Chapter BORNEO to BOWLY of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

BORNEO to BOWLY

BORNEO, n.p. This name, as applied to the great Island in its entirety, is taken from that of the capital town of the chief Malay State existing on it when it became known to Europeans, Bruné, Burné, Brunai, or Burnai, still existing and known as Brunei.

1516.—“In this island much camphor for eating is gathered, and the Indians value it highly.… This island is called Borney.” —Barbosa, 203-4.

1521.—“The two ships departed thence, and running among many islands came on one which contained much cinnamon of the finest kind. And then again running among many islands they came to the Island of Borneo, where in the harbour they found many junks belonging to merchants from all the parts about Malacca, who make a great mart in that Borneo.”—Correa, ii. 631.

1584.—“Camphora from Brimeo (misreading probably for Bruneo) neare to China.”—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 412.

[1610.—“Bornelaya are with white and black quarls, like checkers, such as Polingknytsy are.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.]

The cloth called Bornelaya perhaps took its name from this island.

[„ “There is brimstone, pepper, Bournesh camphor.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 79.]

1614.—In Sainsbury, i. 313 [and in Foster, Letters, ii. 94], it is written Burnea.

1727.—“The great island of Bornew or Borneo, the largest except California in the known world.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 44.

BORO-BODOR, or -BUDUR, n.p. The name of a great Buddhistic monument of Indian character in the district of Kadu in Java; one of the most remarkable in the world. It is a quasi-pyramidal structure occupying the summit of a hill, which apparently forms the core of the building. It is quadrangular in plan, the sides, however, broken by successive projections; each side of the basement, 406 feet. Including the basement, it rises in six suc cessive terraces, four of them forming corridors, the sides of which are panelled with bas-reliefs, wh ich Mr. Fergusson calculated would, if extended in a single line, cover three miles of ground. The se represent scenes in the life of Sakya Muni, scenes from the Jatakas, or pre-existences of Sakya, and other series of Buddhistic groups. Above the corridors the structure becomes circular, rising in three shallower stages, bordered with small dagobas (72 in number), and a large dagoba crowns the whole. The 72 dagobas are hollow, built in a kind of stone lattice, and each contains, or has contained, within, a stone Buddha in the usual attitude. In niches of the corridors also are numerous Buddhas larger than life, and about 400 in number. Mr. Fergusson concludes from various data that this wonderful structure must date from A.D. 650 to 800.

This monument is not mentioned in Valentijn’s great History of the Dutch Indies (1726), nor does its name ever seem to have reached Europe till Sir Stamford Raffles, the British Lieut.-Governor of Java, visited the district in January 1814. The structure was then covered with soil and vegetation, even with trees of considerable size. Raffles caused it to be cleared, and drawings and measurements to be made. His History of Java, and Crawford’s Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, made it known to the world. The Dutch Government, in 1874, published a great collection of illustrative plates, with a descriptive text.

The meaning of the name by which this monument is known in the neighbourhood has been much debated. Raffles writes it Bóro Bódo [Hist. of Java, 2nd ed., ii. 30 seqq.]. [Crawfurd, Descr. Dict. (s.v.), says: “Boro is, in Javanese, the name of a kind of fishtrap, and budor may possibly be a corruption of the Sanscrit buda, ‘old.’ ”] The most probable interpretation, and accepted by Friedrich and other scholars of weight, is that of ‘Myriad Buddhas.’ This would be in some analogy to another famous Buddhist monument in a neighbouring district, at Brambánan, which is called Chandi Sewu, or the “Thousand Temples,” though the number has been really 238.

BOSH, s. and interj. This is alleged to be taken from the Turkish bosh, signifying “empty, vain, useless, void of sense, meaning or utility” (Red-house’s Dict.). But we have not been able to trace its history or first appearance in English. [According to the N.E.D. the word seems to have come into use about 1834 under the influence of Morier’s novels, Ayesha, Hajji Baba, &c. For various speculations on its origin see 5 ser. N. & Q. iii. 114, 173, 257.

[1843.—“The people flatter the Envoy into the belief that the tumult is Bash (nothing).”—Lady Sale, Journal, 47.]

BOSMÁN, BOCHMÁN, s. Boat-swain. Lascar’s H. (Roebuck).