Borobudur Reliefs

Reliefs on every circle

There was a long series of main relief's at the first alley, either at the main wall or at the inner side of Kutamara wall. Relief's at the Kutamara wall depicted Jataka's and Awadana's a story of Buddha's life, which expressed as Bodhisattva, due to his good deeds in the past. Sometimes, Buddha is expressed in the form of animals such as rabbit, monkeys and soon, as it was told in animated stories. The story was adopted from Sanskrit book, Jatakamala. Only one third of the relief's were known, the rest was still unclear.

The lower reliefs of the main wall contained the same story. The upper relief's also had the same story as the lower one. The story contained the life of Buddha consisting of 120 frames until he began teaching Buddha religion. The first frame began from the South of Stairway of the curved gate at the East and follows the path of the Sun (the temple on the right side). The life story of Buddha was adopted from Lalitawistara book.




At the second alley, Jatake and Awadana story were continued on the inner side of Utamara and on the main wall, story was began with stories adopted from Gandhawyuha. This story was so long that it occupied the main wall and inner sidewall of Utamara at the third and fourth alley. The story showed the adventure of a Sudhana who met Bodhisattva Maytreya (the future Buddha) to have religious lesson from the Buddha. Later on, the Sudhana met with Bodhisattva Mandjusri and finally he met with Dyani Bodhisattva Samanta Badra, who gave the highest wisdom. Most of those stories expressed the use of spiritual strength and unusual happenings.








There were many beautiful ornaments in scripted at the wall of the fourth alley because the fifth alley did not contain any ornaments. The fifth alley is a transitional alley to the next platform, the round platform. The next round platform also did not contain any ornaments at all.