Siddhartha Gautama, son of a warrior king, who in persuasion of truth and seeking Nirvana, gave birth to a religion known as Buddhism. Buddhism has been persuaded in various divergent forms and expressions, however, there has been a persistent attempt to portray the life experiences of the Buddha, his teachings, and the “spirit” or “essence” of his teachings (called dhamma or dharma) as a model for religious life. The numerous forms and practices that have been developed within the Buddhist fold have also allowed philosophers, scholars and the multitude not only to resurrect their spiritual exigency but also gave rise to the quest for constructing sacred domains that evolved through time and space. Depending upon the purposes and chores, Buddhist structures were built and equipped to serve the sequential functionalities, whisked with the natural landscape.
Stupas, Monasteries and Shrines/Temples are three requisite Buddhist structures that are found metastasize over the Asian countries, displaying diverse architectural features attributed to different schools of Buddhism.
Stupas are substantially solid, bell-shaped structures accommodating holy relics such as a hair or tooth from Buddha or remains of eminent Buddhist figures, or a sacred Buddhist scripture. Modelled on ancient Indian burial mounds and often sealed with a copper plate incised with a vishva-vajra crossed thunderbolt design, at the base of the stupa is regarded as protection from evil and often venerated as symbols of the Buddha.
Derived from a Sanskrit word,stupa literally means “to heap” or “to pile up.” Perused by scholars, stupas predated Buddhism and originally were mounds of dirt or rocks built to honour dead kings, thus making them the oldest religious monuments in the lineage of Buddhist architecture. The very earliest ones were simple mounds of mud or clay built to enclose relics of Buddha, later imbued by Buddha with spiritual meaning.
Stupas are chiefly classified into Relic stupas, Object stupas, Commemorative stupas, Symbolic stupas and Votive stupas. The bell-shaped mound epitomises a thought to bring enlightenment to the one who builds and owns it. Over the centuries many old stupas transmogrified into pilgrimage sites and in due course solemnized as the centre of complex ceremonial exchange.
“This explanation runs counter to Buddhist tradition, which maintains that because the stupa conveys enlightened qualities, it could only have been revealed by the mind of enlightenment. … In fact, some stupas, such as the Swayambhunath Stupa in Nepal, are believed to be self-arising expressions of enlightenment.”
– Sylvia Somerville
UNESCO World Heritage Site – Sanchi, is a home to the world’s oldest (documented) Stupa. In the third century B.C., after Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism, he commissioned to unlatch the original stupas and disseminate the curio, among the several thousand stupas that he had built. The eight sets of stupas associated with the life of the Buddha were cardinal prior to Ashoka and continued to be so.
Traditionally, these hemispherical monuments embody iconographic treasure troves like the lush carvings, prodigious creations in bas relief. The historical themes at the lofty apex have been sculpted as a decorative exertion of art, exhibiting the events of Buddha’s life, popularly known as Jataka Tales.
The structure is often encircled by a railing with gateways, through which pilgrims enter the liturgical ground.
The Buddhist art and design varied depending on different schools of Buddhism that proliferated across Asia.
Over time, stupas metamorphosed from being funerary monuments to being objects of veneration. As this occurred, they also changed in appearance, identified as chortens and Pagodas. Reflected upon the Tibetan terminology and architecture of stupas, stupas at times are narrated as chortens. Pagodas are collectively described as stupas and temples prevalent to Japanese or Chinese style towers inspired by South Asian stupa. Classic Japanese or Chinese-style pagodas remarkably comprises multiple stories, each with a graceful, tiled Chinese-style roof, and a top roof capped by a spire. The base represents the earth, the spire symbolizes heaven, and the connecting piece symbolizes the cosmic axis, to the Way.
The creation of the divine locus harmonized with nature are consequences of this process, not as traditional or contemporary, but as universal or ontological expression of continuity to excel the memories and thoughts of the coeval generation.
Text by Davangi Pathak
Image Courtesy: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Conan Arts, Raimond Klavins, JP Desvigne, Kumar Utkarsh, Ameena Tasneem
Find more about the Buddhist Architecture:
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9785/1/297134.pdf
https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub355/item1325.html
https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub355/item1325.html
https://tricycle.org/magazine/ladakh-stupas/
https://www.berchenling.org/8-stupas/
https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-31/charleux
https://asiasociety.org/education/origins-buddhism
https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub355/item1325.html