Watch This When You're High - The Mysterious Origins of Borobudur
Shout out to that guy Joe Rogan for this suggestion via his Instagram post yesterday. Every so often he posts something awesome or super cool. In this instance it was an ancient Buddhist temple with no real documented history or idea of its origin...
Source - The Borobudur temple is one of the world’s most complex buildings and its creation is shrouded in a secret without any written records or its purpose bound forever to remain a mystery. From the distance the temple resembles a big lotus flower bud ready to bloom, effortlessly floating on a lake, a single stupa build from volcanic rock, in the form of a giant Buddhist mandala when viewed from above, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and complex nature of human mind.
The Borobudur temple was built around 750 AD by the kings of the Sailendra Dynasty about 400 years before Cambodia's Angkor Wat or European Cathedrals, possibly to enhance the image of Buddhism as Hinduism was growing in strength across the Indonesian archipelago.
The Borobudur temple structure consists of a series of open-air passageways that radiate around a cosmic axis, and ten mounting terraces corresponding to successive stages and forms Siddhartha assumed, before achieving Buddha-hood.
Surreal in its existence, seamlessly blending Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sufi-influenced mystical Islam, Borobudur is bound to cast a spell on the visitors and pilgrims. The Buddha statue in an open stupa is oriented to gaze toward the sacred volcanos.
Over 500 Buddha statues grace the temple with their presence distributed over nine stacked platforms (the number nine is mystic in Buddhism), six square, and three circulars, the top is crowned by a central dome signifying the Nirvana.
It's crazy for how much we know about almost everything, we're equally as oblivious and have no clue about so much else.
Keep the suggestions coming. Keep them classy. No butt stuff.