Synopsis
Bôrô-Boudour Dans L'ile De Java by Conradus Leemans. This work offers a comprehensive survey of Borobudur’s bas-reliefs, detailing costumes, ornaments, architecture, furniture, utensils, transport, weaponry, insignia, music, dance, and daily life depicted on the temple walls. It aims to compare the ancient Java represented in the reliefs with Java in the author’s own era to assess social structure, religion, and cultural exchange. The galleries and pendopos are described in detail, alongside houses, walls, gates, and other structures, with numerous plate references. The analysis covers social order and dress, architecture, interiors, furniture, regalia, transport, weapons, iconography, and ritual practices. Buddhism dominates the imagery, often paired with Brahmanic symbolism, signaling syncretism. The text discusses the possibility that reliefs reflect Buddhist propaganda, royal patronage, and doctrinal diffusion rather than a straightforward social history, and places Borobudur within a broader Indian cosmology and regional Java context. It cautions against reading the relief program as a direct portrait of pre-Islamic life, noting the later transformations under Islam and colonial contact.
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