Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/218

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

198 ANCIENT RELIGION OF THE covered with a profusion of sculpture, afterwards to be noticed, and in various situations are niches containing figures of Buddha, amounting in all to between three and four hundred. The dome is altogether unoccupied, and seems always to have been so. To the temple of Boro Budur there are four entrances facing the cardinal points, but here, instead of the monstrous figures in human shape, we have lions as warders. The temples of brick are found towards the eastern end of the island, and not unfrequently near the last Hindu capital which was destroyed by the Mahomedans in 14/8 of Christ. They are from forty to fifty feet high, of a round shape, not py- ramidal, and terminating in a dome, instead of the sharp apex which crowns the temples oj the gi^oups. Here and there we discover, that, in their perfect state, they had been cased with a fine plaster, in which was carved mythological representations, cor- responding with the sculptures on the less perish- able stone buildings. Of the rude temples of the fourth class, I am not aware that any examples exist except in the mountain of Lawu, situated in the districts of Pa- jang and Sokowati. Here there are two sets of ruins of this class, one at Sukuh and one at Katto, several miles distant from each other. In both, the ruins are so indistinct and rude, that it is no easy matter to render an intelligible account of