纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 059婆罗浮屠佛陀头像（5）（在线收听）

Raffles' rediscovery of Borobudur, and his later uncovering of important Hindu monuments on the island - for Java had embraced both Hinduism and Buddhism - led to a fundamental reassessment of Javanese history. Raffles wanted to persuade Europeans that Java was indeed a great civilisation, as the anthropologist Nigel Barley tells us:

"Raffles believed fervently in the concept of civilisation, he never defines it but it has a number of clear markers. One of them is the possession of a writing system, another is social hierarchy, and yet another is the possession of complex stone architecture. So if you like, Borobudur was one of the proofs that Java was a great civilisation, the equal of ancient Greece and Rome. And the whole of his collection at the British Museum, the Raffles collection, and the whole of that book he wrote, the 'History of Java', is an attempt to establish that proposition."

莱佛士的发现让世人对爪哇历史的了解有了根本性的转变。自婆罗浮屠后，他又发现了岛上重要的印度教遗址，这两种宗教都一度在岛上盛行。他想说服西方世界，爪哇岛上实际存在着高度发达的文明。人类学家奈吉尔·巴利博士也有一样的看法：

莱佛士信仰“文明”这一概念，他虽未提出过文明的定义，但提到过数条标准：一是拥有文字系统，二是社会奉行等级制度，三是拥有复杂石制建筑。因此，你大可以将婆罗浮屠看作爪哇拥有灿烂文明的标志，其程度应该不亚于同一时期的希腊与罗马帝国。他向大英博物馆捐赠的私人藏品和撰写的《爪哇历史》一书，都是为证明这一观点所做的尝试。