Its called Bara Budur

Welcome to Borobudur, one of the sacred buildings of Buddhism as a World Cultural Heritage site. The splendor and beauty of Borobudur has its own historical value for Indonesian people. The Indonesian government has designated Chandi Borobudur as a major tourist attraction, and also a priority tourist destination for domestic and foreign visitors.

Chandi Borobudur attracts extraordinary enthusiasm to visit and explore several narrative sources in thematic tours, with the aim of getting to know more closely the history, architecture and fine arts of this building.

The friendly Pamong Carita will accompany and guide you to provide explanations and narratives about Borobudur and its surroundings. Introducing 'Upanat', namely special footwear worn when visiting the terraces through a corridor with a series of relief panel galleries, leading to the top of the circular upper terrace with a row of stupas at Borobudur Temple. Explore history and admire the beauty of architectural art, as well as the origin of the name Chandi Borobudur.

Chandi Borobudur is located right on top of a hill 

and is built in the middle of several mountains and hills.

Source: Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguidnshot arisguide.

Welcome, nice to meet you on the Borobudur tour, You will now step on and visit the splendor of Chandi Borobudur which is one of the world's cultural heritage sites. The reopening of Borobudur sends an interesting opportunity to explore several narrative sources about the existence of the Borobudur in the insights of travel guides on to Borobudur.

Mentioned in the history of Borobudur, there is one of the relief panels carved on a hidden foot, the wall of Karmawibhangga text, panel number 150, concerning the offering of footwear called 'Upanat', dedicated to Brahmins.

The bas-relief of the foot wall is hidden in the Karmawibhangga text panel number 150, regarding the offering of footwear with the name 'Upanat', the footwear offered to Brahmins, in order to obtain rewards and prosperity in life.

Its name 'Upanat', the footwear.

The bas-relief of the foot wall is hidden in the Karmawibhangga text panel number 150, regarding the offering of footwear with the name 'Upanat', the footwear offered to Brahmins, in order to obtain rewards and prosperity in life.

Source: Borobudur Conservation Center. Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide. Foto a screenshot arisguide.

The relief found on the wall of hidden foot, based on the Karmawibhangga text panel 150, concerns the offering of a footwear as its name 'Upanat', a special footwear offered to Brahmins, to obtain merit and prosperity in life.

Introducing 'Upanat', a footwear used to visit on the terraces of Chandi Borobudur, with the aim of getting to know the monument better, learning history, doing thematic tours and admiring the splendor of Chandi Borobudur as a sacred temple for Buddhists. The trip will be part of an appreciation in learning, admiring, and participating in safeguarding and protecting the world cultural heritage site located at Borobudur Indonesia.

It's fun going around the temple to get a source of explanation guided by a tour guide. Opportunity to find out the source, explanation of the written history of Chandi Borobudur and study about its name Borobudur.

Step into Borobudur.

You will now step on and visit the splendor of Chandi Borobudur which is one of the world's cultural heritage sites.

Source: Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide. Foto arisguide.

Step on Borobudur

Chandi Borobudur is one of a world cultural heritage site or World Heritage Site, a Buddhist temple located in Borobudur, belongs to Magelang regency and located in Central Java province. To reach the monument is approximately 96 kilometers from Semarang, the capital city of Central Java, and approximately 86 kilometers from the city of Surakarta, and about 40 kilometers from the city of Yogyakarta.

Chandi Borobudur is located right above the hill and built in the middle of several mountains and hills. Looking to the west, there are Mount Sundoro and Sumbing. Looking to the east you can see Mount Merbabu and an active volcano, Merapi. View to the north, it is approximately 15 kilometers from Borobudur, there is Tidar hill, and to the south it is bounded by the Menoreh hill range. Borobudur is located at the confluence of two rivers, they are Progo and Elo, located right in the middle between the east of Chandi Borobudur and Chandi Pawon.

Chandi Borobudur or Barabudur

is a 9th–century Mahayana Buddhist temple, which consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome, surrounded by 72 stupas and decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

Source: Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide. Foto a screenshot arisguide.

Its Name Borobudur

Chandi Borobudur is a sacred building, its name Borobudur about the monuments dating back to the ancient period of Indonesian history are commonly called chandi, irrespective of what they were originally meant for. They thus include not only temple buildings, but such things as gates and bathing-places.

In the case of most chandis the original name is not known. Often people of nearby villages do not even know of their existence. Much of this cultural heritage had to be rediscovered. No wonder that chandis are simply called after the nearest village. It is very difficult to find out whether Chandi Borobudur is called after the village of the other way about.

