Word: stupas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Carved of gray-brown volcanic stone, Borobudur consists of a large platform, roughly 400 ft. on each side, surmounted by a wedding cake of five progressively smaller square terraces. These are topped by three circular layers. Crowning the entire structure is a bell-shaped stupa. Dozens of statues of Buddha line the balustrades on each level. Ancient Javanese architects, under Hindu influence, designed Borobudur as a model of the Mahayana Buddhist cosmos; the various levels represent the ascending stages of enlightenment that must be passed before nirvana, or spiritual freedom, is reached...