Lalitavistara

A concise guide to the 120 bas reliefs adorning the upper row of the wall of the first gallery of the Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Indonesia. The Borobudur is classified as a World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO.

Behind the scene...

The pictures in this book constitute a small fragment of a much larger endeavor which is conducted under the name of “Borobudur—Paths to Enlightenment”, aiming to bring the Borobudur Temple to cyberspace and thus to the awareness of a worldwide audience. In order to accomplish this, a four-month-long photo campaign was conducted, during which each one of the 1460 figurative panels of the monument was photographed perfectly lit during night hours. Large parts of the temple were also recorded in Quicktime Virtual Reality mode with some 120 shots for each 360O panorama, taken at different times of the year in order to ensure optimal lighting conditions. The over 20.000 images collected will become part of a virtual navigation system giving instant 3D access to any point of the Borobudur.