Last year Borobudur attracted more than 2 million tourists, mostly Indonesians, as foreign numbers fell after the 2002 Bali bombings and a wider international travel downturn.
But the enduring drawing power of the site and the existing problems have sparked retail plans that have horrified UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations.
These include the Jagad Jawa, or "Spirit World of Java" retail shopping complex and light rail system proposal suggested last year by the Central Java authorities and later put on hold after a widespread outcry.
Engelhardt said various concepts were still circling.
"The issue of the shopping mall keeps coming up in many different forms and guises," he said.
UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which advises on world heritage listings, favor some retailing, but prefer a lower-key local arts and crafts bazaar that would assist and involve the nearby community.
Current items sold are mostly viewed as low quality, generic goods that benefit traders from outside the region.
The issues are to be considered at a UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in China from June 28 to July 9.
UNESCO also wants more emphasis at Borobudur on the historic, cultural and spiritual values that are often lost on visitors scrambling to the top for the view and a photo.
Wiendu Nuryanti, director of Tourism Research and Development at the Yogyakarta-based research group Stuppa Indonesia, said there was great pride and appreciation of Borobudur within Indonesia.
But she said the issues at the site partly reflected a disconnect between a predominantly Muslim community and a site seen as a relic from a long-ago era.
"There is no direct religious link between the temple and the (Muslim) community," she said. "If this monument lived in the middle of a Buddhist society I think it would be different."
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