The largest Buddhist monument in the world, built in stages from about 780 to 833 (Dumarcay in en.wikipedia; Miksic puts the start about 760 or 770 and Munoz the completion in 825).
The Karangtengah inscription of 824 names a sacred building, Jinalaya, inaugurated by Pramodhawardhani, daughter of Samaratungga, and the Tri Tepusan inscription of 842 records free lands given for a foundation called Bhumisambhara; en.wikipedia says these may refer to Borobudur but does not confirm it. It is not known when active use and pilgrimage ceased: Mpu Sindok moved the court east between 928 and 1006, and en.wikipedia says it is not certain whether that decided the abandonment. The poem of 1365 mentions the vihara in Budur vaguely.
So on 1 January 1200 the monument is three and a half centuries old and its state is unknown: a ruin with a few attendants, a dormant sanctuary with a village of keepers, or a place cleared and cared for by its neighbours. The campaign board says pilgrims still climb the terraces and that Mendut and Pawon still mark the approach; we found nothing that shows it.
Who holds it
- Title
- Keepers of the Borobudur, if any
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No keeper, abbot or patron is named for any date after the ninth-century inscriptions.
Overlord
none known; the Kediri king claims the plain by title only
What it holds
- The monument and its hill
- Any estate it once had is not known
How it was acquired
Built under the Sailendra and Sanjaya kings of old Mataram, from about 780 to 833 (en.wikipedia).
Allies and rivals
No patron is named after the ninth century. Mendut and Pawon, small temples on the approach, belong to the same complex of worship (board).
How things stand that morning
Standing. Use is not shown by any source.
Places of note
- Borobudur: The monument (7 deg 36.5 S, 110 deg 12.2 E, en.wikipedia).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry borobudur says 'pilgrims still climb them'. en.wikipedia says it is not known when active use and pilgrimage ceased; we mark the state in 1200 as unknown.
- The campaign board entry borobudur says 'finished about 825'; en.wikipedia gives stages from about 780 to 833 (Dumarcay) and Munoz's completion in 825.
Evidence: The building is certain and well dated; its life after the tenth century is not documented in any source we read.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A disc round the monument.
Primary sources for Kediri
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Borobudur (read in this pass): built in stages from about 780 to 833 (Dumarcay); Karangtengah inscription 824 (Jinalaya), Tri Tepusan 842; 'it is not known when active use ceased'; the Nagarakretagama of 1365 names the vihara in Budur vaguely; coordinates 7.608 S 110.204 E
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.