Borobudur Temple Tourism

in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta also Jogja or Jogjakarta, is a city and the capital city of the Special
Region of Yogyakarta in Java, Indonesia. Famous as a center for education (City of
Students), classical Javanese arts and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music,
poetry, and wayang performances. Yogyakarta is a city full of tourist attractions,
one of which is the very famous Borobudur temple in Yogyakarta
Who does not know Borobudur? This Buddhist temple has 1460 relief panels and
504 Buddha statues in its complex. Millions of people really want to visit this
building as one of the Word Wonder Heritages. No wonder because architecturally and
functionally, as a place for buddhas to pray, Borobudur is interesting.
Borobudur was built by King Samaratungga, one of the kings of the Ancient
Mataram Kingdom, a descendant of the Sailendra Dynasty. Based on the Kayumwungan
inscription, an Indonesian citizen named Hudaya Kandahjaya revealed that Borobudur
was a place of worship that was planned to be built in 824, almost a hundred years
since construction began. The name Borobudur, according to some people, means a
stepped mountain, while others say Borobudur means a monastery on a high place.
The History of the Rediscovery of the Borobudur Temple. Borobudur Temple was
discovered in 1814, when Indonesia was being colonized by the British. The inventor
of the temple was Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles when he visited Semarang.
He received reports of finding carved stones on the hills around the village of
Bumisegoro, Magelang Residency. The hill is believed to be the remains of a temple
building called budur.
Raffles then sent his assistant, Cornelius to conduct research. Cornelius finally
conducted research in 1814. A massive clean-up was carried out by employing a
workforce of less than 200 people. The cleaning work was carried out over several
years starting from 1817, 1825, and 1835.
Borobudur is believed to be a building of ten terraces. The height before
renovation was 42 meters and after renovation 34.5 meters because the lowest level
was used as a support base. The first six terraces are square, the upper two
terraces are circular from, and above them is the terrace where the Buddha statue
is facing west. Each terrace symbolizes the stages of human life. In line with
Mahayana Buddhism, anyone who wants to reach the stage of Buddha must go through
each of these stages of life.