Borobudur Temple Blunder, Hospital Trip, Javanese Food
Today robin woke up unable to see from her eye. She thought she had conjunctivitis 4 days ago and grabbed some eye drops yesterday from the pharmacy. They did not work and made her eye worse.
Off we went to the hospital. She was seen within 20 minutes and was given a new set of eye drops with a different prescription only antibiotic. These started working as soon as the first dose was given. Time well spent!
During her appointment, I booked tickets to Borobudur temple. I thought this was the temple only a 20 minute drive away. It was not. It was 1 hour 30 minutes away.
Oh well. We booked a grab taxi for £8 for the trip and set off to make out ticket time. When we got there we realized my little mistake was the best thing to happen.
Borobudur is the largest freestanding single Buddhist temple in the world. Unlike Angkor wat, Borobudur is not a complex but a single temple. It is made of porous volcanic rock.
The English discovered it after 800 years of standing untouched. It was covered in solidified volcanic eruption residue. Then, during 1909-1911, the Dutch attempted to rebuild it. In the 1960s with the help of an IBM computer, the temple was taken apart and rebuilt again this time cataloguing the pieces and documenting them. The temple has 10,000,000 pieces. However, after the rebuilding they still had 10,000 pieces left!
Borobudur is special in that it uses no cement. All the pieces fit together to create a freestanding structure held together by tension and Buddhist meditation!
During earthquakes, the unique construction methods of the temple make it safe. It moves with the ground rather than fracturing as the ground moves beneath it. It is also build around a hill, like shell, making it more dynamic.
Borobudur was constructed when there was a power struggle between Buddhists and Hindus. They tried to outbuild the other only coming to peace when a Buddhist prince married a Hindu princess. They agreed that building huge expensive temples was silly and they should focus more on the religion and teachings.
Borobudur has a center dome with 4 main floors. There are 72 stupas in total with 7+2=9 for the 9 years of teachings to become a buddha. Buddha is a title anyone can earn with enough time and wisdom. We learnt of one story of how a prince became a buddha: he was a prince with wealth, he found a wife by having the most beautiful women try a ring until it fit one perfectly (like Cinderella and the show), they then went exploring on a marriage tour, they saw poverty and death, they saw a Buddhist monk who seemed at peace with the terrors going on around him, the prince respected the monk and realized he did not need his riches, the prince went on an extreme meditation of no food, water or sleep, during this he met a musician who said not to tie your instrument strings too tight or they might break, and not to tie them too loose or they won’t play, the prince realized then that there is a medium, he stopped extreme meditation and instead taught people what he learnt, they started to call him Buddha.
Borobudur is open at the top with the stupas. The stairs and flood leading up are decorated with stories of karma and Buddha. As you near the top the stairs between floors become shorter, this depicts your own good karma as you learn about Buddhist values. You are wiser and therefore the journey is easier.
After the temple we found a restaurant where you sit on the floor on cushions. We ordered some Javanese food. My noodles were very spicy and Robin had a savory spiced coconut dish.
-M
