Situated 40
km north-west of Yogyakarta the Borobodur is one of Indonesia's most famous
attractions. This famous Buddhist temple, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, is
located in central Java. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist monument in
South-east Asia. It was built in three tiers: a pyramidal base with five concentric
square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a
monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, nearly
1500 relief panels, covering a total surface area of 2,500 sq. m. Around the circular
platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. The monument was
restored with UNESCO's help in the 1970s. This temple is an UNESCO World Heritage site
since 1991. Its base is 200 sq m., the monument represent a Buddhist vision of the cosmos
starting from the everyday world until the Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven. The central
stupa, representing Nirvana, is symbolically empty.
