Stupa

Stupa comes from the Sanskrit word ståpa meaning ‘to heap’ and refers to a unique Buddhist monument. The Pali equivalent is thåpa.

After the Buddha's passing and cremation, his ashes were divided into eight and each portion was interned under a large hemispherical earthen mound, as was the custom of the time. People would pay their respects to these mounds until eventually they came to be seen as symbols of the Buddha himself. In time the simple earthen mounds evolved into masonry structures, sometimes of great size and beautifully decorated. Today ståpas usually contain real or supposed relics of the Buddha or some great saint or articles used by them and are common objects of devotion in all Buddhist countries. The world's largest such monument is the Jetavana Stupa built by King Mahàsena towards the end of the 4th century in Anuràdhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. This huge monument was originally 160 meters high; its present height up to the broken pinnacle is 70 meters and it has a diameter of 109 meters. It has been calculated that Jetavana Stupa contains 62 million bricks and weighs 657,000 tons. It sits on a huge paved terrace 173 meters square which could have accommodated up to 30,000 devotees on special occasions.

References

The Stupa, A.H.Longhurst, 1997.

• http://www.BuddhismAtoZ.com/