Borobudur Temple

Floating above the landscape of Central Java like a series of concentric circles that forms a giant mandala, there is Borobudur Temple, the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Even though there is no written record of who built the temple first, it is believed that Borobudur Temple was built between AD 780 and 840 when the Sailendra dynasty ruled the region. The building was abandoned for centuries and buried beneath layers of volcanic ash from Mount Merapi with only local people knew of its existence.

In 1814, the British ruler of Java, Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles, appointed a team led by Cornelius to investigate a hill, which, according to many local inhabitants, was the site of an ancient monument. The discovery got the Borobudur Temple worldwide attention, but it was not until 1835 that the entire area of the temple has been cleared. Unfortunately, the Dutch colonial government gave away eight containers full of Borobudur statues as presents for the King Chulalongkorn of Siam during his visit to Indonesia in 1896. The relics are still on display in the National Museum of Bangkok.