Thanks for a lovely collection of temples; your website is a real treat and clearly a labor of love. A few notes on Borobodur: actually, great deal is known about it; scholars have researched it extensively for a very long time. It was probably built around 800 CE. It is essentially a three-dimensional mandala, wherein the pilgrim starts on the lowest levels, receiving instruction on Buddhist principles through bas relief wall carvings (for example, a carving of a person boiling a turtle for food is followed by a carving of that person being boiled--i.e., karma [the Buddhist principles of reaping what you sow], of compassion, and so on.). As the pilgrim ascends the mandala, the message becomes less worldly and more spiritual, until the top levels, when the only images are sculptures of the Buddha. Walking Borobudur from bottom to top thus emulates the process of reaching enlightenment through long striving: first learning right living and gradually sloughing off the mundane as one reaches enlightenment.
and clearly a labor of love. A few notes on Borobodur: actually, great
deal is known about it; scholars have researched it extensively for a
very long time. It was probably built around 800 CE. It is essentially
a three-dimensional mandala, wherein the pilgrim starts on the lowest
levels, receiving instruction on Buddhist principles through bas relief
wall carvings (for example, a carving of a person boiling a turtle for
food is followed by a carving of that person being boiled--i.e., karma
[the Buddhist principles of reaping what you sow], of compassion, and so
on.). As the pilgrim ascends the mandala, the message becomes less
worldly and more spiritual, until the top levels, when the only images
are sculptures of the Buddha. Walking Borobudur from bottom to top thus
emulates the process of reaching enlightenment through long striving:
first learning right living and gradually sloughing off the mundane as
one reaches enlightenment.