Incomparable Stupa Essay

In the biography Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, a troubled adolescent boy named Louis Zamperini revolves his life around his running career. Starting at such a young age, running had many impacts on Louie’s life. The high demand of training kept Louie distracted from making unintelligent choices he had previously been making. Running changed the young teenager he was and the man he was going to become.

Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, is the third largest religion in the world after Islam and Christianity with close to one billion followers. The followers of the religion are called Hindus and are mainly located in India, and their place of worship is a temple. The religion doesn’t have any one specific founder, however,

In the article “Ritual and Presentation in Early Buddhist Religious Architecture” by Lars Fogelin, the readers are introduced to Buddhism and ritual which include the stupas. Stupas were build according to Buddha’s dying wish, his reason for doing so was “indented for the laity who, with their poorer grasp of Buddhism principles, required the aid of direct worship to ease them toward the path to enlightenment” (Forgelin, pg. 3). The argument that Forgelin brings up is that the designers had to accommodate the needs of Buddhist worshipers “while attempting to provide mechanisms to foster group cohesion”(Forgelin, pg.1), which is shown in the open-air and rock-cut stupas. Forgelin’s thesis stated he will address the main topic by first presenting Buddhist’s goal and how to attain this goal referred to as nirvana, then who are the three principal groups who practice their rituals at a stupid, and how the designers had to incorporate the different styles of practice into the design of the stupas.

“Amida Buddha” (Figure 1) is a bronze figure created during the Kamakura Period, dated 1185-1333. The work is a figurative representation of Amida, who was highly worshipped during the Kamakura Period. The figure “Amida Buddha” is currently on exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum (2018) in Fort Worth, Texas as part of the Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Lands of Asia Exhibition.

The Great Stupa at Sanchi was constructed around the third to first century BCE. The Great Stupa is a burial mound that is not a tomb but used to house relics of Buddha. Around the stupa is the fence with toranas that are intended to protect the remains of Buddha form the outside world. These fences are adorned with relief sculpture that tells of Buddha’s past lives. Buddhists will make pilgrimages to this location to further their walk to enlightenment. A visitor of the Great Stupa would enter through one the toranas, walk up the stairs, and then walk around the structure in a clockwise direction. This is called circumambulation and is supposed mimic the movement of the earth and the sun to bring the visitor in to harmony with the

The temple contains the images of many bodhisattvas,Buddha's, and disciples. The images of the Buddha's and bodhisattvas are the focus of the rooms and outside. For example, in the main shrine and Bodhisattva hall, the focus are the images. Another example is the garden of the eighteen arhats in which the Buddha is surrounded by his first disciples. The other garden that is in the temple is the Vessel of Compassion for Universal Liberation. The main image in this garden is that of Avalofitesvara Bodhisattva. The other images depicted are of heaven kings. The bodhisattva is important because the vows of this Bodhisattva are of a compassionate mind and the power of wisdom. This bodhisattva answers the prayers of sentient beings no matter where they are and manifests in different forms. These eighteen arhats extinguished all defilements and afflictions. They had reached nirvana and their righteousness is exemplary to all Buddhists. Comparatively, symbols play an important role in buddhism and we can see this through the offers made to the Buddha's and bodhisattvas. For example, incense symbolizes inner peace, a lamp offering symbolizes the brightening of our vision and the enhancement of our wisdom. In addition, in the images, mudras or certain objects are a symbol of important rules to follow. Such as in image of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the elephant symbolizes practice. The sounds that are used are that of instruments during the service in the main shrine and the sound of bells which usually mark the initiation of a service or other announcements. Furthermore, the smells that are used throughout the temple are incense. Incense is used as an offering and it is meant to help the Buddhist concentrate and focus on meditating. Lastly, taste is used in the ritual of eating vegetarian meals

Between the second century BCE and the early first century CE, buddhist art was not represented as human form rather than symbols. Symbols were represented by the buddha's footprints, or a stupa. The Great Stupa is located in Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India and was founded in the 3rd century BCE. The stupa is derived as burial mounds for buddhas, holding the remains of their cremation. The main body of the stupa or dome represents the world mountains, which rises through the center of the buddha universe. The railing encloses the top of mast bearing three stone disks or “umbrellas” represent the three jewels of buddhism: Siddhartha Gautama, sangha, and dharma.

