8/18 -- Borobudur Temple

We drove over an hour this morning to Borobudur temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Java. Built in the 8th century, it is sort of a step pyramid with seven levels, and wider than it is tall. It was abandoned in the 12th century, possibly due to volcanic action. The jungle reclaimed it and it was not until 1814 when British Sir Raffles re-discovered it and brought in 200 workers to remove trees and earth from the remains. Many areas sagged and there have been a couple restoration efforts,

From the top, it looks like an mandala. The different levels have different themes, including telling the story of Siddhartha and of his 500 earlier lives. The first two levels have been mostly covered to provide stability. There are/were bas-relief carvings on the first 4 levels and none on the top three which represent Nirvana.

View from a distance. The steps  lead up a hill to where the
temple was built on top.

Our group in front of the temple. We are all
wearing sarongs (apparently to identify the
paying visitors).

The center bottom corner here has been exposed. The whole
bottom level used to  look  like this.

Bas-relief figures with a Buddha above. On
each level, the Buddha statues have a different
traditional hand position

Looking up

The top Nirvana levels have dozens of stupas, each with a
stone Buddha inside.

Here the top of the stupa has been removed to show the inner figure.

Face of a Buddha inside taken from outside. A majority of
heads seem to be missing or at least detached.

Looking back as we leave. The central tree may be a cutting of
the original ficus where Siddhartha finally achieved enlightenment.

We hopped into horse-drawn carriages to go to lunch with an interim stop at a rice cake 'factory'. There was also a large silver store above the restaurant where several of us had fun.

Focus is on the important one -- the horse.

Home-based business makes about 80  kilos of these a day. They
come in salt/garlic and sweet/salty. We bought sweet ones.

On our way back to the bus, Jim noticed this little guy, an Asian
civet, known as a luwak. They have been popular as pets, but
only a limited number can be captured. However, there is a
growing trend for Kopi Luwak -- coffee made from beans that
have passed thru their digestive tract (like weasel coffee in
Vietnam) and this is putting a lot of pressure on the wild population.

When we got back to the hotel, we starting packing for our 8am flight tomorrow. Then, I had a 90 minute massage at 4 in our room and Jim wandered around while I luxuriated. When Jim came back, he suggested we try the nearby McDonalds for a light dinner. We weren't up for anything fancy and the next door Chinese dive was too dive-y for me and too Asian for Jim, so we braved crossing the road for a burger -- mine was a local version: Burger Belado, which means chili burger -- chili as in spicy. It was really quite good.