The Lost Temple of Java: The Mysteries of Borobudur, the World's Largest Buddhist Temple

by Phil Grabsky

Borobudur in Central Java has been described as the eighth wonder of the world. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple, built out of 1.6 million blocks of worked volcanic stone and containing three miles of relief carvings and 504 statues of Buddha. Yet for 1,000 years it lay deserted in the jungle until it was rediscovered by none other than the famous Englishman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.

In 1811, at the age of 30, Raffles became Java's Lieutenant-Governor. When reports reached him of a huge structure deep in the jungle he went to investigate. Unlike other explorers of the age his first reaction was not to hack the temple to bits. He had it surveyed, sketched and described in exact detail.

This book - like Raffles - seeks to solve the mysteries of Borobudur. Who built the temple? How was it constructed? What was it for? And why was it abandoned so soon after completion?

Genres: Nonfiction, History

Audible Audio

First published November 12, 2000

About the author

Phil Grabsky is an award-winning documentary film-maker and writer. With a career spanning over 30 years, Phil and his company Seventh Art Productions make films for cinema, television and DVD. His latest project is the creation of a hugely successful and unique new arts brand: EXHIBITION ON SCREEN.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phil Grabsky is not a scholar; his day job is in television. That shows, which is not entirely a bad thing. This is an unusual project for someone who writes mostly about the well-trodden world of Rome. "The Lost Temple of Java" recounts the little that is known about medieval Indonesia's grand Buddhist temple Borobudur, lost in the jungle until Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles, the British Lieutetant-Governor, unusually middle-class and curious for the British Foreign Service, decided to investigate the reports of a lost monument. The place turned out to be monumental and gorgeous, which Grabsky's publishers almost do justice to, with three miles of relief panels of village life and religious art and hundreds of large Buddhas and Boddhisattvas. Someone would have found it, but we must be grateful that it was the perpetually curious Raffles. Unlike Lord Elgin in Greece or John L, Stephens in the Yucatan, Raffles felt no need to steal pieces of what he found (Stephens took wood from the Maya sites, which was later lost in a Harvard fire).

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yup - I want to visit.

Putting this location on my list of possible trips in the next few years.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learn about Borobudur

This was a short book about an ancient temple lost for many years in the island of Java. The author gives a brief history of Java, then proceeds with the fascinating biography of Thomas Stamford Raffles who was instrumental in the discovery of the temple. A man ahead of his time, he learned to speak Malay and treated native people with more respect than others of his time. Oh and he also founded a little shopping port called Singapore and founded the London Zoological Society. The Temple is not widely known outside of the Asian continent and is still in danger of collapse. While some restoration has taken place more will be needed. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audiobook. Narration was rote and monotone. Still a short interesting read.