mar 22, 750 - Borobudur
Description:
Date: 750 CE - 842 CE
Artist: unknown
Medium: Volcanic stone masonry
Location: Java, Indonesia
Function:
- Buddhist Monument
- Reflecting on Buddhist Cosmology
- A place for pilgrimage
- On top an enclosed stupa
- Meant to be walked around (circumambulated)
- Lower stories represent the world of desire and negative impulses; middle areas represent the world of forms, people have to control these negative impulses; the top story is the world of formulas, where the physical world and worldly desire are expunged
Form:
- Iconographically complex and intricate
- Pyramidal in form, aligned with the four cardinal points of the compass
- Five terraces of identical stepped square plan
- Rubble faced with carved volcanic stone
- 72 openwork Buddhas each with a preaching mudra
Comparison:
- Great Pyramids of Gizeh
- White Temple on Its Ziggurat
- Great Stupa
Added to timeline:
APArt History GDQ
Date:
Images:
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