Samerang, Indonesia - Borobudur temple

I had never heard of Borobudur before we started planning our World Cruise. Perhaps you have never heard of it either, so I am breaking my "plog" promise to send only photos.  Hopefully, these next few paragraphs will add more meaning to the many photos below.  And there are a lot of photos!

Borobudur is the world’s largest Buddhist temple and the most visited tourist site in Indonesia. It is literally built on a hill and the hill is still inside it! The temple has six square platforms topped by three circular platforms and is decorated with more than 2,600 relief panels and over 500 Buddha statues. A large dome in the center of the top platform is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, with each Buddha seated inside a perforated stupa (I should say “holey” stupa!).

For centuries, Borobudur lay hidden under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. Many of the niches and stupas holding the statues were damaged over the years by earthquakes. In the late 1800s it took 200 men two months to cut down trees, burn down vegetation, and dig away the earth to reveal the monument. The temple has always been in danger of collapse from earthquakes. The monument suffered further from the weather and drainage problems, which caused the earth core inside the temple to expand, pushing the stone structure and tilting the walls. Souvenir hunters carted off many pieces.

Renovation was a colossal project. It involved about 600 people and cost a total of $6,901,243. After the renovation was finished, UNESCO listed Borobudur as a World Heritage Site in 1991.

Borobudur was given World Heritage status because:

It represents a masterpiece of human creative genius;

 
It shows an important interchange of human values, over a span of time and within a cultural area of the world, in regard to developments in architecture, technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design, and 

It is directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, with beliefs, or with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. 

I hope you appreciate the photos as much as we appreciated the opportunity to see this wonderful site.