ent; while the worship of Brahma is considered
orthodox, the cult of Buddha is regarded as heretical. The Buddhistic
temples of Java, coming midway between the oldest Buddhistic temples of
India and the modern shrines in Burmah, Ceylon, and Nepaul, the present
seats of the cult, supply an interesting _lacuna_ in the antiquities of
Buddhism. The Javan form of this religion is especially allied to that
of Nepaul. It bears a general resemblance to the Buddhism of Northern
India, but is distinct from that of Ceylon and the south. It is not
surprising, therefore, that ruins of temples dedicated to the services
of both religions should exist side by side, nor that the grosser and
more popular Brahmanic forms should have developed more largely than the
more spiritual worship of Buddha, both in India to-day and in Java
previously to the Mohammedan conquest.

[Illustration: GROUND PLAN.

SECTION OF THE BORO-BOEDOER TEMPLE.

_Page_ 94.]

The temple of Boro-Boedoer is built upon a slight rounded eminence, the
last of a chain of hills on the eastern bank of the river Prago. The
entire edifice rests upon an equilateral base of six hundred and twenty
feet, situated due N.S.E. and W., and rises gradually in terraces
adapted in design to the form of the hill. These consist of two lower
terraces which are square in form; four galleries (or passages, with
sculptures on either side), which are still rectangular in form, but
have twenty angles to admit of their following the rounded contour of
the hill; and four terraces, of which the first has twelve angles, while
the remaining three are circular, adorned with cupolas, each containing
a statue of Buddha; and finally the whole is surmounted by a huge
cupola, fifty feet in diameter, in which rests the central figure of
Buddha. Access from one terrace to another is gained by four flights of
steps, running up the centre of each front, at the several entrances of
which are placed two huge lion-monsters. Dr. Leemans, in his account of
the building, enumerates _five_ galleries; but in reality there are only
four, since the outside of what he calls the first gallery is merely a
second basis for the whole structure, as is shown by the nature of its
decoration, viz. simple architectural designs and groups of deities. The
lower terrace, of which Dr. Leemans only guessed the existence, is now
being excavated and photographed section by section. Only one section is
kept open at any given time, bec