Following the major 1973 renovation,Borobudur is once again used as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Once a year,during the full moon in May or June, Buddhists in Indonesia observe Vesak ( Indonesian : Waisak ) day commemorating the birth,death,and the time when Boddhisatva attained the highest wisdom to become Buddha. Vesak is an offical national holiday in Indonesia and the ceremony is centered at the three Buddhist temples by walking from Mendut to Pawon and ending at Borobudur.

The monument is visited daily by tourists and is the single most visited tourist attractions in Indonesia. In 1974, 260,000 tourists of whom 36.000 were foreigners visited the monument. The figure hiked into 2,5 million visitors annually ( 80% were domestic tourists ) in the mid 1990s, before the country's economy crisis. Tourism development,however,has been criticized for not including the local community on which occasional local conflict has arisen. In 2003,residents and small business around Borobudur organized several meetings and poetry protests, objecting to a provincial government plan to build a three-story mall complex, dubbed ' Java World '.

On 21 January 1985,nine stupas were badly damaged by nine bombs. In 1991, a blind Muslim evangelist, Hussein Ali Al Habsyie, was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding a series of bombings in the mid 1980s including the temple attack. Two other members of a right-wing extremist group that carried out the bombings were each sentenced to 20 years in 1986 and another man recevied a 13-year prison term. On 27 May 2006,an earthquake of 6,2 magnitude on Richter scale struck the south coast of Central Java. The event had caused severe damage around the region and casualties to the nearby city of Jogjakarta, but Borobudur, however, was intact.

Borobudur is a ninth century Buddhist Mahayana monument in Central Java,Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms,and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome is located at the center of the top platform. It is surrounded by seventy-two perforated stupas,each containing one sitting Buddha statue.

The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The jorney for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through the three levels of Buddhist cosmology,namely,Kamadhadu ( the world of desire );Rupadhadu (the world of forms );and Arupadhadu ( the world of formless ). Durring the journey,the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of starways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades.

Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the fourteenth century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java,and the Javanese conversion to Islam. It was rediscovered in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles,the British ruler of Java. Following the Anglo-Dutch Java War, Java was under British administration from 1811 to 1816. The appointed governor was lieutenant Governor-General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles,who had a great interest in the history of Java. He collected Javan antiques and made notes through contacts with local inhabitants during his tour throughout the island.

Since then,Borobudur has been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO. Since 1991,Borobudur has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage and is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.

There is no written record of who built Borobudur,or of its intended purpose. The construction time is estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the eight and ninth centuries. It is likely Borobudur was founded around AD 800. Borobudur building architect by Gunadharma. This conforms with the period between AD 760-830,the peak of the Sailendra dynasty in Central Java. The construction time is estimated took 75 years.

There is confusion between Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras are known as ardent followers of Lord Buddha,although stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto suggest they were Hindus. It was during this time that many Hindu and Buddhist monuments were built on the plains and mountain around the Kedu Plain. The Buddhist monuments,including Borobudur,were erected around the same time as the Hindu Shiva Prambanan temple compond. In AD 732,king Sanjaya,the founder of the Sailendra dynasty,commisioned a Hindu Shiva Lingga sanctuary to be built on the Ukir hill,only 10 km ( 6.2 miles ) east of Borobudur. Sanjaya's immediate successor,Rakai Panangkaran,was associated with a Buddhist Kalasan temple,as shown in the Kalasan Charter dated AD 778. Anthropologists belive that religion in Java has never been a serious conflict. It was possible for a Hindu king to patrionize the establishment of a Buddhist monument ; or for a Buddhist king to act likewise. The offical religion could take place without affecting the continuity of a dynasty and of cultural life.

For centuries,Borobudur lay hidden under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind the desertion of monument remain a mystery. It is unknown until when the monument was still in active use and when it ceased to function as the pilgrimage center of Buddhism.

