THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM IN CENTRAL JAVA: INTERPRETATIONS OF MUDRAS OF CANDHI BOROBUDUR’S BUDDHIST MONUMENTS

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), had in 1972 adopted the World Heritage Convention, which is aimed at identifying, locating, protecting and preserving our world’s cultural and natural treasures for the knowledge of our present and future generations. As of today, the World Heritage List has included 936 properties around the world, forming part of our world’s cultural and natural heritage treasures. The heritage list includes’ 725 cultural sites, 183 natural sites and 28 mixture of both sites in 153 State Parties (States Parties are countries which have adhered to the World Heritage Convention. They thereby agree to identify and nominate properties on their national territory to be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List). As of March 2012, 189 State Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention. One of the world’s national treasures included in this list is Chandi Borobudur (Borobudur Temple), which is considered as the biggest ancient temple of the world. It was built in the 8th century in central Java, Indonesia, by the Sailendra Dynasty, who was ardent Buddhist followers. This magnificent monument was built entirely of volcanic rocks in the shape of a stepped pyramid, measuring 42 meters in height, and has a dimension of 123 × 123 meters with an overall 2500 meters length of stone reliefs