A mandala is a model of the
universe arranged for spiritual exercise, and visitors still feel something like
enlightenment on climbing up to the open levels and seeing the distant hills like still
another ripple of human existence.  Borobudur's name seems to be derived from an
expression recorded in two inscriptions of the time and found locally, Bhumisambhara-bhudhara,
which means, <Mountain of the accumulation of virtue in passing through the [ten]
stages [of a Bodhisattva]. It was built soon after Hinduism and Buddhism
arrived in Neolithic Java in the 8th century during a brief struggle for the allegiance of
the people.  The kings of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty built the meditative
Borobudur, while the Hindu Sanjaya built the more polytheistic Prambanam temple nearby on
the Kedu plain.  But by 930 both religious structures were abandoned.  The
Muslims arrived in the 15th century, and the Dutch in the 17th.

Borobudur reflects the cosmic and divine order of the Sanscrit/Javanese
scripture, the Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan (925-50), the <Venerable Great
Vehicle,< which is rooted in the earlier Indian Mahavairocana (700), the
<Great Universal Light.>  The concentric structure, like that of mandalas,


Borobudur seems to be modeled on a Tantric (Northwest Indian) Vajradhatu,
or Diamond World, mandala, for the ten concentric galleries and the five ballustrades
bearing niches for the Buddhas below the circular terraces of stupas are laid out in that
pattern, as can be seen from five principal Buddhas identifiable from their mudras,
or gestures: 





       Center, Vairocana, or <Universal Light.> Buddhas here are portrayed
       Dharmacakra mudra, <turning the wheel of the doctrine> (right thumb
       touching left middle finger), symbolic of the Buddha's preaching his
       first sermon.  
       Then on the first four ballustrades:
       East, Aksobhya, <The Unshakable.> 
       Bhumisparsa mudra, <seal of touching the earth> (right hand palm down
       resting on the knee), symbolic of sacrifice.
       South, Ratnasambhava, <The Matrix of the Jewel.> 
       Vara mudra (right hand held palm up), symbolic of charity.
       West, Amitabha, <The Infinite Light.> 
       Dhyana mudra (both hands on lap, palms up), meditation.
       North, Amoghasiddhi, <The Infallible Realization.>
       Abhaya mudra (right hand up, palm facing out), eliminating fear.
       Fifth ballustrade, all around.
       Vitarka mudra (right hand up, thumb and left forefinger touching),
       symbolic of preaching.  



      This anomalous style is a difficulty for the interpretation of the architecture
    as a conventional Vajradhatu, or Diamond World, mandala, for in that tradition
    there is no sixth Buddha.  But mandalas are found in almost infinite variations.

The galleries provide a complete education in the doctrines of Buddhism. 
At the foot (now hidden by a supplemental foundation) is a retelling in sculpture of the Mahakarmavibhangga,
the doctrine of worldly desire and the causes of good and evil.  In the first gallery
is told the Lalitavistara, life of the Buddha from birth to his first sermon at
Benares, and the Jatakamala, his former lives.  (There is no interest in the
Buddha's subsequent life and eventual attainment of nirvana, since by his first sermon he
had discovered everything needful for the compassion of a Bodisattva.)  Then in the
upper galleries is told a long story, the Gandavyuha, of an ordinary mortal,
Sudhana, son of a merchant, in search of enlightenment.  Thus the pilgrim gains a
complete perspective on life, from desire to the renunciation of desire.