Materials Science and the City of Angkor and the Stupa of

Borubudur
Dr Uday Dokras Phd STOCKHOLM
Deservedly so, when one visits Europe we marvel at the building they built in the 1600s and 1700s.
What impressive feats they accomplish.But then Borobudur was built in the 800s.

Material Science and engineering; With a base which is is 123 m x 123 m

its superstructure is tiered with a head, body, feet ratio of 9,6,4. Creating a level base that measures
123m x 123m is very tough, I mean, the italians cannot even create a level base for the Pisa tower

But seriously, if you ask a civil engineer now how is going to create a level base that measures 123m
x 123m, he's gonna say "laser rangefinder, possibly one that can adjust for the earth's
curvature."Now, contemplate the engineering needed to create a superstructure with an exact ratio.
At the 800s. With the manpower available to them.

The temple has three major tiers (each consisting of three levels), and pilgrims rotate
through each tier from the bottom in clockwise rotation before ascending to the next tier.
It’s meant to be a model of the universe, and each of the three tiers symbolize three realms:
o Kamadhatu,  the realm of desires. This tier has 160 panels of
the Karmawibhangga story and the fence is crowned with ratnas
o Rupadhatu, the ream of form. This tier symbolizes the stage where
humans have freed themselves from desires, but still bound by the boundaries of
body and form. The walls are adorned by hundreds of Buddhas in carved crevices,
and the fences are crowned by little stupas.
o Arupadhatu, the realm of no forms. This tier symbolizes the stage
where humans have freed themselves from both forms and desires, but haven’t yet
reached Nirvana. There are giant stupas with holes, with a statue of Buddha
meditating within each of them- symbolizes the Nirvana that’s seen in glimpses
(like seeing the statue through the holes), but it being still out of reach

The top consists of one giant, plain, solid stupa, symbolizing Perfection. This stupa is,
poetically, empty. This symbolizes the highest state of wisdom, which is freedom
from all forms, shapes, desires and therefore from the circle of Samsara.  The perfect
state of existence, according to this, is eternal nothingness.

The pyramidal shape is believed to be inspired by prehistoric Indonesian architecture

of punden berundak -  tiered pyramids, but the Buddhist elements of stupas and mandalas
are Dharmic ideas from India. Viewed from above, the temple forms a giant mandala with
the lower six levels in rectangular shapes and the upper three levels in circular shapes.
The stairs ascending each tiers are located in the middle of each cardinal direction, and the
rotation starts from East.

The unit of measurement used is the ancient units of tala (from the middle of your hairline
to the bottom of chin) and jengkal (the tip of little finger to the tip of the thumb in an

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outstretched hand.) A ratio of 4:6:9 is found, and apparently the same ratio also exists in the
Angkor Wat Temple complex in Cambodia.

Decorative motifs exist, like the Kala-Makara motifs on doorways often used in other

Javanese candi architectures, the aesthetic ideal of tribangga in portraying figures of kings,
nobles and angels in the reliefs, and the different positions of meditating Buddhas in each
stupa according to each cardinal direction

Countries like the Phillipines. didn’t have complex Architecture because of either a lack of stone
materials for building, the weather due to being located in the typhoon belt, or earthquake due to
being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Let me introduce to you the ancient Temple of Borobudur - Indonesia, Java

Materials: Ancient Philippines can actually create temples without any lime stones. Borobudur
is located on the South Central part of Java. Its location pretty much dictates how or with what
the temple is going to be built with. Since volcanoes dotted the landscape, the builder
chose Andesite as the the main building blocks. Andesite is a very light volcanic rock.

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On average, between 20% to 40% of the rock's volume is actually air due to the pores. These
pores came from the way the rocks were born inside the belly of a volcano. Because there were a
lot of it lying around, using Andesite would be a no brainier instead of importing a more robust
type of rock from outside the region.

On average the weight of individual stones in Borobudur rarely exceeds 9 kg. Meaning it would
be very efficient and cheap to build the temple. Another trick they did in order to finish the job is
the involvement of a mortar free construction method.

