Ancient India and Indonesia:The Cosmic Mountains of Buddhism

Animistic Religion Speculative Religion

Shinto Buddhism

explains relationship between human beings and nature

explains human purpose on earth and the end for which humans

beings must strive

Hinduism: Cycles of the transmigration of the soul (reincarnation)

Goal: to become one with the World Soul once again

Buddhism evolves out of Hinduism

Buddhism: Enlightenment (nirvana) allows for early liberation from the

cycles of transmigration

Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 BC)

10 original brick stupas around Indiasheltering the Buddha’s relics

Early Buddhists were itinerant ascetics

The Buddha (“the Enlightened One”)

Stupa at Vaishali, India Stupa at Sarnath, India

1.

I. Early Buddhism’s multiplication of sacred places = multiple centers of the world A. What was the rationale for erecting 40 “Pillars of Law”?

Ashokan pillar next to one of 10 original stupasPillars erected by emperor Ashoka

Column at Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh, India, 1st cen. B.C.

cosm

ic axis

boundary

cosmicized (sacred) space

chaos (profane) space

I. B. How did the Ashokan pillars function as cosmic axes (apply Eliade’s theory)?

2.

II. Architectural monuments in a religion that renounced worldly and material comforts

Great Stupa, Sanchi, India, 2nd – 1st century BC

II. A. Contexts of politics and religion 1. Why were there not stupa-centered monasteries before the 2nd century BC?

Great Stupa in the Buddhist Monastery at Sanchi

II. A. 2. What purpose did stupas serve in the speculative religion of Buddhism?

Great Stupa

B. Eliade’s concepts of sacred and profane space (cosmos vs. chaos;

axis mundi) used to link the living essence of the Buddha (his body) to the cosmos

II. B. Eliade’s concepts of sacred and profane space used to link the living essence of the Buddha (his body) to the cosmosII. B. 1. Where does the notion of a cosmic mountain find form and expression in the Great Stupa?

II. C. Ritual and design: How is the stupa a diagram of Buddhism that is used by individual believers?

Great Stupa

II. C.

Great Stupa

II. C.

Great Stupa

II. C.

Great Stupa

II. C.

Great Stupa Great Stupa - upper vedika

II. C.

Great StupaGreat Stupa’s cube railing (harmika),

mast (yashti) and triple chattri

III. Buddhist architecture as a university to attain perfected wisdom (Bodhi) in Southeast Asia

The Borobudur temple, Java, Indonesia, 770-850

III. A. Context of politics and religion

III. B. What are the parts of the Borobudur and how do they differ from the Great Stupa at Sanchi?

Great Stupa at Sanchi The Borobudur

III. B. 1. The earthly realm: geometry, sculpture (formal quality and content)

The Borobudur: Four terraces of the earthly realm

III. B. 2. The celestial realm (ruphadhatu): geometry, stupas and sculpture (quality and content)

The Borobudur: Three terraces of the earthly realm

III. B. 3. The world of formlessness (arupadhatu): how does architecture convey the world of formlessness?

The Borobudur: the Great Stupa

III. C. Ritual and design: How is the Borobudur a diagram of Buddhism, used by individual believers to instill perfected wisdom (Bodhi)?

The Borobudur

III. C.

first square terrace second square terrace

The Borobudur: the Great Stupa

III. C.

The Borobudur: the Great Stupa

first circular terrace

III. C.

The Borobudur: the Great Stupa

circular terraces: miniature stupas with statues of the Buddha inside

III. C.

The Borobudur: the Great Stupa

the Great Stupa

III. D. Eliade’s concepts of sacred and profane space (cosmos vs. chaos) used to link Buddhist wisdom to the cosmos  1. Where is the idea of a cosmic pillar (axis mundi) present?

The Borobudur

III. D. 2. Where does the notion of a cosmic mountain find form in the Borobudur, and why is it square?

The Borobudur

III. D. 3. Where does the profane end and the sacred begin at the Borobudur?

The Borobudur