A History of the World in 100 Objects: Borobudur Buddha Head

Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor retells the history of human development from the first stone axe to the credit card, using 100 selected objects from the Museum. Neil examines a stone head of the Buddha that comes from one of the world's greatest monuments, the giant Buddhist stupa of Borobudur on the Indonesian island of Java. Borobudur rises from a volcanic plain in the middle of Java, built from one and a half million blocks of stone and devised as an architectural aid to spiritual practice. Neil reports from the various levels of Borobudur and describes the trade routes that brought Buddhism to South East Asia. He also explores the impact the discovery of Borobodur had on the founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, and his ideas about the importance of Javanese civilization. The anthropologist Nigel Barley celebrates the life and work of Stamford Raffles and the writer and Buddhist teacher Stephen Batchelor sums up the spiritual significance of Borobudur