Borobudur is a Buddhist stupa related to the Mahayana tradition, and is the largest Buddhist monument on earth. It is located in the Indonesian province of Central Java, 40 kilometers (25mi) north-west of Yogyakarta. It was built between 750 and 850 CE by the Javanese rulers of the Sailendra dynasty. The name may derive from the Sanskrit "Vihara Buddha Ur", which can be liberally translated as "the Buddhist temple on the mountain". It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Indonesia.

General overview
Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and viewed from above takes the form of a giant mandala. The foundation is a square, 118 metres on each side. It has eight levels, of which the lower five are square and the upper three circular. This is said to be a map of the cosmos as conceptualized by the Buddhist philosophers of the time. The upper level features seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is a bell shape pierced by numerous decorative apertures. Statues of the Buddha sit inside the pierced enclosures.

Borobudur is still a place of prayer and pilgrimage. Pilgrims circumambulate each level seven times in a clockwise direction. The stupas on the topmost level contain statues of the Buddha in various poses. According to local folklore, touching each Buddha through the holes in the stupa wall brings good luck.

Construction
The volume of this massive andesite monument is approximately 56,000 m³. The stupa is formed of some 2,000,000 stone blocks. Archaeologists estimate that construction may have taken forty years. The logistics involved in assembling and feeding the huge work force necessary to complete the construction must have been daunting.

Some researchers say that during construction Borobudur experienced a landfall that threatened the entire building. To prevent the whole monument from collapsing, the Kamadhatu level was closed and made into a new base that holds Borobudur steady.

Rediscovery and recent history
For centuries, Borobudur lay hidden under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind the desertion of this magnificent monument still remain a mystery. In the middle of the 20th century the scholarly theory was that famine caused by an eruption of nearby Mount Merapi forced the inhabitants of Central Java to leave their lands and monuments behind in search of a new place to live. The eruption in question took place in c. 1006, however, and most scholars now believe that the centre of Javanese power moved from the area of Borobudur to the valley of the Brantas as early as 928. The real cause of desertion of the site thus remains a mystery.

In the 18th century only the uppermost terraces would have been partly discernable. Dutch colonials on their way to the Javanese court passed other monuments, but no mention was made of Borobudur. Borobudur was rediscovered in 1814 by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles during the English occupation of the island at the time of the Anglo-Dutch Java War. During his visit in Semarang, he received a report indicating the discovery of a hill full of many carved stones. The Dutchman H.C. Cornelius was dispatched into the area to investigate; Cornelius spent a month and a half with 200 men conducting a preliminary clearing of the monument. His work was continued by others between 1817 and 1822. From 1835 onwards the upper portions were cleared and the monument was for the most part visible. From 1849-1853 the artist F.C. Wilsen was commissioned to make drawings of all of the reliefs. His work was reproduced in the first Borobudur monograph of 1873, published by the director of the museum of antiquities in Leiden Dr C. Leemans. In 1873 the then well known photographer Isidore van Kinsbergen photographed the site. The structural condition of the complex remained so unstable that in 1882 the chief inspector of cultural artefacts recommended that Borobudur be entirely disassembled, with the reliefs placed in museums.

Appreciation for the site developed slowly, though reliefs, Buddhas, and ornaments were routinely removed by thieves and souvenir hunters. Stories are also told of cavalrymen from Magelang sharpening their sabres on Dhyani-Buddha's and of officers finishing their dinners with charges of the sacred site. The King of Siam, visiting the governor in 1886 passed through on his travels; he either took or was given eight ox carts containing irreplaceable statues and ornaments including the only large "temple guardian".