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Description
(Text)
Das Werk beschreibt in konziser Form die Entdeckungsgeschichte des Borobudur, den religiösen Hintergrund und das architektonische Konzept sowie seine Symbolik, soweit die wissenschaftlichen Quellen bis heute plausible Erklärungen angeboten haben. Abschließend findet jedes bisher identifizierte Paneel in einer zusammenfassenden Schilderung der abgebildeten Erzählungen seine Erwähnung. Mit einem kurzen, aber zentralen Kapitel über den Stupa als archetypische Form und der allgemeinen Frage, welche Schulen den Buddhismus Borobudurs geprägt haben könnten, setzt der Autor eigene Akzente.
(Text)
The Austrian-born author traces the exiting history of the rediscovery of the Borobudur complex. As an architect he pays particular attention to its design and symbolism within the historical context of the schools of Buddhism. This book includes a summary description of all the panels that have been as far identified. However, any closing evaluation regarding the symbolism of the monument is up to the student, the reader.
(Extract)
Forward
As some years ago Peter Cirtek excitedly told me about the study of Borobudur he had planned, it made me think back to when I was a young boy. My parents had an edition of the unabridged Brockhouse Encylopaedia and it was one of my great pleasures to browse in it. I would often open it to the plates with the pictures of "foreign lands" where I would stare with fascination at the photograph of "Borobudur on the island of Java". Somewhat later the encyclopaedia was burned with the rest of the contents of my parents' apartment during the bombing in the Second World War. But to this day I can remember the outlines of the aerial view of the Borobudur complex with its puzzling rounded and squared terraces and the mighty central stupa, remember them so well in fact, that I could still draw them from memory if called to do so. What incredible faith and spirit must have possessed its architects, that a thousand years later its mysteries could mesmerise a young boy from a completely different culture, as much as a educated and more worldly scholar!
Borobudur is a living witness of the teachings of Buddha. His followers know that the knowledge of the highest truth is not only accessible to those who have studied and learned, but is above all experienced. Rational thought and study can at best only prepare us or bring us to the border, beyond which the decisive experience, that of enlightenment, lies hidden. Borobudur embodies this tradition. Rounding its storied terraces with their friezes and illustrated texts and then finally coming into the open on the uppermost terraces can lead a visitor to this same borderland even today.
It's hardly surprising, therefore, that since its rediscovery some two hundred years ago, this edifice has exercised such a fascination on researchers and archaeologists. After years of intensive questioning and research, Peter Cirtek brings to bear his own profound and knowledgeable study of this most intriguing of temples. His contribution to the study of Borobudur not only makes a valuable addition to the tradition, but it also opens laymen the way to the history and interpretation of this complex work of sacred architecture.
I can only wish him many readers.
Prof. Dr. P. PinkUniversity Cologne
