Dumarcay's Study

Dumarcay’s studies show several periods of construction of the Borobudur temple. Miksic believed that there was already a pre-existing monument on the site of Borobudur which might be built by a group of Hindus or followers of pre-Indic beliefs before the Buddhist took over of the land and started the construction of Borobudur (46). He also added that this was the reason why Borobudur’s structure is unlike any other Buddhist temples in the world, because it is a product of assimilation between different cultures (46). According to Dumarcay, it is also important to note that generally the monuments on the particular area were Sivaite, and it is possible to picture the plan of Borobudur as a Hindu shrine on a larger scale (21). Borobudur was initially laid out by the Hindu Sanjaya King in 775 AD as a base of Sivaite temple since the form which used perspective effects to increase the height is very common in Sivaite buildings around Java (Dumarcay 4). …show more content…
In 832 AD, there was a political marriage between the two dynasties; Sri Kahulunan, a Sailendra queen married a Sanjaya King, known as Rakai Pikatan (Miksic 24). An inscription dated on 842 AD mentioned the allocation of money from a village by Sri Kahulunan to support ‘Bhumisambhara’ (Miksic 23). As mentioned earlier, ‘bhumisambhara’ is believed to be the origin name of Borobudur, which shows that the Queen still acknowledge the sanctuary’s construction at utmost important. This marriage alliance confirms the support given by Sanjaya Dynasty in the continuation of the construction of Borobudur, until it was finished in the 860 AD. It is possible that the unification of the dynasties is probable because of the resources support that the Sanjaya King had to offer, in other word, finishing Sailendra’s Borobudur Temple was intended as a marriage gift from Rakai Pikatan and as a symbol of unification of the