Borobudur
Monday, May 14th, 2007
We stayed two days in Jogya mainly to visit the magnificent Borobudur, the biggest and grandest Buddhist Temple in the world. The temple is made of black rock with stone tablet carvings of the life of the Buddha. The tablets occupy whole walls all over the temple. It’s like reading a comic book, but instead of two dimensional prints, you get scenes etched in stone that would last millennia.
There are several terraces. And the topmost contain the ubiquitous huge stone bells with square openings called stupas. Inside each stupa is a Buddha with an enchanting smile akin to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Legend has it that touching the Buddha’s belly brings good luck. And more bellies, more luck? So there we go, hopping on the bells, and reaching through the square openings, straining hard to touch those bellies.
