiting Architectural scholar at Melbourne, Sydney , Australia and Seattle, Deira Dubai and
New Jersey USA

Srishti has published 46 research and allied papers and 5 books on CREATIVITY &
ARCHITECTURE. She also contributed a chapter on REVIT software for the book Human
Resources in Project Management. Her particular area of interest is INTERIORS DESIGN.
Some of the Collected works of Srishti: 1. The GREAT WALL of CHINA an Architectural
Foray 2. Architecture of Hotels 3. The Vastu-Purusha-Mandala in Temple Architecture 4.
Prambanan, a Hindu temple in Indonesia-general architectural and morphological analysis 5.
HINDU TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE of BHARAT-SOME MUSINGS 6. Autodesk Revit for
Project Management 7. VERTICAL GARDENS - an Architectural Perspective.pdf 8. Theme
Park and Architecture 9. Philosophy and Architecture 10. AYODHYA in ITS ARCHITECTURE
Myth and Reality 11. The Nagara Architecture of Khajuraho 12. Hotel Design- Architectural

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Breviary 13. Hindu Temple Architecture 14. Lanka 15. Cambodia and Angkor Vat 16. reativity and
Architecture

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ms. Kinjal Shah

A brilliant student, Kinjal has assisted the authors on various assignments especially
dealing with JAINISM. A practicing Jain, she possesses a deep knowledge of the concept
and practice of Jainism. In this book she transcribes this knowledge in unraveling the
Mysteries of Buddhism associated with the remarkable structure in focus.Soon going to
join a prestigious Law School.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR DR UDAY DOKRAS

About the Author

The author has worked for 30 years in the human resources arena in India and abroad. He
was Group Vice -President of MZI Group in New Delhi and has anchored Human
Relations in Go Air and Hotel Holiday Inn;was General Manager-Health Human
Resources at the Lata Mangeshkar Hospital amd Medical college. Is currently Consultant
to Gorewada International Zoo,Nagpur and visiting Faculty at the Central Institute of
Business Management and Research, Nagpur.

In Sweden he anchored HR in Stadbolaget RENIA, SSSB and advisor to a multi

millionaire. He has studied in Nagpur, India where he obtained degrees of Bachelor of
Science, Bachelor of Arts(Managerial Economics) and Bachelor of Laws. He has done
his Graduate Studies in labour laws from Canada at the Queen's University, Kingston; a
MBA from USA, and Doctorate from Stockholm University, Sweden. Apart from that he
has done a Management Training Program in Singapore.

A scholar of the Swedish Institute, he has been an Edvard Cassel Fund and Wineroth
Fund Awardee.A scholar for the Swedish Institute for 5 years.
In 1984 he was involved with the Comparative Labour Law Project of the University of
California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. He was also visiting lecturer there. In 1985 he was
invited by the President of Seychelles to do a study of the efficacy of the labour laws of
Seychelles.

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Author of a book on a Swedish human resource law, his brief life sketch is part of the
English study text book of 7 th Class Students in Sweden -“Studying English.
SPOTLIGHT 7”- and 8th Class students in Iceland - “SPOTLIGHT 8- Lausnir.”

RESEARCH PAPERS-320 + in Researchgate and academia.edu & scribd

Followers(readers) 65,000 consolidated as on 26 th September,2020.

Authors-DR Uday DOKRAS

Dr. Uday Dokras

B.Sc., B.A. (Managerial Economics), LL.B., Nagpur University, India
Certificat'e en Droit, Queen’s University. Ontario, Canada,
MBA, CALSTATE,Los-Angeles, USA,
Ph.D. Stockholm University, Sweden,
Management and Efficacy Consultant, India

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Reviews of the Book PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The authors highlight the benefits of paying attention to human resources and offer success and
failure factors guideline for a variety of potential practitioners and students in global project
marketplace.
Ms.Ylva Arnold, Head HR- Norstedts Publishers, Stockholm SWEDEN

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From the Newspaper Times of India March

24, 2018

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Iceland Sweden both countries use the English Text SPOTLIGHT-one of the lessons in
which is about Dr Uday Dokras

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Prof. S.Deshpande,President of the Indian Instituye of Architects, New Delhi INDIA

releasing the book of Dr Dokras HINDU TEMPLES on the web in CARONA
gimes( May 2010)

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Some of my books

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Unravelling the

SCIENTIFIC BORUBUDUR

Dr Uday Dokras-Srishti Dokras - Kinjal Shah

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective

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Indo Nordic Gem research Institute

SCIENTIFIC
BORUBUDUR

Dr Uday Dokras and 2 others

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51 BOOKS BY DR UDAY DOKRAS

Published by
The Indo Swedish Author’s Collective Stockholm
The Indo Swedish Author’s Collective Finland

Dr. Uday Dokras

Tamil People as Traders and Voyagers

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The Cambodian Trilogy

I.HINDU CAMBODIA

II.HYDROLOGY of ANGKOR
ANGKOR is known as a Hydraulic city- full or canals and river and
waterways. It is this water system they say that brought the downfall of this
intrinsic kingdom. But is that TRUE?

