Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait561880roya).pdf/233

 underwood and carrying away the earth under which the ruins were buried. When this preliminary operation was completed, a spectacle appeared which must have seemed to the Lieutenant of Engineers a reward worth all his labour.

This is Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES' description of what came to light. ("History of Java," Vol. II, 31, Ed. 1830.)

"In the district of Boro in the province of Kedu and near to the confluence of the rivers Elo and Praga, crowning a small hill stands the temple of Boro Bodo, supposed by some to have been built in the sixth, and by others in the tenth century of the Javan It is a square stone building, consisting of seven ranges of walls, each range decreasing as you ascend, till the building terminates in a kind of dome. It occupies the whole of the upper part of a conical hill, which appears to have been cut away so as to receive the walls, and to accommodate itself to the figure of the whole structure. At the centre, resting on the very apex of the hill, is the dome before mentioned, of about fifty feet diameter, and in its present ruinous state, the upper part having fallen in, only about twenty feet high. This is surrounded by a triple circle. of towers, in number seventy-two, each occupied by an image looking outwards, and all connected by a stone casing of the hill which externally has the appearance of a roof. Descending from thence, you pass on each side of the building by steps through five handsome gateways, conducting to five successive terraces, which surround the hill on every side. The walls which support these terraces are covered with the richest sculpture on both sides, but more particularly on the side which forms au interior wall to the terrace below, and are raised so as to form a parapet on the other side. In the exterior of these parapets, at equal distances, are niches, each containing a naked figure sitting cross-legged, and considerably larger than life; the total number of which is not far short of four hundred. Above each niche is a little spire, another above each of the sides of the niche, and another upon the parapet between the sides of the neighbour- ing niches. The design is regular; the architectural and sculptural ornaments are profuse. The bas-reliefs represent a variety of scenes, apparently mythological, and are executed with considerable taste and skill. The whole area occupied by this noble building is