The History of Buddha Gautama in Basreliefs
The series of relief's covering the wall of the second gallery is devoted to Sudhana's tireless wanderings in search of the Highest Perfect Wisdom. The story is continued on the walls and the balustrades of the third and fourth galleries. Its depiction in most of the 460 panels is based on the holy Mahayana text Gandavyuha, the concluding scenes being derived from another text, the Bhadracari.
In 1973 Mr. Rene Maheu, Director-general of Unesco, called for a new movement of international cultural solidarity when the Trust Fund was opened. For the task of saving Borobudur will be long, delicate and complicated. Here is at sake - in Mr. Rene Haheu own words - a world masterpiece of architecture and sculpture and a call of purest faith, whose disappearance would impoverish all men (Borobudur, beauty in peril).
It is gratifying to know that from all over the world the prompt response has been very generous so far. Donations in whatever form have not stopped. A Borobudur Exhibition was started in Brussels last year, then moved to Holland and is now in Paris. Any "regular" visitor to this magnificient edifice will notice the steady progress of the restoration under the scientific supervision of the Indonesian national and International Bodies.
According to Dr. Soekmono in his book Chandi Borobudur, recently published by Unesco in Paris and van Gorcum, Assen/Amsterdam the restoration project involves the dismantling and subsequent rebuilding of the monument. But it is confined to the four terraces of the rupadhatu. The circular platforms of the arupadhatu, although they have sagged, have proved to be stable enough, thanks to van Erp's restoration (finished in 1911) and need only to be maintained.
The base of the monument provides a firm and safe support, so that, from the technical as well as the financial point of view, it had better be left untouched. It is a pity, or course, that the relief's of the kamadhatu will remain hidden and out or sight, but in this case, the safety of the monument must take precedence.
Starting with the dismantling of the rupadhatu the actual restoration will take six years and the work of 600 technicians and labourers. By 1982, Chandi Borobudur should have regained its splendour and grandeur, a monument of all mankind.
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Or a dangerous experiment.
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