"Tourism is the fastest, easiest and the cheapest sector to boost our foreign exchange, gross domestic product and employment. We already have our resources, natural and cultural attractions, which are worth selling," said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya in a statement sent to the Jakarta Globe.

The celebrations, which started on May 8, simultaneously took place at two other temples in the vicinity of Yogyakarta — Prambanan and Ratu Boko. On Wednesday, visitors and worshipers released thousands of paper lanterns into the night sky.

Hotels, homestays and guest houses were all fully booked. More than 3,500 souvenir sellers came to Borobudur to serve nearly 40,000 guests.

The ninth-century temple of Borobudur, the world's largest single Buddhist monument, is by some classified as one of the world's wonders. Distinguished by its dozens of latticed, bell-shaped stupas, it was built several centuries before the famous Khmer temples at Angkor in Cambodia, and hundreds of years before the great medieval cathedrals of Europe.

Last year, the temple recorded 3.89 million tourists, a 9.5 percent increase from a year earlier. The government seeks to is targeting visitors to reach 4.2 million people this year.