In recent years at Namo Buddha , and at Nagarjun,Boudhanath and Swayambu, worship and care of the stupa has been largely assumed by Tibetan devotees. Prayerwheels large and small are now found at these major shrines,along with the ubiquitous prayer flags fluttering above and around them,purifying the air. Full -length prostration around the Swayambhu Hill and around Boudhanath is performed only by the most devout, but circumambulation occupies layman and monk alike at dawn and dusk . The most popular offering to the stupas is of light in the form of butterlamps and candles, which turn night into day on auspicious phases of the moon and upon festivals such as the Buddha Sakyamuni's birthday. Prayer flags are also offered in abundance on these occasions. Superior religious merit may be gained by making an offering of whitewash to the stupa . At Boudhanath a special offfering is the saffron-dyed water that is skillfully thrown on the dome to create the illusion of a lotus flower.
Tibetan devotion is not the only cause of renewed focus upon Kathmandu Valley's monumental stupas.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Symbols of Mind
Three important stupas stand on peaks around the Valley . The highest point on the western Valley rim is Nagarjun Hill (2000 meters), with its spectacular view of the Valley and the Himalaya. Here in a bygone aeon the Buddha Vipaswi cast a lotus seed into the lake below, the seed which produced Swayambhu's thousand-petalled lotus. This sacred spot, familiar to picnickers and Tibetan pilgrims,is marked by,an attractive stupa set on high Valley is the large village of Kirtipur stadding a prominent ridge, and at the top of the ridge is the kirtipur Chilandyo stupa. Built of brick , raised an broad plinths with shrines at every corner, it is in the decorative style of Pim Bahal Stupa . Finally, beyond the south-east rim of the Valley stands Namo Buddha. With Swayambunath and Boudhanath,it is one of the three principal local Buddhist sanctuaries.
Symbols of Mind
The magnificent height of the Boudhanath spire commands the surrounding Tamang village and Tibetan monasteries. The stupa is even more remarkable for its plan: built on three successively elevated plinths encircled by a wall of prayerwheels, its is a great mandala, a map of the Buddha's mind. One hundred and eight niches around the base of the dome contain statues of the Buddhas and deities of the pantheon of the lacal Tamang community.
Between Boudhanath and Kathmandu lie the village of Chabahil and the Dharmadeva Stupa. Legand tells us that the stupa was built by the daughter of Emperor Ashoka, Charumati married a local prince, and had the stupa built near the monastery which she founded, Charumati Vihara. The chronicles, however , indicate that the stupa was built by King Dharmadeva in the middle of the fifth century, A.D. Cerainly the proliferation in the vicinity indicate that the Dharmadeva stupa flourished during the Lichhavi period (330-879A.D.).
Between Boudhanath and Kathmandu lie the village of Chabahil and the Dharmadeva Stupa. Legand tells us that the stupa was built by the daughter of Emperor Ashoka, Charumati married a local prince, and had the stupa built near the monastery which she founded, Charumati Vihara. The chronicles, however , indicate that the stupa was built by King Dharmadeva in the middle of the fifth century, A.D. Cerainly the proliferation in the vicinity indicate that the Dharmadeva stupa flourished during the Lichhavi period (330-879A.D.).
Symbols of Mind
The Swayambhunath of today, with its gilt copper covered shrines, steeple and spire, its encircling prayerwheels, and surrounding plethora of temples and votive stupas, is not the same structure that the chronicles tell us was raised in the fifth century A.D. Only by peeling away the sheaths of successive centuries reconstruction could the original stupa be revealed, for time and natural disaster have taken their toll.
Swayambhunath may be the most venerated stupa of the Valley , but the great stupa of Boudhanath is the biggest. It lies to the easst of Kathmandu, on the old road to Tibet, surrounded by a vital village community and recent accretions of Tibetan monasticism. The Tibetans,who have a seven-hundred-year association with Boudhanath, believe that the relics of Kasyapa, the Buddha of the previous aeon, are enshrined within. The Valley people relate how a famine struck the land in the fifth century.
Swayambhunath may be the most venerated stupa of the Valley , but the great stupa of Boudhanath is the biggest. It lies to the easst of Kathmandu, on the old road to Tibet, surrounded by a vital village community and recent accretions of Tibetan monasticism. The Tibetans,who have a seven-hundred-year association with Boudhanath, believe that the relics of Kasyapa, the Buddha of the previous aeon, are enshrined within. The Valley people relate how a famine struck the land in the fifth century.
Symbols of Mind
The most venerable of the Valley stupas is surely Swayambhunath dominationg Kathmandu on a hill to the west. Its name means "the Selfcreated Buddha." In the Buddhist myth of Swayambhu,aeons ago the Valley was a lake. Upon the lake floated a thousand-petalled lotus and at the center of the lotus was the flame of the primal Buddha's enlightened mind. The Bodhisattva Manjusri flew from China to Swayambhu and cut the gorges to empty the lake, creating a paradise for men in the Himalaya. A fraternity of monks built the hill of Swayambhu as a resting place for the lotus with its burden of flame. Its timber axis was set upon the back of the cosmic turtle, lying motionless in the cosmic ocean. Later, the flame was covered by a dome, since mortal eyes were unable to bear its brightness. Tradition maintains that a hole in the dame's fabric still allows a reflected glimpse of the fire buring within.
Symbols of Mind
In the primordial mind, the stupa dome is the Golden Egg of the cosmos, the womb of time and space, and the vase of fertility. Within it lies the potentialily of all things. It is also the cosmic breast, nurturing all creation. It is an image of the female principle. Embedded within the dame, the wooden axis is the tree of life, the spreading Tree of Enlightenment, and the cosmic phallus.
