BOBO BUDDOR, bo-rO bood-Or, or (the "Great the ruin of a temple in Java, near the junc tion of the Ello and Progo, the most elaborate monument of the Buddhist style of architecture anywhere existing. Javanese chronicles assign the building to the 7th century, but these docu ments were composed long after the events de scribed and are to a large extent fictitious. Dr. C. Leemans, in his valuable 'Boro-Boudour dans l'Isle de Java' (Leide 1874), expressed the view that the construction of this temple falls "in the 9th, perhaps even the 8th century, after Christ?' It rises from a low hill between four vast volcanoes which supplied the blocks of trachyte of which the edifice is built ; its height to the cupola is 118 feet. It is a pyramid of a square form, each side at the base measuring 600 feet, and consists of seven walls, which are built like the steps of a stair, up a hill. Between the walls are narrow terraces running round the building; in each is an arched doorway leading to the next higher terrace. These walls are richly ornamented with statuary. Outside are over 400 niches topped with fantastic domes, and each occupied by a large statue of Buddha. Between each of these are bas-reliefs, including figures of the god seated, and architectural or naments and carvings of all sorts. Below the niches, on the lower story, is an immense bas relief running round the whole building, rep resenting scenes from the life of Buddha and religious subjects. The inner faces of the
building are also profusely ornamented with bas-reliefs, representing battles,. sea-fights, pro cessions and chariot races, carried to an extent unrivaled by any other building in the world. Of the large reliefs alone there are over 2,000; and most of them are as vigorously designed as they are carefully executed. Within the upper square terrace are three circular ones, the outer ornamented with 32, the next with 24 and the upper with 16 small bell-shaped shrines (dagops), each containing a seated statue of Buddha, which can be seen through the open works of their roofs. The whole is surmounted by a cupola, the principal and probably the most ancient part of the structure. It is now empty, a sunken chamber, 10 feet deep, representing what was, no doubt, a dogop intended to contain the precious relic for which this splendid tem ple was erected. The niches containing the cross-legged figures have been supposed to be a copy, in durable architecture, of the cells of a Buddhist monastery, each occupied by a shaven priest; the cupola is rather to be classified with the topes or stupas of Afghanistan. The struc ture is thus a compound of a tope with a copy, in durable architecture, of the frail cells of a vihara.