Word: stupa
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Like most famous public monuments, Borobudur?the immense Buddhist stupa that rises from a wooded plain in south-central Java like a fabulous, mesmerizing dream?has suffered its share of adversity. It was buried under volcanic ash for centuries; in 1911, its summit was destroyed by lightning; its 2 million blocks of exquisitely carved volcanic stone are slowly sliding down the hill despite an extensive restoration project 20 years ago. Yet she's a game old girl and soldiers on, inspiring pilgrims as powerfully now as when she was raised 1,200 years...
...Today, the serene yet slightly mad-looking stupa (it's meant to be viewed from the sky) is beset by a very modern evil: rapacious commercialism. The grounds around its entrance are a labyrinth of souvenir stands and caf?s where vendors have greatly outnumbered visitors since the bombings in Bali. Tourists in Borobudur are subjected to a grueling gauntlet of hawkers selling the usual range of junky stuff imprinted or embroidered with the name of the place. The asongan, as the vendors are known, are aggressive, sometimes to the edge of frenzy...
...world (and perhaps to give the state a cut of the action), Central Java's governor, General Mardiyanto, has proposed a huge public-works project that would sweep away the asongan and replace them with a three-story mall on the outskirts of the zoned district around the stupa. The new complex, bearing the Disneyesque name Java World, would be the gateway to the monument for all visitors, who would park there and progress to the site aboard a silent tram. In place of the chaos that currently reigns at Borobudur, there would be a bland but orderly array...
...Then, last week, events took a surprising turn. Mardiyanto, in an informal meeting with his critics under the shade of a magnificent banyan tree near the stupa, professed amazement at the vehemence of opposition to his proposal and offered to postpone it. In a drastic departure from standard procedure in this rigidly hierarchical nation, the governor invited the people of Borobudur to draw up their own plan. Immediately after General Mardiyanto called retreat, the opposition seemed giddy, almost stunned by its victory. But suspicion soon crept in that this might be a ruse. One young firebrand told...
Tucked into a crook of the Irrawaddy River, the Pagan Plain covers some 4,000 hectares and is laced with a complex network of sandy trails, which makes reaching the multitude of ancient temples, stupas and monasteries something of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure journey. Getting lost is not a worry. The main road is never far away and even the smaller temples, though identified only by numbers, are gems waiting to be discovered. Some are empty, others merely contain the shattered bases of iconic images long departed for Western living rooms. But occasionally a placid stone Buddha waits...