Borobudur

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Borobudur is a 9th-century Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia, near the city of Yogyakarta. It is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Built of grey stone, it has nine stacked platforms, six square and three round, topped by a central dome. From above it looks like a giant mandala, a sacred Buddhist pattern, on a square base about 118 metres on each side.

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At a glance

Country: Indonesia
Location: Central Java, Indonesia
Built: 825
Height: 35 m
Type: Religious building

Quick answers

Where is Borobudur?

Borobudur is in Central Java, Indonesia.

When was Borobudur built?

Borobudur was built in 825.

How tall is Borobudur?

Borobudur is about 35 m tall.

The world's largest Buddhist temple, a stepped monument lined with reliefs and bell-shaped stupas.

It is covered with 2,672 carved relief panels and originally had 504 Buddha statues. Around the dome sit 72 more Buddhas, each inside a stupa with holes like a bell-shaped cage. Pilgrims still climb its stairways, and Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak Day here.

Built by the Sailendra kings

The temple was built when the Sailendra dynasty ruled Java, and it mixes the local tradition of honouring ancestors with the Buddhist idea of reaching nirvana. Walking up through corridors and stairs, visitors pass 1,460 story panels on the walls and balustrades, one of the largest collections of Buddhist reliefs in the world.

Lost, found and rebuilt

After the 14th century, as kingdoms in Java declined and people converted to Islam, the temple was abandoned. The wider world learned of it in 1814 when Thomas Stamford Raffles, the British governor of Java, was told about it by local people. The Indonesian government and UNESCO finished a huge restoration in 1983, and it became a World Heritage Site.

A walk up the mountain of stone

Borobudur is built as one huge stupa, and pilgrims climb its stairways and corridors, one platform for each stage on the way to enlightenment. About 55,000 cubic metres of andesite stone from nearby quarries and the Progo River went into it. In 1885 a hidden base was found by accident, with 160 more story panels carved on it, and the builders later covered it with an extra base, possibly to stop the monument from sliding outwards.

In 1907 to 1911 a Dutch army engineer, Theodoor van Erp, led a first restoration. A much bigger project with UNESCO help finished in 1983. Three temples, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, line up in a straight line from east to west.

Fun facts

It has 504 Buddha statues and 72 bell-shaped stupas on its upper terraces.
Borobudur is Indonesia's most-visited monument.
It is often ranked with Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar as one of Southeast Asia's great archaeological sites.
The word 'candi' in Indonesian means an ancient temple.
A hidden base with 160 more story panels was found by accident in 1885.