Feb 7 – Borobudur, World’s Largest Stupa

We are arrived in the Java city of Semarang today, one of their larger port cities on the island of Java.  Shortly after breakfast we were off on a bus for an all day (11 hour) tour to Borobudur.  Some of the interesting buildings we saw along the way...

and some more rice terraces.

Borobudur is a 9^th-century Buddhist Temple that is the largest stupa in the world.  It is made of 2 million cubic feet of gray volcanic stone.  It has 3 major levels, 9 in all, covers an area of 403.5 meters square (162,812 square feet or 3 ¾ acres) and is 113 feet tall.  

We were able to climb most of the way to the top…but weren't allowed to go on the very top level.  It was hot and humid but most of the group made it up with the help of regular stairs and handrails.  The views were great from the top.

There are 504 statues of sitting Buddhas...

and 72 smaller stupas on this huge stupa/temple.

And it was interesting to explore the walkways and carvings all over the stupa.

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More Borobudur
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Video of Borobudur
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When we got to the bottom Crystal had cold, damp towels waiting for us…very welcome.  We had lunch at a pavilion while we watched performances of a number of Javanese dances.

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Video of Dancers
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After a short trip on the buses we arrived at a silver shop.  One could shop for silver but there was also a performance of shadow puppets.  Shadow puppet masters are greatly honored in Javanese culture.  The puppet master’s must learn over 500 tales and the various voices of the puppet characters.  Unfortunately, while the show was interesting the complexity was lost on everyone.  We didn’t understand the language and much of the “action” seemed very repetitive.  But it was nice to get to see this art form.

Then it was back on the buses for the long drive back to the boat.  It was a bit rainy on the way back but we were able to get some views of the beautiful mountains in the distance.  

We got back at around 7:00pm.  We decided to go to the Tastes restaurant instead of the main dining room.  We had a very good butternut squash salad, Paul had an Indian tikka masala flat bread and Mary had a steak.  They were very good.  We skipped the show and went to be.