5 Wonders of Borobudur Temple

Illustration of Borobudur Temple with Milky Way in the background (source : www.pinterest.com)

Hello everyone! Today I will discuss about the biggest Buddha Temple in the world. I'm sure you know what it's called, right? Yes, that's right, the name of this temple is Borobudur Temple which is located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. I've been here - fortunately, it's not very far from my house - and maybe some of you guys have also visited this magnificent temple. I chose to talk about Borobudur because there is definitely something in Borobudur that is related to astronomy. First of all, I want to tell you about Nusantara's sky observation. (I use the word 'Nusantara' because I'll tell about Indonesia in the past, and Nusantara was Indonesia's former name). So, space observation in Nusantara had begun thousands of years ago, which was marked by paintings for example on rocks or cave walls. The primordial humans painted various shapes that became part of their lives, like stars, moon, sun, etc. This shows that human's dependence on nature and outer space is very strong to make them easier to recognize natural signs for their activities, such as hunting, measuring time, weapons, etc. Even ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt had started counting time from long ago. This is very important for the development of astronomy because astronomy can't be separated from time.

The Borobudur Temple (source : https://sammaditthi.org)

Talking about time, I remember how humans marked the change of time in the past. They marked the alter of time with the movement of the Sun (day) and the Moon (night). Humans remembered both of their movements by marking them in various ways, for example by painting their movements on rocks. That was in former times. Today, humans have other markers, for example the time transition from evening to night that is marked by sound of crickets if you live near a rice field. Back to the temple. Do you know what is the function of a temple? Most of you will surely answer that a temple is a place to pray for Hindus and Buddhas, right? That's true. But not only that, temples are also represent this universe. In other words, the construction of all the temples in the past had something to do with the universe. And one of that temple is the so-called Borobudur Temple. Borobudur Temple was built around 800 AD and has lots of reliefs. Borobudur Temple has also been one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Borobudur's 3 section (source : www.re-thinkingthefuture.com)

Of the many wonders possessed by Borobudur, there are 5 wonders at Borobudur which are related to astronomy that I know. The first wonder is Borobudur's exact orientation to the cardinal direction. Borobudur Temple has 4 entrances and it is said that the four entrances face the direction of true west, north, east, south. Whereas there was no such thing as a compass at that time. So, how could the people who built Borobudur knows the cardinal direction accurately without the help of compass? When the construction of Borobudur began, there was a star named Polaris which was located in the north sky. This star can be seen from Java. So, the architect who built Borobudur - which was also a king - named Gunadharma ordered his workers to climb the so-called Menoreh Hill to find out the 4 cardinal direction, but more specifically to look out for Polaris. After finding Polaris, the workers will immediately know which way is West, East and South. That way, they can build Borobudur precisely directed to the cardinal points. Now we proceed to the second Borobudur's wonder which is also related to the constellations. Try to see the picture below.

The wooden canoe relief (source : https://id.wikipedia.org)

We can all tell that this picture is a picture of several people on a wooden canoe (about the wood, maybe you don't really think about it, but it is still a canoe). This relief is carved on the east side of Borobudur. This relief show that our ancestors roamed the seas without compass and relied entirely on the stars for navigation. Our ancestors were cool and tough, right! It's similar to the Moana movie. The third wonder is still related to relief. As I explained, Borobudur Temple has thousands of reliefs. The reliefs could be an astronomical monuments that record the movement of celestial bodies. So ancient humans painted the movements of the celestial bodies on rocks which eventually became reliefs. Meanwhile, the fourth wonder is that Borobudur Temple might be was an observatory in the past, 

The last wonder that I know of is about the main stupa. The main stupa of Borobudur is in the center and the peak of the circle with small stupas around it, as shown in the picture above. The main stupa is similar to a sundial called 'Lingga' in Indonesian. What is Lingga? Lingga is a tool with a shape of an upright pole used by ancient humans as a marker of time. The way it works is similar to an ordinary clock, except that the Lingga requires sunlight to function. So the sunlight hitting the Lingga will cast a shadow and the shadow will show what time it is. For example, if the shadow falls to the left of the Lingga, then it is 9 o'clock. It is said that the shadow of the main stupa formed by sunlight cast a certain shadow patterns on certain stupas below which used for example for planting time. In fact, Borobudur, which may be a sundial, is still just a hypothesis presented by researchers from Indonesia. But if this conjecture is correct, then Borobudur Temple will not only have a miracle as the largest temple in the world, but this magnificent temple will also have a miracle as a giant sundial. 

The conclusion is that our ancestors (including those who built Borobudur) knew astronomy well and applied it in their daily lives, one of which was the construction of temples. In addition, astronomy is not only about celestial objects but is also very much related to time. The story about this magnificent temple, indeed it's very interesting, isn't it? Indonesian people should be lucky because the biggest temple in the world is in their country.

Borobudur Temple view when sunset (source : www.cnnindonesia.com)