Borobudur简介

1、BorobudurBorobudur, a Buddhist stupa in the Mahayana tradition, is the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Located on the Indonesian island of Java.Borobudur was built around 750 AD. The Borobudur Temple Compounds is a ninth century Buddhist temple complex. It was built on several levels around

2、a natural hill. The foundation is a square. It has nine platforms, of which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular. The upper platform features seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is bell-shaped and pierced by numerous decorative openings. The

3、site was rediscovered in the 19th century, and restored in the early 20th. In 1973 a major renovation took place that was funded by UNESCO.Two smaller Buddhist temples, Pawan and Mendut, are part of the designated area too. Origins of the Name Borobudur There are many different theories about the et

4、ymology of the name Borobudur. One says that the name derives from a nearby inscription, Kawulan I Bhumi Sambhara, dated 842 AD. Kawulan indicates a holy site. Bhumi Sambhara might have been corrupted into Borobudur. Another states that boro means temple or monastery and budur may be the name of a v

5、illage. A third theory claims that the name has its roots in the Sanskrit words Vihara Buddha Uhr, meaning Buddhist monastery on the hill. No one theory has been verified.Rediscovery of Borobudur In 1814, Sir Thomas Stamford-Raffles (British Lieutenant Governor of Java) and two hundred men investiga

6、ted the ruined sanctuary. They spent weeks removing the soil, ash and vegetation that had covered the temple, eventually revealing a collapsed mountain of stone. Restoration was begun in the late 19th Century by Theodor van Erp, a Dutch army engineer officer. More extensive work was completed from 1

7、972 to 1983 under the watchful eye of UNESCO and teams of Japanese and Indonesian experts.Use of the Temple Evidently, the Buddha was venerated at the temple. Unlike comparable later temple structures in Cambodia, there is little extant evidence that the temple was built to consolidate the power of

8、a deva-raja or god-king. There is evidence, however, to suggest that the whole sanctum would have been covered in brightly painted stucco, giving off a rainbow-like shimmer in the tropical sun. In this syncretic Javanese world, both Hindu and Buddhist dynasties ruled over Borobudur till some time in the 10th Century, when the place was suddenly abandoned. The reasons