Thursday, July 2, 2009

Borobudur - The "Eighth" Wonder of the World




Taking over 75 years to build around 800 ad, it is the largest Buddhist temple in the world.  It has over 2500 relief carvings and 500 statues of Buddha, though much was pillaged while the temple was abandoned after the rise of Islam around the 15th century.  Despite it's amazing visual experience, I was the most popular thing here on this day.  I took over twenty pictures with Indonesians and some even asked if they could just walk around with me.  I don't really get why.  A tall, hairy, white guy I guess is more interesting.

Top to Bottom:

1.  These domes, at the very top of the temple, each have a statue of Buddha inside.  They say that you are supposed to reach in and make a wish, so I did.

2.  I thought that this guy had a nice view.

3.  One of the many relief carvings, each telling a different story.  You can see that a head has been stolen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm dying to know what you wished for.
i'm so happy that you got to experience this. just reading about Borobudur was exciting..

Anonymous said...

You wished for beaucoup babies to carry on the legacy ;-)

Chris Leimena said...

Amongst other things