In the primary Buddhist symbolism of the stupa, the base is the Buddha's legs in lotus posture, the axis is his spine, the dome his stomach and torso, and the square steeple his head (thus the external eyes). The spire is the transcendental mind, its thirteen levels indisation and three dimensions of metaphysical reality. The crowning jewel ornament represents his fully enlightened mind. Thus, wherever a stupa resides, whether hig upon the hill at Swayambhu or in a city monastery courtyard, the Buddha's message is present.
In the primary Buddhist symbolism of the stupa, the base is the Buddha's legs in lotus posture, the axis is his spine, the dome his stomach and torso, and the square steeple his head (thus the external eyes). The spire is the transcendental mind, its thirteen levels indisation and three dimensions of metaphysical reality. The crowning jewel ornament represents his fully enlightened mind. Thus, wherever a stupa resides, whether hig upon the hill at Swayambhu or in a city monastery courtyard, the Buddha's message is present.
Symbols of Mind
The box-like steeple (harmika),upon which the eyes of the stupa are painted,is made of wood or brick. Above the harmika is the wooden or brick spire consisting of thirteen pyramidal steps or disce. And above the spire are the canopy, often adorned with a textile apron, and the pinnacle, consisting of a lotus or wheel and a jewel ornament. The timber axis, morticed into the drum or plinth, runs bottom to top. In one or more of the cardinal directions small shrines are attached to the dome to house the Meditation Buddhas.
However, no two monumental stupas are alike. In every case the inspiration of the architect has integrated the common elements of base, dome,steeple,spire,canopy and pinnacle to create a unique structure. Whatever their distinction, each is a multidistinction plastic model evoking primordial images of mythic reality and each is an elaborate representation of the Mahayana Buddhist doctrine.
However, no two monumental stupas are alike. In every case the inspiration of the architect has integrated the common elements of base, dome,steeple,spire,canopy and pinnacle to create a unique structure. Whatever their distinction, each is a multidistinction plastic model evoking primordial images of mythic reality and each is an elaborate representation of the Mahayana Buddhist doctrine.
Symbols of Mind
In origin, the stupa developed from the Indo-Aryan tumulus,the burial mound of time immenmorial. It was the Buddha Sakyamuni's request that his relics be enshrined in such mounds. His relics were distributed amongst eight stupas were built in the sixth century B.C. At the time of the great Indian Emperor Ashoka (300.B.C.),the relics were further divided and stupas proliferated. The dome itself began to signify the Buddha.The oldest stupas and the closest form to the original designsare the simple high domes of Sri Lankan stupa, and the Dharmamegha stupa at Sarnath in India. Through the center of the solid dome ran a timber mast or axis, representing the universal tree of life.Surmounting the dome was a protecting and glorifying canopy. From this simple beginning the unique Nepali monumental stupa developed.The foundation is a round drum (medhi) or square plinth of stone.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Symbols of Mind
A ring of stupas guards the Valley, warding off evil influences and confirming the transcedental doctrine of the Buddhas as a pervasive spiritual vibration. The large, monumental, stupas are few in number, but their replicas, the human-sized vative stupas exquisitely sculptured in stone, are to be discovered by the hundreds in, monastery courtyards, in town squares,on street corners and in alleyways.
In the towns,the stupa's dome and steeple, its Buddha images and prayerwheels, may go unregarded amidst the humdrum life of domestic and social intercoursem,trade and agriculture, swirlng around them. But the eyes of the stupa, the eyes of the Buddha painted on each of the four faces of the steeple,are inescapable. Sametimes benevolent, sometimes brooding, sometimes light and childlike, the Buddha resident within gazes dawn upon the Valley people without judgement or discrimination. He is their guardian and protector. He is their witness. He is an object of their devotion. He is the ideal of their mystics.
In the towns,the stupa's dome and steeple, its Buddha images and prayerwheels, may go unregarded amidst the humdrum life of domestic and social intercoursem,trade and agriculture, swirlng around them. But the eyes of the stupa, the eyes of the Buddha painted on each of the four faces of the steeple,are inescapable. Sametimes benevolent, sometimes brooding, sometimes light and childlike, the Buddha resident within gazes dawn upon the Valley people without judgement or discrimination. He is their guardian and protector. He is their witness. He is an object of their devotion. He is the ideal of their mystics.
Symbols of Mind
The stupa is a cosmic egg and the womb of the universe.It is the axis mundi and the tree of life, a representation of the Buddha and a map of the path to Buddhahood. The stupa is a reliquary, an embellished burial mound, and a monument marking spots where Buddhas and saints performed mythic acts. Its is a votive offering erected by the devout in thanksgiving or celebration. However the stupa is conceived by monk,laymen, pilgrim,traveller or tourist, it constitutes an ineluctable part of the Kathmandu Valley landscape and an integral part of the mindscape of the Valley people.
Stupas stand, monumentally,on the surrounding peaks and preominences of the Valley. They lie on the passes into the Valley. They are to be found at the gates of the old cities, welcoming the homecoming and blessing the departing pilgrims and traders on the traditional trade routes to India and Tibet.
Stupas stand, monumentally,on the surrounding peaks and preominences of the Valley. They lie on the passes into the Valley. They are to be found at the gates of the old cities, welcoming the homecoming and blessing the departing pilgrims and traders on the traditional trade routes to India and Tibet.
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