merchants to be destroyed, and their crews massacred. This was the end, and nearly
the beginning also, of our trade with Borneo under the system of monopoly. A
British trade with it exists at present of a very different description, which is
carried on chiefly with the free port of Singapore, and which not only far exceeds
in value the Dutch and English trade of the 18th, bnt the trade of the Dutch
in the 19th century, although exercising sovereign authority over two-thirds of the
island.
All attempts on the part of European nations to establish a permanent territorial
dominion in Borneo, we may rest assured, will, in the long run, be baffled by the
insuperable obstacles of an uncongenial climate, a stubborn soil, a rude and an intractable
population, and the absence of all adequate financial resources. Such dominion,
no doubt, has been established in Java, the Philippines, and Hindustan, with
fertile soils, dense and docile populations, and large financial local resources; but that
is no reason for imagining it should be established in a sweltering jungle, occupied
either by savages, or by rude, idle, and intractable barbarians.
BORNEO PROPER. See Betjítai.
BORO-BUDOR. The name of the remains of an ancient temple, situated about
the centre of Java, and in the fertile and picturesque province of Kadu, itself a valley
lying between four volcanic mountains, the lowest of which is 9000 feet above the
level of the sea, and the highest 11,000. This temple, the largest and most perfect
of all similar buildings in Java, stands on the right bank of the river Praga, or Progo
as pronounced by the Javanese, at an elevation of 800 feet above the level of the sea,
in a small tract of country uncultivated, because beyond the reach of irrigation. It
occupies the summit of a small hill fashioned to receive it, the hill itself, indeed,
forming as if it were, a part of the edifice. I t consists, first, of six quadrangular walls,
diminishing as the hill is ascended, and having terraces between them : then, of three
circular rows of latticed niches adapted to receive images, and finally of a dome.
Each side of the base of the building, or lower wall, measures 426 English feet; and
the height of the whole building in its present imperfect state is 116 feet. A part of
the dome has fallen, but what remains of it is 20 feet high, and its diameter 50.
Each of the latticed cages is a fane, and the several walls contain niches for images.
All these are statues of Buddha or Jain, in the usual sitting posture, looking outward,
and larger than life. There are four gates or entrances to the temple, facing the
cardinal points of the compass. The dome is the only hollow part of the building,
and this consists of a chamber, without an image, or pedestal to show that there had
been one. The walls are profusely sculptured in low relief; the sculptures representing
religious and other processions, battles, and sea views. The total number
of images is about 400. There is no inscription of any kind on the temple to show
when, by whom, or for what purpose it was built. The traditional chronology of
the Javanese, contained as usual, after the example of the Hindus, in enigmatical
verse, ascribes the date of its construction to the year of Salivana, or Saka, 1266,
corresponding to the year of Christ 1844. This seems not an improbable date, for
the perfect state of the building, notwithstanding the destructive nature of the
climate, points at no great antiquity. Several of the terraces were, until lately,
incumbered with volcanic ashes, from an eruption of the mountain Márapi, one of the
four alluded to, but of the time when this took place there is no record.
No image of the usual gods of the Hindus is to be seen in the temple of Boro-
budor, but there are many in its immediate neighbourhood; and neither here, nor
in any other part of Java, is there any evidence of the hostility supposed to have
existed between the sectaries of Buddha and Brama; for what would seem to be the
worship of these two deities is often to be met with, even in the very same temple.
Buddha, at least under this name,, is unknown to the Javanese, and is not even to be
found in any of their writings. I t is probable, therefore, that Boro-budor, as well as
other temples in the island which we have fancied to be Buddhist, are in reality
temples of Jain, which would admit the ordinary Hindu gods as objects of worship.
The name is probably a corruption, and affords no clue as to the origin or object of
the building. Boro is, in Javanese, the name of a kind of fish-trap, and budor may
possibly be a corruption of the Sanscrit buda, “ old.”
BOCJTON. SeeBOETON.
BOW AND ARROW. In Malay and Javanese, the bow is called Panab, and the
arrow is expressed by words which literally signify “ child of the bow.” The Javanese
also use the word gitndewa as a generic, although in Sanscrit it properly applies
BOYAN 67 BRAMBANAN
only to the how of the demigod Aijuna. The wild inhabitants of the Philippines
have a knowledge of the bow, but it is remarkable that it is unknown to those of
Borneo, the Peninsula, and Sumatra, who, instead, use the less effectual blow-pipe.
. „ W,1S named amonS the weapons used by the Malays in their defence of Malacca
in 1511, but even with them, the blow-pipe seems to have been in more general use.
Among the more advanced nations, both have been long displaced by fire-arms.
BOYAN, the name of a deep bay within the great one of Illano, on the south side
of the island of Mindano. Its entrance is to the south-west, in north latitude 4° 47'
and longitude 124° 57' east. Here, it is about a league broad, but it gradually widens!
and about the middle has a breadth of four leagues. I t is described as safe, well-
sheltered, and capacious.
BRAMA the creating power of the Hindu triad, frequently occurs in Javanese
legend, and images of him m brass and stone occur in Java; but no temple has been
found in which this deity appears to have been the chief object of worship.
BRAMA. The name of a mountain of Java, situated in the province of Pasuruhan
a portion of the Tengger range. I t springs out of an extinct crater,
three miles m diameter, and rises to the height of about 7000 feet above the level of
■ A66 ? name 13 taken from that of the Hindu god, whose
emblem is fire The word brama, indeed, in the Javanese language, is one of several
ofnC H r vol ’ ” name c?mPlete>gunung-brama, literally signifies “mountain
of fire, or volcano, and is equivalent to the more frequent one, gunung-api applied
as a proper name to several of the volcanos of the Archipelago P PP
B“ ™ ' d ” Hi”d» ^ 1 ““ % i . *1. writing, the
BEJ a v , n r a f ?“ **“ “ S1* rfml * * Javanese capitals of Yugyakarta and Surakarta, about 10 miles •d»is«ta»n tt ifern tmw o na£tirvafe
and 30 from the t a t Within a radius of two’ miles of “ are t h ™ T “ markable
Hindu remains of Java, usually called by Europeans the “Ruins of B rambana^'These
consist of two buildings which have the appearance of having been monasteries and
of six separate single temples or groups of temples. All these buildings are constructed
f huge blocks of hewn trachyte, without any cement whatever. The temples are of
a pyramidal form richly sculptured in relief, and had been
with plaster, which is still perfect in some places. All have cbambem or fanes to a B S e l l a i f c g y ~ * - » ■ » ^
Hindu goddess Durga, standing on a buffalo J id in t h e ^ f of X ^ T t f f ^
540 by 510 feet, and consists of i n f t ! f
rows of smaller temples or chapels^mountinnn a lfto no ^ w r rX n ^ f i 7^ Tf
^ tHe^ee?ar ; ^ ^ ^
the village and district containing from an r to an I. The name of
nounced Prambanan, and is reasonably T hnLto ? ° Sn quent!y written and pro-
Bramanaan, which wouuilud ssiiggnniiftyy “ pDlalaccee onff RB rami*n s.°” mTr a“dJ-i t®iounp assiigcn sc othrreu bputiioldni nogf ° P 2 O