Ebook Chandi Borobudur A Monument of Mankind
No written documents whatsoever on the construction of Chandi Borobudur survive. Nor are there any references to the authority who had it built or the purpose for which it was intended. However, inscriptions carved above the reliefs on the ‘hidden foot’ of the monument (see page 18) have graphical features similar to those in the script commonly used in royal charters between the last quarter of the eighth century and the first decades of the ninth. The obvious conclusion is that Chandi Borobudur was very likely founded around the year 800 A.D. This assumption accords quite well with Indonesian history in general and the history of Central Java in particular.
The 750-850 period was the Golden Age of the Sailendra dynasty. It produced a great number of monuments, which are found all over the plains and the mountain slopes of Central Java. Siva sanctuaries predominate in the mountain regions; in the plains of Kedu and Prambanan, both Sivaite and Buddhist monuments were erected close together. The name ‘Sailendra’ appears for the first time in a stone inscription found at Sojomerto in the north-western coastal area of Central Java. As it is a personal name, the obvious assumption is that the later rulers of the Sailendra dynasty were his descendants.The Sojomerto inscription is not dated, but on palaeographical grounds it can be ascribed to the middle of the seventh century. The oldest dated inscription - not only of Central Java, but of the whole of ndonesia - was found in the stone charter of Canggal, issued by king Sanjaya in 732 A.D.
It commemorates the foundation of a Siva lingga sanctuary on the Gunung Ukir hill, some 10 kms only east of Chandi Borobudur. The name Sanjaya appears once again in the Mantyasih charter of 907 A.D., found some 15 kms north of Chandi Borobudur, which is unusual in that it contains a list of kings preceding the reigning King Balitung (who issued the charter). Though no account is given of the genealogical relations, thekings listed were apparently successive rulers of one and the same kingdom.
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