As we were leaving the Borobudur Temple, we saw a lady crawl up on a buddha statue that was 1000-years-old, give or take a century. She then proceeded to take a selfie.
“We have to get out of here,” my wife said.
As we walked past a raging river or tourists and noisy Javanese school children, I began to sweat profusely in the sweltering heat. It was 7am.
Reader, you may be thinking that we had a terrible experience at Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple which is located in central Java. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were smart. We woke up at 3am, which at the time was very painful, and we paid extra money to be allowed in at sunrise. That too, stung a little. But getting to enjoy the temple at sunrise with a small group of likeminded tourists was well worth the effort. We even saw Mark Zuckerberg there. That guy is really smart and has 3 billion friends, so we were in good company.
As a result of my efforts to get up early and take these photos, you can see photos of Borobudur without the crowds.
I Like Big Buddhas and I Cannot Lie
Like barnacles on a ship, the temple is encrusted with 504 Buddha statues. The pyramid-like temple consists of nine levels, the first six are square, with the top three being circular. On the top levels, there are 72 perforated stupas concealing Buddha statues. See photos below.
Sunrise at Borobudur
You have no idea the luck and patience required to get this photo sans other tourists.
Inside these stupas are buddha statues. It is really cool.
Every square inch is art
All around the lower six levels are stone carvings of Buddhas, naked women, elephants, and things I don’t understand.
Carvings on Borobudur
Practically every square inch of the pyramid is art.
The obligatory posing like Buddha photo.
Sunrise, Peace and Dangdut
At sunrise, naturally everyone is clustered on the east side waiting for the light. This gave me a chance to shoot photos and walk around in peace. Peace, except that someone was playing some dangdut music really noisily in the distance. Otherwise, it was tourist free in most areas and totally enjoyable.
Tip: Make sure and pay the extra money and wake up early to be there at sunrise. Shortly after this photo was taken, hordes descended on the temple. Think thousands of Javanese school children and noisy locals.
Chillin out Buddha entranced by dangdut music.
Lions? Dog lions? I’m not sure on this one.
Sunrise from Penthuk Setumbu Hill
The next morning, we took motorcycle taxis to Punthuk Setumbu Hill and watched the sunrise below. Borobudur is a little hard to see silhouetted in the bottom left of the top photos. Mt. Merepi rises nearly 10,000 feet, or 3000 meters behind it to the left. Stunning.
Sunrise over Borobudur from a nearby hill.
Borobudur, Merapi and sunrise
I hope you enjoyed these photos and appreciate that I woke up in the middle of the night not only once, but TWICE, so that I could photograph it for you. You are welcome.
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Have you been to Borobudur or any other ancient wonders of the world?
Planet Bell 
Yes, I’ve been to Borobudur and you did a good job capturing it’s beauty. As I’m kind of a “Ruin Freak”, I’ve been to many of the more popular sites over the years all over the world. I love sitting on a site, close my eyes and get the feeling of what it must have been like in it’s day. That is, before the arrival of the tour buses and after they leave. I like to stay in an adjacent village, within walking distance, and be the first one on site and the last to leave. At Tikal, Guatemala, we slipped a few bucks to the guards and they let us in before sunrise. Borobudur is great at sunrise too. The cool mist is very refreshing, compared with the rest of the day when things heat up.
Hi Steve. We are ruin freaks also and I absolutely agree that being the first person there, or staying after the crowds are gone, is essential to enjoying the place. I plan to write a post about that in the future. In Egypt, we were often the first people to many of the ruins in the morning and got to explore many in peace. You have to love a place like Tikal where a few bucks will get you in early 🙂
I appreciate the sacrifice very much! Gorgeous images and am delighted you were not them swallowed up by a volcano or other death defying adventures. 🙂
Yes Sue, it is good to be alive. Other than non-exist or painfully slow wifi, everything worked out well. Now I have a lot of posts to catch up on though!
I will look forward to the reads Jeff. Yes Wifi and travel are enough to make one crazy. 🙂
The loss of a few hours of sleep was a small price to pay for such lovely images. I can’t imagine how much work went into all of those carvings.
Hi Laura, When I see those carvings I think the same thing. It took generations to do. I can only imagine the effort and sacrifice it took to get it done with such precision.
Good Morning
Thank you for all the details of the temple, a place of prayer and tranquility
I’appreciate the last three photos, which show that cloud, pollution, condensation! the result is magnificent
Beautiful end of year celebrations
Thanks for the comment Pat. Those last photos were nice because we didn’t think we’d see the sun then suddenly it burst through the clouds and we had a nice sunrise. Many people had already given up and left!
I’ve been to Borobudur more than five times, but never been there for sunrise. The last time was only one month after the deadly eruption of Merapi — in fact some parts of the ancient temple were still covered by acidic volcanic ashes. Looking out to the valley from the upper level of Borobudur was a surreal landscape of partially burned palm tress with the fronts all pointing to one direction — away from where the pyroclastic flow came. Did you notice that on the first level all reliefs were hidden behind big andesite bricks? Curiously the builder or the architect of Borobudur decided to cover the entire reliefs of the first floor altogether.
Glad you woke up that early, Jeff. Not just once, but twice! 🙂
Hey Bama, That would be a cool experience to see it after the eruption. Merepi is really close – I bet it has covered it in ash many times over the years. I did not notice that the reliefs were covered on the first floor. We started at the top and moved down so we probably lost focus by that time 🙂
To be able to navigate this amazing place without the feeling of being elbow to elbow with hoards of tourists was well worth the effort of dragging your butt out of bed! Fabulous!
Yes Lynn, it is always worth it to arrive first and avoid the crowds. We had breakfast and chilled out afterwards and laughed at those flooding in to the temple.
That’s the kind of place I would normally love to spend many hours at. But crowds like that would probably drive me off.
Kevin, I think we had a solid 1.5 hours before the crowds. If you pay for a sunrise ticket, you get in early before the rest are allowed in. We had plenty of time though because as the sun rose, it got hot and the light too intense for photos anyway.
Excellent. Getting up early is (almost) always worth it. Though I don’t always think that when the alarm goes off at Oh dark thirty.
Doing whatever it takes – that’s the standard i expect from now on to get those wonderful photos. By the way, the longer I look at that photo of you the harder iti is to tell you and the Buddha apart. I don’t know how you did that.
I have the body of a god. Buddha, but, you know.
We visited Borobudur Jeff, and agree that it’s an amazing and mysterious place. When we were there the crowds weren’t too bad. I think that we did the dumb tourist routine and visited in the p.m., which any sane person knows is the hottest part of the day. But it did cut down on the crowds. ~James
I think in the evening, after the crowds have gone, might be just as good. We try to outflank the crowds by arriving first or staying until they kick us out. It all depends on the weather and the light.
Reblogged this on mapsworldwide blog.
Thank you for the re-blog!
i came to borobudur 3 times, including when i was at school, but never succeeded waking early in the morning to see the sunrise. so yeah, i really appreciate your effort with the pictures and the story 😉
Next time you return, try to make it for sunrise. You can take a nap afterwards!
There are definitely the things worth getting up for. Sunrises are incredible photo opportunities.
Thank you Ralph. I tend to catch many more sunsets, but sunrises are always magical as well.
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