Today, despite our technological advances, mortar free construction is still rare. From small
simple homes to tall skyscrapers, nearly all used mortars. But Borobudur and many other ancient
structures in Java are actually free from mortar. How? By using spacial imagination.

They used interlocking mechanisms to get the stones in place and support each other. By joining
the stones this way there's no need for a complex computation or mathematical equations to get
the job done. They simply used their imagination.

Why Mortar is not used oin Borobudur Construction Weather and Earthquake: The nature of
Java is tropical. It's hot and humid all year round. When it rains it pours down heavily. Imagine
what would happen to mortar if exposed to these tropical elements for a prolonged period of
time. The mortar would be rotting away leaving the integrity of Borobudur jeopardized.

Not to mention Java is prone to periodical volcanic eruptions and large earthquakes. Sulfur
contained in the volcanic ash would literally dissolve mortars, while during earthquakes,
mortars would break and cause the structure to break with it. That's why even after 1000 years,

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Borobudur and other ancient temples in Java still stood firm. If an earthquake knocks down the
structure, people would simply put the pieces back together like Lego bricks. The absence of
mortar allows this to happen.

But if Indonesia, who happens to have the same terrain and environmental complications as the
Philippines have managed to create complex architecture and engineering, why not the
Philippines? the Answer: Religion

Religion is the foundation of the society. It creates the value basis, the ethical concepts, the trust
upon which the society is built. You cannot build a society without religion and concepts of
metaphysics.

It doesn’t matter if the religion is bull$hit or not. What matters is its value basis, its sets of ethics,
its Weltanschauung and its relation to society and family. Note also that it isn’t the degree of
religiosity in the society, but the value set which the religion has, which matters. Why are those
things so important? Why is religion the foundation of civilization? Because the value set
determines the way people relate to each other and the society and define their interactions.

The ethical concepts are the basis of the legislature, jurisprudence, societal model and societal
structures. Then the Weltanschauung defines the society’s attitude on nature, philosophy, science
and art.

Without them no technology, no economy, no commerce, no nothing can evolve. For science to

evolve, you need to distinguish between philosophy and mysticism. And economy really is
the nervus rerum, the thing which revolves the whole society. This is why Animist and Pagan
societies are doomed to be forgotten in the sands of time

Comparison with Angkor: The Angkor Wat temple on the other hand and the
surrounding metropolitan area is well known for its water systems. The moat, man-made
reservoirs, and channels are just some of the most significant elements that prove how
important water was in the development of this infrastructure . In fact, Angkor is often
dubbed “The Hydraulic City” today. The water management system at the Angkor Wat
and the surrounding city was developed with attention and care and backed by science.

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The most apparent water source at the Angkor Wat is likely the moat surrounding the
temple ruins. The 200 m wide moat circles the perimeter of the Angkor Wat and is
about 4 m deep ( Jarus, 2017). Moats are not usually naturally occurring; therefore, a lot
of manual work and manpower would have been required to com- plete the digging.
Specifically, 53 million cubic feet of sand and silt was displaced during the digging . A
task of this magnitude would not be undertaken without good reason, and indeed,
research- ers believe the moat had a critical structural purpose. In addition to serving as
a form of defence by making the area harder to access, it may have also helped
stabilize the temple foundation by regulating the groundwater level ( Jarus, 2017).
Similarly, numerous canals and rivers weave through the entire city, and these, along-
side man-made reservoirs were likely part of a vast water management system created
for flood control and irrigation water storage.

There seems to be no end to the variety of modern building materials available for
construction today. Engineered for specific functions, the building material is an important
aspect of any structure and shapes its characteristics, while ensuring that the structure
fulfils its purpose. Choosing the building material is a critical component in the design
process, and the science of engineering and architecture puts great em- phasis on
understanding the properties of materials. In fact, Materials Science is a branch of science in
itself. In ancient architecture, building materials were extremely limited, not only because humans
lacked the capacity to fabricate new materials that were not found in nature, but also by
location, as society lacked the efficient transportation meth- ods of today and architects had
no choice but to source their building material close to the building site. Even with their
limited choice of materials, the architects and builders of the Angkor Wat utilized their
knowledge of Materials Science and selected their building materials purposefully for
specific functions.