A general assumption is that the temples were disbanded when the population were converted to Islam in the fifteenth century. Another theory is that a famine caused by a volcanic eruption had forced local inhabitants to leave their lands and the monument. The eruption is estimated to have occurred around circa AD 1006. The event was said to trigger the movement of Javanese power from the Kedu Plain area to east of Java nearby the Brantas valley as early as AD 928.

However,the great monument was never completely removed from the local people's memory. Instead of glorifying story about the monument,the memory was then gradually shifted into a more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and miscry. Two old Javanese manuscripts of the eighteenth century mention a case of bad luck associated with the monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi ( or the History of Java ),the monument was a fatal factor for a rebel who revolted against the king of Mataram in AD 1709. The hill was besieged and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad Mataram ( or the History of the Mataram Kingdom ),the monument was associated with the misfortune of the crown prince of the Jogjakarta Sultanate in AD 1757. In spite of a restriction to visit the monument,he took what is written as THE KNIGHT WHO WAS CAPTURED IN A CAGE ( a statue in one of the perforated stupas ). As soon as he arrived as his palace,he died unexpectedly after a one-day illness.

A number of Buddhist and Hindu temple compounds are located approximately 40 km ( 25 miles ) northwest of Jogjakarta,on an elevated area between two twin volcanoes,Sundoro-Sumbing and Merbabu-Merapi,and the Progo river. According to local myth,the area known as Kedu Plain is a Javanese 'sacret' place and has been dubbed 'the garden of Java' due to its high agricultural fertility. During the first restoratio,it was discovered that three Buddhist temples in the region,Borobudur,Pawon,and Mendut,are in one straight line position. It might be accidental,but the temples' alignment is in conjunction with a native folk tale that a long time ago,there was a brick-paved road from Borobudur to Mendut with walls on both sides.

Unlike other temples,which are built on a flat surface,Borobudur was built on a bedrock hill,265 m ( 869 ft ) above sea level and 15 m ( 49 ft ) above the floor of the dried-out paleolake. The lake's existence was the subject of intense discussion among archaeologist in the twentieth century ; Borobudur was thought to have been built on a lake shore or even floated on a lake. In 1931,a Dutch artist and a scholar of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, W.O.J. Neuwenkamp,developed a theory that Kedu Plain was once a lake and Borobudur initially represented a lotus flower floating on the lake.
Lotus flowers are found in almost every Buddhist work of art,often serving as a throne for buddhas and base for stupas. The architecture of Borobudur itself suggests a lotus decpiction,in which Buddha pictures in Borobudur symbolize the Lotus Sutra,mostly found in many Mahayana Buddhism ( a school of Buddhism widely spread in southeast and east Asia regions ) texts. Three circular platforms on the top are also thought to represent a lotus leaf. Nieuwenkamp's theory,however,was contested by many archaeologist because the natural environment sorrounding the monument is a dry land.

Geologist,on the other hand,support Neuwenkamp's view,pointing out clay sediments found near the site. A study of stratigraphy,sediment and pollen samples conducted in 2000 supports the existence of a paleolake environment near Borobudur,which corroborates the doubts had raised by archaeologist. The lake area,however,fluctuated with time ; a study also proves that Borobudur was near the lake shore circa thirteenth and fourteenth century. River flows and volcanic activity have contributed to the landscape of the lake. One of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia,Mount Merapi,is in the direct vicinity of Borobudur and has been very active since the Pleistocene

Magelang is the capital of the 1,130 km Magelang Regency,Central Java,Indonesia and also the largest town in the Kedu Plain between Mount Merbabu and Mount Sumbing in Central Java,Indonesia. It is in a fertile agricultural area and one of the most densely populated regions on Java. It is closest major town to Borobudur,a seventh-century Buddhist monument. It is located about 40 km ( 25 miles ) north west of Jogjakarta,on the main highway connecting that city with Java's northen coast at Semarang. The Magelang Regency includes Borobudur,Pawon,and Mendut temples. Another less well known temple is the Canggal Temple ( a monument of the first Mataram king,Sanjaya ),both archaeologically or historically significant.