Borobudur

Borobudur is the reason I came to Indonesia. Granted there’s a lot more I want to see while I’m here, but until this trip the ancient Buddhist stone temple was the last must-see sight for me in Asia that I hadn’t seen yet. Borobudur sparked my interest in Indonesia, and while planning a trip to Indonesia it suddenly made sense to stop in Japan and Korea as well. But Borobudur is the reason the whole trip happened and for the last few days I’ve been ecstatic to finally see it.

After spending most of the day yesterday flying from Tokyo to Jakarta, then spending the night in a $12 dive near the airport in Jakarta, I finally arrived in Yogyakarta, Indonesia at 7:00 this morning. By 10:00 I had found a hotel and showered up, had breakfast, booked activities for the next two days through a local travel agency, and was on my was to Borobudur on the back of an Indonesian man’s motorbike.

Built sometime between 750 and 850 AD, Borobudur is an enormous Buddhist temple made of two million stone blocks. The temple is a Buddhist interpretation of the cosmos and a walk through its terraced pathways takes visitors through a three mile journey representing life, which culminates in ‘nirvana’ – a series of circular terraces at the top of the structure populated by perpetually meditating stone Buddha statues. From a distance Borobudur is impressive because of the sheer size of the thing, but a closer look reveals intricate stonework and architecture that is equally amazing. I started my observation of Borobudur by beginning at the lowest terrace and working my way upwards – exactly as Buddhist worshipers would have done 1300 years ago. When I started I had no idea that the paths through Borobudur total three miles in length, but time passed quickly as I wandered through the thing – before I knew it I was at the top of the temple, passing by serene Buddha statues enclosed in stone latticework that is an unmistakable icon of Borobudur.

Altogether I was pleased with the experience. In my opinion the greatest ancient wonders of Southeast Asia are Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar. Borobudur is a close third as far as I’m concerned; meaning that it is in very good company. One of the things I liked most about Angkor Wat and Bagan was that at both of those places it’s possible to wander off and find distant ancient temples where nobody else is around. The only real drawback of Borobudur is that it’s just one giant temple, so it’s impossible to get away from the crowds. Even with the crowds, though, it was pretty outstanding, and with three miles of walkways through intricately carved stone terraces, there were plenty of times when for just a few minutes I felt like I had the place to myself.

It made sense to combine a visit to Borobudur with one to Prambanan; a complex of towering ancient Hindu temples, the largest of which is 150 feet tall. I spent another hour on the back of the motorbike, blasting my iPod the whole way along and watching ricefields fly by with gigantic volcanos as pale blue backdrops in the distance. Prambanan is impressive, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Borobudur. Like me, most visitors to Yogyakarta come because of Borobudur and make a side-trip to Prambanan while they’re here. To me Prambanan was exciting because it was different. In all there are remains of 244 temples dating back to the 9th century AD in the area, but eight major temples in a central courtyard are the main attraction. I spent about an hour circling the perimeter of the courtyard and exploring the temples inside. Hindu temples always come with colorful stories of dignified or vengeful Hindu gods. Prambanan’s temples contain carvings representing Hanuman the monkey god, Ganesh the elephant-headed god, and a four-armed Shiva the Destroyer.

After heading back to Yogyakarta to shower up, a van picked me up at my hotel to take me to a performance of the epic Hindu play ‘Ramayana’. I got lucky and happened to be in Yogyakarta on a night when the Ramayana was playing at an outdoor theatre at Prambanan. A VIP seat only cost $20, and just admiring the stage before the show was pretty impressive. For a country that is clearly third-world, the stage and facilities at Prambanan were excellent. The temples were lit up perfectly behind the stage, and the nighttime backdrop gave the place a distinctive ancient Hindu feel. At least a hundred actors and musicians contributed to a first-class performance. Hindu heroes and monkey armies battled each other during the first act. One actor shot his bow-and-arrow with incredible precision, and the climax of came when two giant straw huts were raised behind the stage, then ignited and burned with flames that must have been twenty feet high.

I would loved to have stayed and watched the entire two-hour Ramayana performance, but unfortunately I had to leave after the first act. While flying into Yogyakarta this morning I was captivated by the huge volcanoes that seemed to surround the airplane on all sides. When I read in my guide book that many visitors to the area hike a nearby volcano I decided I couldn’t miss out on such an experience. I booked a hike through a local travel agency that leaves for Merapi Volcano at 10:00 tonight. I’ll start hiking at 1:00 AM, then summit at 5:00; just in time to watch the sunrise over Java. I’ve been up since 3:30 AM and won’t be back at my hotel until noon tomorrow, so the lack of sleep means it’ll be more of a challenge… but as far as I’m concerned, more of a challenge means more of an adventure.