Borobudur Temple

From the port of Semarang, we booked a tour to visit Borobudur, which is the world's largest Buddhist temple.

Built in the 8th century, it was abandoned soon after due to volcanic eruptions that frequently covered it in ash. By the 1800s, its existence seemed mere legend until Sir Thomas Raffles hired a team to explore the area and essentially rediscover it.

These days it's one of Indonesia's UNESCO World Heritage sites, and is considered one of the wonders of the world (depending on whose list you read.)

While not a burial site, Borobudur was helpful to my ongoing research due the many examples of mudras depicted here. Borobudur boasts 504 statues of Buddha, each of which displays a specific mudra which are the symbolic hand gestures of Buddhist teachings.

In a field below the temple, I noticed a lot of black hair on the ground. Our guide explained that was due to a hair cutting ritual for young Buddhists when they reach adulthood.

She also explained the stories behind the bas reliefs on the temple. Many are examples of good karma vs bad karma. I didn’t really find out the story behind the monkey/lion creatures that seemed to guard the entryways. I’ll have to look into that when I get some Internet accessRead more