In Javanese chronicles of the eighteenth century mention is made of a hill called Borobudur. It came to Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the discover of the monument and it have been told in 1814 about the existence of a monument called Borobudur in the village of Bumisegoro. Borobudur would therefore seem, in any case, to be the original name. But no ancient document yet found contains this name. An Old Javanese manuscript of 1365 A.D., called Nagarakrtagama and composed by Mpu Prapancha, mentions 'Budur' as a Buddhist sanctuary of the Vajradhara sect. It is not impossible that this 'Budur' is to be associated with Borobudur, but the lack of any further information makes a definite identification difficult.

A village in the immediate vicinity still bears the name 'Bore', it is preserving perhaps the first part of the original name of the monument. The compound 'Boro-Budur' is hard to explain. To take it as a meaning 'the Budur sanctuary in the village Boro' would contradict the rules of the Javanese language, which require that the words be the other way round to Budur Boro instead of Boro Budur. Raffles suggested that the word Budur might correspond to the modern Javanese word 'Buda' means ancient, so Borobudur would thus mean the ancient Boro. He also put forward another hypothesis on Boro means the great, and Budur stands for Buddha, its monument was simply called after the The Great Buddha.

In fact, 'boro' should rather mean 'honourable', being derived from the Old Javanese 'bhara', an honorific prefix, so that 'the sanctuary of the honourable Buddha' would be more correct. However, the word boro may also represent the Old Javanese word 'bhara', meaning 'many' in the modern Javanese word ‘para’ which is denoting a plural, so the interpretation of Borobudur is as the sanctuary of 'The many Buddhas' has an equal claim.

The main objection to the above interpretations is that 'Ancient Boro', 'The Great Buddha', 'The honourable Buddha' and 'The many Buddhas' offer no explanation of the change of the word 'Buddha' into 'Budur'.

Borobudur, its name derived from 

The word 'boro' stands for 'biara', which means 'monastery'. Borobudur would then mean 'The monastery of Budur'.

Source: Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide. Foto arisguide.

Indeed, there is no way to justify it. An interpretation was proposed by the late Poerbatjaraka. He assumed that the word 'boro' stands for 'biara', which means 'monastery'. Borobudur would then mean 'The monastery of Budur'. Indeed, foundations of a monastery were unearthed during archaeological excavations carried out on the plateau west of the monument in 1952. As the name 'Budur' is mentioned in the Nagarakrtagama, Poerbatjaraka’s interpretation might be right. But if so, the question how could the monastery stand for the monument in the people’s mind?.

All the above explanations are based on interpretations of the composing words 'Boro' and 'Budur'. De Casparis tried tracing both words back to their probabie origin. He pointed out that a name 'Bhumisambharabhudhara', denoting a sanctuary for ancestor worship, was found on two stone inscriptions dating from 842 A.D.

After a thorough analysis of the religious aspects and a detailed reconstruction of the geography of the area in which historical events took place, he concluded that the sanctuary of Bhumisambhlrabhtidhara could not be other than our Borobudur, and that the change to the present name occurred through the normal simplification that takes place in a spoken language. Although many scholars object to De Casparis’ explanation, no more plausible solution has been put forward. Moens suggested that - on the analogy of the South-Indian Bharasiwa, denoting the ardent adherents of the Hindu God Siva - our monument was associated with the ‘Bharabuddha’ or zealous upholders of the Buddha. The name ‘Borobudur’ would then be a contraction of ‘Bharabuddha’ with the Tamil word ur for ‘city’ added on, thus meaning ‘The City of the upholders of the Buddha’. However, ‘Bharabuddha’ is a mere hypothetical reconstruction, with no documentary evidence.

No written documents on the construction of Chandi Borobudur.

Nor are there any references to the authority that had it built or the purpose for which it was intended.

Source: Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide. Foto arisguide.

However, inscriptions carved above the reliefs on the ‘hidden foot’ of the monument have graphical features similar to those in the script commonly used in royal charters between the last quarter of the eighth century and the first decades of the ninth. The obvious conclusion is that Chandi Borobudur was likely founded around the year 800 A.D.

Source:  Guide Book arisguide, Guidance Technique Chandi Borobudur arisguide.

Get more narration and materials about Chandi Borobudur in Barabudur atau Borobudur, Candi Buddha Pusaka Budaya Indonesia.

Reading is more fun exploring the thematic narratives, beyond travel guide its more detail in UPANAT - Wisata di Borobudur.

Reading in English is fun and also seems so interesting to translate into language that is easy and flexible, get readings in detail in Welcome to Borobudur Temple, the fabric of life in the Buddhist culture.

Explore, admire the beauty of art in pictures and photos by typing the detailed link in PHOTO IMAGE BOROBUDUR.