"The builders of Borobudur understood perfectly how stone can shape thought"

I just heard this on the radio. I am not able to listen to this show all the time, but I catch it whenever I can. I feel it captures the essence of design, architecture, culture and psychology when they intersect in an object or a building.


The experience of climbing the terraces of Borobudur is a powerful one. As you emerge from the enclosed corridors of the lower terraces, into the clear open spaces above, surrounded only by a circle of volcanoes, you are very conscious of having entered a different world. Even the most hardened tourist has the sense that this is not a site visit, but a pilgrim's progress. The builders of Borobudur understood perfectly how stone can shape thought.


From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode59/


Stone, all physical matter, can shape thought. It can constrain it, can exalt it. Perhaps it cannot change thought, but it can afford a journey of change or stagnation.