Philosophy of Borobudur
Borobudur is based on
Buddhist philosophy, religion and cosmology. The temple symbolizes the sacred
Mount Meru, which in Indian cosmology is situated in the center of the
Universe. The temple also represents the core teachings in Buddhist doctrine,
namely the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the three realms of
existence: Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and
Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness).
The first realm is that
of Kāmadhātu, or ‘Desire Realm’, and is depicted in 160 reliefs based on the
text of the Mahakarmavibhangga, which is about the law of cause and effect
(karma). This particular realm of existence resembles the life of a human being
who has not yet developed a moral sense of responsibility. The reliefs of the
Mahakarmavibhangga were discovered as late as 1885 when the first chairman of
the ‘Archeologische Vereeniging van Jogjakarta (Archaeological Society of
Yogyakarta), Jan Willem IJzerman, accidentally stumbled upon them in the hidden
foot of the Borobudur while he was doing some reparation works on that part of
the monument.
The second realm is
Rūpadhātu, also known as ‘Form Realm’, in which man becomes more conscious of
the meaning of life in regard to the fundamental basic principles of Buddhism,
i.e. moral code of conduct. This realm of existence is depicted in a four-sided
gallery which contains reliefs both on the inside and on the outside, as well
as on the lower and upper parts of the wall. In order to view all these reliefs
in the correct order, one has to walk four times clockwise (with the temple
always on one’s right side) since each wall contains two series of reliefs (on
top of each other).
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