rantlust

Posted by papi on June 09th 2008 in Architecture, Art, Far East, Raves, Religion, Travel
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“You know it might be just this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest, this epic chant, this gaiety, this grand choiring shout of affirmation, which we choose when all our cities are dust; to stand intact, to mark where we have been, to testify to what we had it in us to accomplish.”

The quote is Orson Welles talking about the cathedral at Chartres, and it’s from the movie “F for Fake” but it could just as easily have been about the topic of this post. Borobudur - a tapestry of stone, a rich stone forest, an epic chant. I’d read about Borobudur in history textbooks, as the lesser known sibling of Angkor Wat, and I’d long had a desire to visit the temple and see for myself if it matched up to its formidable reputation. Earlier this year, an anthropologist friend researching urban planning in the nearby Javan city of Jogjakarta urged me to visit, and I did not need to be asked twice.

Borobudur is located about an hour away from the city of Jogjakarta in East Java, brooding over the surrounding paddy fields. It is rather too close for comfort to the active volcano Gunung Merapi, and the latter has over the years been a constant concern for the safety of the temple. However, Borobudur has survived not only the vagaries of Merapi’s explosions and numerous earthquakes, but even human attempts to destroy it. It still stands largely intact, a testament to the endurance of faith.

My visit to Borobudur started from the Jalan Dagen, in the steaming heart of Jogja at the unholy hour of 4 in the morning. Borobudur is best viewed in the early morning light (more on that later) and so tour buses that ply from Jogja start before dawn. Even at that hour, Jogja hums with activity. The city has several markets which start at 2 or 3 in the morning, and most of the markets close down at around 4 in the afternoon. It is definitely an early bird’s delight. Not so much for me. In any case, even at this early hour, we passed several marketplaces humming with activity and the traffic was quite dense. Outside the city, lush paddies came into view and the traffic thinned out. As the sun came up over the horizon, we got a clear view of Gunung Merapi with its long plume of smoke. It is (incredibly) still possible to hike all the way to the summit, though the guidebook advises extreme caution. I’m not sure what precisely being cautious means if the volcano decides to erupt just when you get to the summit, but at any rate, I did not find out on this trip.

I got to Borobudur as dawn was breaking. The first sight of the temple is awe-inspiring. In the soft dawn light, the intricate carvings of the lower layers reveal their nuanced beauty. The early morning dew keeps the stone moist, and the lines and curves of the murals are enhanced. Later as the sun comes up, the heat dries out the stone, and the harsh light hides some of the finer lines, except in those areas that are still in the cooler shade. Also, the crowds swell as the day progresses, but the temple is so vast that except for the very top story, one can always find a place to be alone.

The pilgrim’s path takes him in a clockwise direction from one level of the temple to the next. The size of the temple can be ascertained from the fact that the length of the complete circumambulation is about 5 km (over 3 miles). The various levels of the temple correspond to the stages of a pilgrim’s spiritual development - the base of the temple is called Kamadhatu or the world of desires, the lower levels are called Rupadhatu and correspond to the world of forms (or the intellect, if you will) and the very upper levels are called Arupadhatu or the world of no form. The Rupadhatu stories are richly adorned with murals and sculptures depicting the life of the Buddha, but at the very highest levels, there are only plain stupas. Of course, one can always go the Art Buchwald route and run straight up to the top, thereby attaining enlightenment without the hassle of intellectual rigor. In my case, 3 miles were clearly too little and I ended up at the highest stupa elated, light-headed, and a little short of breath, but well short of enlightenment.

Even the greatest temple can only take you thus far. The rest is faith.