We have been to Nirvana and back! We spent the day playing chicken with busses, police cars, motor bikes, and pedestrians and we visited the largest Buddhist temple in Asia – Borobudur. However, I am getting ahead of myself. First thing, I am sure, is that many people are asking “Where is or what is Borobudur?” Followed by: “Playing chicken with busses…???”

The welcoming dance troupe on the dock in Semarang

Borobudur is a 9^th century Mahayana Buddhist temple located in central Java, Indonesia. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Asia and is still a place of pilgrimage for many of the world’s Buddhists. 

Hmmm… Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world with over 250 million population, of whom over 95% are Muslim. So what’s a Buddhist temple doing in Indonesia? This temple was built in the 9^th century, well before Islam became the predominate religion in this part of the world. It is only recently, in historic terms, that Buddhism ceased to be a prominent religion in this part of Southeast Asia.

Our first look at Borobudur. Magnificent!

Everyone who enters the sacred grounds is required to wear a sarong as a gesture of respect and modesty - even if you are wearing pants. Fortunately, we were given color-coordinated sarongs that did not clash with our outfits...

Some facts about Borobudur. It consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms. It is decorated with almost 2700 relief panels and over 500 Buddha figures cut from the native lava rock. A main dome in the center of the top platform is surrounded with another 72 Buddha figures. I believe Borobudur typifies the word “monumental.” The journey begins at the base for pilgrims and follows a path around and up as they ascend through the various stages of enlightenment until they reach the top, or Nirvana, a state of pure enlightenment. For us, however, it was a state of pure exhaustion.

Why did we travel halfway around the world to visit this religious monument, especially since there is little in our individual or collective backgrounds to suggest that we might share their beliefs? We were so wrong. We found, through our guide/interpreter that Buddhism teaches that everyone can become a Buddha simply by acting humanely and with graciousness toward their fellow man, regardless of station, wealth, or core beliefs. In that way we are truly all one. Buddha is not a “god” or a “God,” but represents the embodiment of those basic eleemosynary principles.

The temple is composed of bricks, relief carvings, statues, gargoyle-like drain spouts, and pediments all of lava rock. The structure was ingeniously designed – in the 9^th century!!! – such that no mortar or cement is used to hold anything together. In addition, since the temple is meant to resemble a mountain, the interior is packed earth and the temple itself serves as a “skin.” The site sits in the shadow of the Meruapi volcano (meru = mountain and api = fire). Meruapi tends to erupt about every 500 - 1000 years or so. The last eruption several hundred years ago deposited a thick layer of ash over the site and it was not until a UNESCO World Heritage project, together with the Indonesian government, from 1975 to 1982 made a restoration possible. It had originally been re-discovered by Sir Thomas Raffles in 1814, but no serious excavation or restoration was made until UNESCO.

Looking up to the summit from the first level - over 300 meters (about 1000 feet) to climb.

A view of Meruapi - still an active volcano. You can see the smoke plume rising from the mountain top.

Our interpreter/guide, Trudy, explaining the legends depicted on the relief carvings on the wall of the temple. Notice that the block work is not mortared or cemented. They apparently didn't have cement in the 9th century, but they knew how to interlock the bricks so they would stand for a long time.

Another great view of smoky Meruapi.

The napping, not sleeping, giant - Meruapi.

The real adventure of this tour, in addition to visiting the temple, was the journey to and from the port when we docked. We had a police escort all the way in both directions. They were not there for protection, far from it. Indonesia is not, at least thus far, a place to be constantly on guard, but is really rather serene. They were there to assure that we would make the roughly three-hour trip from the pier to the temple and return within our strict time limits. Without the police escort, the almost 75 mile journey might have taken over five hours one way. The police escort was to – literally – sweep slow and opposing traffic out of our way so the bus caravan (three buses with about 20 people each) could make it over the mountains and back in under three hours.

Bonnie and I were fortunate to have secured the front seats in the front bus directly behind the lead police car. It soon became apparent why many of the other passengers who had taken the trip on prior voyages had kiddingly told us to be sure to wear brown or tan trousers…

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what that trip was like. Keep in mind thast we are weaving through traffic at about 60 kph (about 35 MPH) and they are coming at us at about 60 kph!

In addition to the temple visit, we were treated to an Indonesia buffet lunch. We do not normally “do” buffets, but this was too good to miss. While we ate we were treated to a Javanese dance troupe. Java and Bali, while both part of the same country are quite dissimilar in native language, dress, culture – including dance and song – and many other minor ways. This performance leaned more heavily on masks and costume to tell many of the legend dances and the Javanese Gamelan music, while still atonal to the western ear, was not nearly as grating as we found the Balinese Gamelan to be.

The Javanese use more masks and less elaborate costuming than the Balinese.

After we piled back into the buses for the return trip, we made the obligatory “souvenir” stop and were treated to a Javanese puppet show (frankly, while we can admire the skill of the artists, we found that we had very short attention spans for yet another telling of Javanese legend – in Javanese…). We did wind up with a couple of Borobudur Tee-shirts.

Then it was another edition of “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” back to the ship and off we go in search of Brunei two days from now. Stay tuned…