These two seated Buddha represent the meaning and the embodiment of Buddha. Both of these sculptures convey Buddha and represent key aspects of Buddhism, but these two sculpture do not convey and represent the symbolism entirely of what Buddha is in other art pieces. Rock cut stone sculpture of Buddha is represented in a peaceful nature as he gives the first sermon, the sun, the lotus flower, the knot on his head, the elongated earlobes, the slightly closed eyes and cherubs up above are common symbols that represent Buddha. Where the Grand Buddha at Ling Shan is an 88 metre tall bronze statue, that stand upward, and has very little Buddha symbolism represented. He has the knot on his head, slightly closed eyes, standing on an opened lotus flower

The Great Stupa at Sanchi was originally built with large bricks, but underwent an expansion, which brought it to its current state. It is a hemispherical mound of rubble and earth covered with sandstones. The Great Stupa stands at about fifty-four feet high and has a diameter of 120 feet. On top of the stupa is a flat area that holds a chatra, similar to a three-tiered umbrella, surrounded by a harmica, or square railing. One third of the way up the hemispherical mound there is a terrace enclosed with a fence that was used for rituals. Underneath the upper terrace there is a path on the ground enclosed by a verdica, or a fence. There are two paths because the upper terrace is used by high priests during rituals, while the lower path is used by pilgrims.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2457 is to be stored in a cryogenic storage unit at Sector 5 of Site-44. Sample requests for testing purposes require authorisation from Project Head/2457.

The Buddha’s Eyes – especially on stupas – face in all four directions and symbolizes the omniscient mind of the Buddha.

Both places have strong spiritual connections to Hindu deity, god, goddesses, and holy spirits. I find it heartwarming that within this culture there is such a strong family support system for those that have been afflicted, possessed by demons, and illnesses. Unlike those in this culture where everyone is so busy and wrapped up in their own lives to help with a sick family member by ship them off to a hospital, short term or long term rehab facility, or nursing

Thus stupa is only a reliquary; relics that are buried underneath the monument are venirated. Stupa itself, as an architectural structure, has different function: it holds relics, its reliefs act as a guidance or an aid for visual meditation, it is a marker for a specific location, etc. While Famensi Bones are relics themselves, they are the main objects of veneration.

According to Asher “The layout of Taj Mahal, although here the surrounding chambers are linked in a more fluid fashion. As at Humayun’s tomb, they are intended to represent the eight levels of paradise in Islamic cosmology.” Both tombs use a nine-fold plan, in which eight rooms envelope a central chamber. The room containing the cenotaph is at the absolute center. In both, the rooms are shaped octagonal. The octagon stands for a middle state between a circle (representing the divine world) and square (representing the human world) and both indicates the sacred areas. The octagonal pattern of the central chamber having the cenotaph, is influenced by earlier Islamic

The stone fence surrounds the whole stopa to restrict the outside world from the sacred burial mound. The dome shape of the stopa represents the mountain of the world. The toranas are large stone pillars that are placed in the cardinal points of the stone fence, north, east, south, and west. Directly on top of the stupa sits the harmika. This harmika is a rectangle shape stone fence that represents an area of the gods. In the center of this harmika extends the yasti, a pole like structure protruding towards the universe representing the axis of the universe. There are three chatras that are pierced through the yasti. The chatras are stone discs that represent the union of the earth and the “heavenly paradise” (Kleiner, p. 15). The stupas are walked around in a clockwise manner by Buddhists because that is the same movement of the earth around the sun. This is known as circumambulation. The theory of circumambulation is that it “brings the devotee into harmony with the cosmos” (p. 15). This is the standard blueprint to which all stupas are constructed, thus allowing the Buddhists to circumambulate the structure.