ABSTRACT
Borobudur has been described as, among other things, a stupa, a multi-storied palace (prāsāda), the cosmic Mount Meru, and a mandala. Each of these theories has its strengths, and many scholars now agree that the monument is multivalent and therefore best described using a combination of interpretations that have previously been perceived as competing. Although he expresses it in the essentializing and gender-biased language that was unfortunately for a time the scholarly norm, A. J. Bernet Kempers offers perhaps the best general account of the monument as a whole: “Borobudur represents the Holy, its descent into the Universe, the Universe being pervaded, and the ascent of Man.” 1 As he unpacks this statement, it becomes clear that, in general, he thinks that the “ascent of Man” is represented by the relief panels, 2 while the “descent” of “the Holy” is represented by the Buddha figures on the terraces and in the niches. 3 To put his theory in Buddhist terms, the spiraling circumambulation route around and up through Borobudur represents the bodhisattva path by which the devotee ascends toward enlightenment and full Buddhahood. The Buddha figures represent the descent of the already enlightened Buddha, whose manifestations radiate outward and downward in a mandala pattern. In its general outline, there is much to admire in Bernet Kempers’ interpretation, particularly in his interpretation of the terraces. Although he does not put the matter in quite this way, the logic of his argument is that if in the design of Borobudur, the Buddha and the universe are interpenetrating, then it must also be the case that the mandala and the bodhisattva path are mutually interpenetrating. To expand on Bernet Kempers’ formulation, at Borobudur, the bodhisattva path is conceived as a series of encounters in which the devotee meets increasingly subtle and soteriologically efficacious manifestations of the Buddha. The monument bodies forth these manifestations precisely so that someone following the circumambulation path may ritually encounter the Buddha, commemorate his excellent qualities, and symbolically incorporate them.
