Interpretasi Relief Candi Borobudur berdasarkan Teori Evolusi Sosial Morgan-Tylor

KHARISMA NABILA, Dr. Daud Aris Tanudirjo, M.A.

2023 | Skripsi | ARKEOLOGI

Relief Candi Borobudur telah terbukti memberikan banyak pengetahuan dari berbagai perspektif bidang ilmu, termasuk arkeologi, astronomi, arsitektur, biologi, dan sejumlah ilmu lainnya. Namun, sejauh ini belum ada interpretasi relief yang dilihat dari perspektif evolusi sosial. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengenali evolusi sosial masyarakat Borobudur yang tergambarkan di relief Candi Borobudur, khususnya, relief Karmavibhanga, Lalitavistara, dan Avadana. Penelitian dilakukan dengan pendekatan arkeologi sosial dengan menggunakan kerangka evolusi sosial menurut Morgan-Tylor. Ciri-ciri budaya setiap tahap evolusi sosial Morgan-Tylor dipakai sebagai perangkat untuk mengidentifikasi, mengklasifikasi, dan menginterpretasi relief secara kontekstual. Pengambilan sampel relief dilakukan dengan metode purposive sampling. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa relief Karmavibhanga lebih banyak memuat ciri budaya tahapan Barbarism Lower (41,25%), sedangkan pada relief Lalitavistara ciri-ciri tahapan Barbarism Middle paling banyak (30,83%). Relief Avadana sebagian besar juga menunjukkan ciri Barbarism Middle (36,88%), tetapi ciri Barbarism Higher dan Civilization lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan pada relief Lalitavistara. Hasil penelitian tersebut menunjukkan bahwa penggambaran kondisi masyarakat pada relief Karmavibhanga, Lalitavistara, dan Avadana menyiratkan perkembangan tahapan evolusi sosial, mulai dari Barbarism Lower pada Karmavibhanga, Barbarism Middle pada Lalitavistara, Barbarism Higher dan Civilization pada Avadana. 

The reliefs of Borobudur Temple are proven to provide a lot of knowledge from various scientific points of view, including archaeology, astronomy, architecture, biology, and several other sciences. However, the reliefs have never been interpreted from the perspective of social evolution. This research aims to determine the social evolution of society as depicted in the Borobudur reliefs, especially the Karmavibhanga, Lalitavistara and Avadana reliefs. The research was carried out using a social archeology approach. The socio-cultural characteristics of each stage of Morgan-Tylor's social evolution are used as a tool to identify, classify, and interpret reliefs contextually. Purposive sampling was applied to select data based on the existence of socio-cultural characteristics in the Morgan-Tylor social evolution model in the reliefs. The results of the research show that the Karmavibhanga reliefs contain more socio-cultural characteristics at the Lower Barbarism stage (41.25%), while the Lalitavistara reliefs contain more cultural characteristics at the Middle Barbarism stage (30.83%). Most of the Avadana reliefs also show characteristics of Middle Barbarism (36,88%), but the characteristics of Barbarism and High Civilization are found to be higher compared to Lalitavistara. In summary, this research shows that the depiction of social conditions in the Karmawibhangga, Lalitavistara and Avadana reliefs reflects the development of social evolution, starting from Lower Barbarism in Karmawibhangga to Middle Barbarism in Lalitavistara, and then to Barbarism and High Civilization in Avadana.

Kata Kunci : arkeologi sosial, relief Borobudur, evolusi sosial, Morgan-Tylor