The reading of borobudur temple reliefs: Virtue architecture

Architectural form and meaning of the ancient time in the archipelago represent historical evidence and a source of knowledge about settlement and moral values. Over time, the implied moral message through historical artifacts becomes merely aesthetically and visually valuable objects due to different periods and civilization. The relief of Borobudur temple can be architecturally used to obtain people’s perspective on the tangible and intangible spatial ’world’. The aim of the study is to uncover the tangible and intangible spatial ’world’ through reliefs reading of Borobudur temple from an architectural viewpoint. This study uses qualitative descriptive methods by inductive thinking whose information gathered from cultural practitioner augmented by a literature review and ensued by a conceptual model. Reliefs were chosen purposively in revealing the essence of implied meaning through the architectural form of the building depicted from the Borobudur Temple. The results manifested the building image and space abstraction on relief (tangible aspects) contain the essence of virtue architecture (intangible aspects). The architectural concept of Borobudur’s virtues manifests through: 1) the hierarchy of profane-sacred space and circumambulation ritual patterns; 2) Social stratification, the center of power and ethics of people-leaders; 3) A moral message about real and unreal natural life.