Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c11.9

c11.9

The *stūpa* of Barabudur in Java is justly regarded as a wonder of the world. It really consists of a series of nine successive terraces, each receding from the one beneath it, and the whole is crowned by a bell-shaped *stūpa* at the centre of the topmost terrace. The five lower terraces have double projections on each side and are enclosed on the inner side by a wall supporting a balustrade, so that four successive galleries are formed between the back of the balustrade of one terrace and the wall of the next higher one. The three uppermost terraces are encircled by a ring of *stūpas*, each containing an image of Buddha within a perforated framework. There is no doubt that the whole structure was intended as a *stūpa*, pure and simple, but the disproportion between the actual *stūpa* on the top and the massive support in the shape of nine terraces is difficult to explain, and has given rise to a great deal of speculation. It has been viewed as a novel principle of construction, but then we have neither any precedent nor any imitation of it. Mystic meaning has been attributed to the shape of the entire structure, but it is too speculative. Perhaps the simplest and the most rational explanation is furnished by the nature of the soil. When the first terrace was constructed as the real base of the great dome, it sank considerably and showed that the soil was unable to bear the weight of a huge solid domical *stūpa* as was originally contemplated. Hence the size of the *stūpa* was considerably diminished and the addition of successive terraces was a constructional necessity rather than the introduction of a new style.