362. Half-plan of Temple of Boro Buddor. (From a Plate in the second edition of Sir Stamford Raffles’ ‘History of Java.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
363. Elevation and Section of Temple of Boro Buddor. (From an unpublished Plate intended for Sir Stamford Raffles’ ‘History of Java.’)
purpose of rendering its peculiarities available for scientific purposes: the fact being that this monument was erected just at the time when the Buddhist system attained its greatest development, and just before its fall. It thus contains within itself a complete epitome of all we learn from other sources, and a perfect illustration of all we know of Buddhist art or ritual. The 1000 years were complete, and the story that opened upon us at Bharhut closes practically at Boro Buddor.
The fundamental formative idea of the Boro Buddor monument is that of a dagoba with five procession-paths. These, however, have become square in plan instead of circular; and instead of one great domical building in the centre we have here seventy-two smaller ones, each containing the statue of a Buddha ([Woodcut No. 364]), visible through an open cage-like lattice-work; and one larger one in the centre, which was quite solid externally ([Woodcut No. 365]), but had a cell in its centre, which may have contained a relic or some precious object. There is, however, no record of anything being found in it when it was broken into. All this is, of course, an immense development beyond anything we have hitherto met with, and a sort of half-way house between the majestic simplicity of the Abhayagiri at Anuradhapura, and the somewhat tawdry complexity of the pagoda at Mengûn ([Woodcut No. 354]).
