Borobudur
The largest Buddhist monument on Earth, built as a walk towards insight
See it on the timeline →In depth
Borobudur was raised by the Sailendra dynasty from some two million blocks of stone, without mortar. The complex is a three-dimensional mandala: the lower galleries depict the world of desire in dense relief, the upper terraces are circular and almost undecorated, and the five-kilometre pilgrim circuit through the galleries is a physical passage through the Buddhist path. It was abandoned around the 15th century as power shifted east and Java turned to Islam, and lay overgrown under volcanic ash until 1814.
For children
On Java people built an enormous temple shaped like a terraced mountain. You walk around and around, upward, past two thousand carved panels telling stories, and at each level things get simpler and quieter — until the top, where there are only empty stone domes and the view. The building is the story.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org