III.ENTER…… THE KINGDOM THAT

VANISHED- Angkor

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Building Materials of the Hindu Temple

Indo Nordic Author's collective, 2021
In depth study of how Building Materials of the Hindu Temple was used in
India,Indonesia and Cambodia and India

The Art & Architecture of THE GOLDEN TEMPLE

COMPLEX, AMRITSAR

Mathematics in Temple Designs

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Jain ART
Book on Jain Art and Iconography

Jain Temples- Part I -Complete Compendium-

Book I
A to Z of the architecture, Design,Cosmology,Philosophy of Jain temples in

Jain Temples II
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAIN TEMPLES AND THE
ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS(ORIGINAL) OF 3JAIN TEMPLES of Nagpur

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DWARKA- CELESTIAL MYSTERIES of the Lost

CITY of KRISHNA

TIRUPATI TEMPLE Book part I

TIRUPATI TemplePart II

Vahanas- the vehicles of Hindu Gods

Vahanas- the vehicles of Hindu Gods. Animals in Hinduism. demi Gods

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SATYANARAYAN PUJA-The Complete Compendium

Satyanarayan Puja or 9 Graha Puja( a puja of 9 planets) has been
performed by most Hindus not only now but for 1,000’s of years.

MAHALAXMI Puja
Hindu Goddess MAHALAXMI Puja

ARCHITECTURE OF PALESTINE

Palestine my Love
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Palestine my Love is about the culture arts and crafts of palestine so we

recognize it as a entity that is fighting for recognition of not only its
legitimacy but also its cultural heritage

QUINTET (5) BOOKS ON MANDALA

Unravelling the MAZE of the MANDALA BOOK I

First part of a two book treatise on MANDALAS. This introductory phase
introduces mandalas

Maze of MANDALA BOOK II

Advanced Mandala routine for those who want to know more about
MANDALAS

Mandala BOOK III on Nakshatra

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BOOK IV MANDALA & ARCHITECTURE

The Use of Mandalas in Building Temples and Modern Buildings

Book V on Mandala of the Oriental Kingdoms

Islamic Architectureal Arts of of Imam Ali's 2

Shrines

Hindu Gods in Scandinavia

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Did the Hindu Gods originate or live in Scandinavia once? Find out

Book on Divinity and Architecture

What is divinity? How has man tried to harness architecture to create magic
in space

Virat Hridaya Padma-sthalam CHIDAMBARAM

Temple -Celestial Mysteries
This book is about a mysterious and revered tempe built by the Chola
Kings of South India 2000 years ago

T2- Temple Tech. A Book

How are Hindu temples built and the technology that follows this craft.
From A to Z Complete Guide.

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Rendezvous with Sri RAM Portfolio of Temple Art

by Srishti Dokras, Architect Special section on
Hindu Foods by Karan Dokras, Product Guru

Best Foot Forward

The story of Footwear through the ages up to COVID times

Hindu Temple Panorama-Celestial Mysteries

A to Z of Temples. A total Panoramic View of design and architecture of
Hindu temples in 350 page...

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DUOLOGY (2) on JAINISM

Ativir
ATIVIR means Very Brave and is the name given to Lord Mahavir the 24 th
Saint(TIRTHANKAR) Contains rare translations of the Dialogue of the
Mahavir with his disciples called GHANDHARVAVAD

Vardhaman-वर्धमान
IThis book is about Jainism- written by a non-

THE TRILOGY(3) on DEVRAJA The God kIngs of

Khemer

Book I DEVRAJ- The God Kings of Indo China-

Cambodia.
This is the first Book of a Trilogy that traces the growth of Hinduism in
South East Asia.

BOOK I I DEVRAJA- The Great Civilizations of

South East Asia -HINDU Era

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How Hinduism reached Cambodia and how the Hindu Kings called Devraj
Built these magnificent structures

Devraja BOOK II I Devraja and Raj Dharma God

King and Kingly Religion The HINDU Era of
Great Civilizations of Khemer
Book 2 of a Trilogy that traces the advent of Hinduism on South East Asian
and Indo-Chinese

Vayu- Man's taming of the winds

Man's conquest of nature spans a million years. How was wind tamed by
him. Here is the full story... more

VIMANA Ancient Conquests of Wind

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Ancient flying machines of Gods and Men(?) Were they true. Did they really
exist. 7000 years ago?

LIGHT HOUSES In words and pictures

BOOK Architecture of the Lighthouse of

Alexandria-BOOK
Indo Swedish Author's Collective, 2020
The lighthouse was built on an island off the coast of Alexandria called
Pharos. Its name, legend

Cosmology of lotus
Indo Nordic Author's Collective, 2020
The Lotus is the king of the flower world but few know it as a part of
creation. Find out the Cosmology.

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Celestial Mysteries of the Borobudur Temple

Borobudur remains a mystery even today. The largest Buddhist Stupa in
the world has many unanswered...
Win with this new DIET

Hindu tempel of India , Cambodia and Indonesia

Hindu Temples dot India, Cambodia and Indonesia

DISRUPTION-Book

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Book Architecture Creativity

Creativity and Architecture are linked and go hand in hand. This Book is a
culmination of 16 publications that have been put together as a book

Project HR Management
Indo Swedish Author's Collective
PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/'Dr UDAY DOKRAS The
project sphere has not been valued appropriately

Human Resource Engineering in Theme Parks.

by Dr. Uday Dokras and Mansse Bhandari
As theme parks evolve into facilitating for greater thrill seeking
audience,the role of human res... more

Health Human Resource Management

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Management of Health care workers in hospitals and the human resource

practices to be followed in hospitals.

WIN DIET Lose fat-Diet and Exercise Book ONLY

BODY SHAPING GUIDE YOU NEED

The Act on Co-determination at Work – an Efficacy

study
Thesis of the Author for the degree of Doctor of Law
Stockholm University, SWEDEN 1990

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SCIENTIFIC BOROBUDUR

U.DOKRAS-S. DOKRAS-K. SHAH

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