Revealing the Mystery of the Relief of Borobudur Temple which Was Deliberately Closed: National Okezone

JAKARTA – Borobudur temple has a carving of 2,672 relief panels about Sang’s journey Buddha. The relief sculpture, which is estimated to have reached a length of 6 kilometers, is related to history in Indonesia.

At Borobudur temple, there are Karmawibhangga reliefs hidden at the foot of the temple. Only four panels can be seen. The location is on the southeast side of the temple.

The entire relief consists of 160 panels, most of them covered with rock. The Karmawibhangga relief is interesting and mysterious at Borobudur because the 156 panels are covered by rocks totaling 13,000 cubic feet.

“In essence, the reliefs that are covered with structures at the foot of the temple are Karmawibhangga reliefs. It is wrong, if the reliefs are considered to depict immorality, free life, or abortion. However, the reliefs contain moral lessons about the law of cause and effect from human actions in the Javanese era setting. ancient 8-10 centuries AD, “said officials of the Borobudur Conservation Center BK Day, Friday (26/3/2021).

“That’s right, it was deliberately closed due to an error in the structure of the temple,” he said.

Also read: Uncovering the story of Princess Manohara’s plight in the reliefs of Borobudur Temple

He said, the Karmawibhangga relief contained Buddhist teachings about the karmic law of an act. Besides that, it also tells about the life of ancient people.

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The relief was known to exist in 1885. The first person to know about it was Williem Ijzerman, a Dutch archaeologist. When found, all the reliefs were covered with stones. Then the stones were dismantled in 1890-1891.

After being dismantled, 160 Karmawibhangga relief panels were found. Then it was documented by Kassian Chephas, an Indonesian photographer. After it was documented, the relief was closed again.

During the Japanese rule, the stones covering the Karmawibhangga relief were also opened and dismantled. But the 4 relief panels on the southeast side are not closed again to show that there are reliefs at the foot of the temple.

Relief Karmawibhangga, raises opinions in the community. The so-called relief is considered too vulgar because it shows some bad human deeds.

Then due to the construction of the stone building which covers the relief, it functions to support the temple building to keep it solid.

“Indeed, there are two hypotheses, the first is due to structural errors, the second is religious concepts and reliefs. However, it is stronger against structural errors, because there are reliefs that have not been completed, then the structure of the stone blocks in the temple veranda is closed,” he said.

(fkh)

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