Acknowledgements

This project was co-directed by Françoise Le Gris of the Université du Québec à Montréal and Dr. George Michell (London), both of whom offered exceptional support and generosity to my project. I would also like to thank my thesis committee, consisting of my two co-directors, filmmaker Jacques Giraldeau, Art historian David Walter Booth of the Université de Montréal, and Dr. Maria-Antonella Pelizzari of the Centre canadien de l'architecture. I would like to mention two of the professors who guided me through the scolarité of my program at UQÀM; Serge Ouaknine and Jean-Philippe Uzel.

I was also the beneficiary of the invaluable assistance of my long-time collaborator François Hébert in a myriad of ways. Thirteen years of close collaboration has not changed the fact that François surprises me almost every day. The title The Vertical Horizon was created by artist Daniel Poulin of Boréal Art/Nature in 1996. I thank him for his gracious permission to attach his wonderful concept, and title, to my project, as I thank Boréal in general for valorising the spiritual in art. Atist Simon-Pierre Martel of l'UQTR was instrumental in creating the moulds for the installation project, and the graphic conception for the exhibition publicity was conceived by Marie-Sara Gilbert-Deschênes. Eric Côté has assisted me putting this thesis on the Web. My sincere thanks to Guy Soucie and the team at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur for welcoming this challenging multidisciplinary project into their programming. For the realisation of the video, I wish to thank Tommy Asselin for the titles and Christian Pierre for the post-production.

My University, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, offered financial support to this project in the form of a sabbatical period for the fall of 2001, and direct financial assistance in the form of a research grant, Fonds institutionel de recherche. I thank the vice-rector Raymond LeBlanc, Dean of Research Alain Maire, the Director of the Art Department Pierre-Simon Doyon, and my esteemed University colleagues for their enthusiastic support of my project.Finally, I wish to dedicate this work to Jean-Pierre Perreault, who remains at the very heart of it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS : parts of the thesis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

AVANT-PROPOS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF PLATES

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

I.1 The doctoral project

I.2 Methodological and cadastral features

I.3 The stupa

I.4 The stupa's name

I.5 The earliest stupas

I.6 The stupa, the symbolic model

CHAPTER I

Pilgrimage to Guntapalli, India

1.1 The site

1.2 Cave stupas

1.3 The pradaksina

CHAPTER II

Pilgrimage to Sanchi, India

2.1 The site

2.2 The toranas

2.3 Aniconism

CHAPTER III

Pilgrimage to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

3.1 The site

3.2 The dagoba

3.3 The tree

CHAPTER IV

Pilgrimage to Borobudur, Indonesia

4.1 The site

4.2 The Mahayana stupa

4.3 The mandala

CHAPTER V

Pilgrimage to Svaya-bhunath, Nepal

5.1 The site

5.2 The mchod-rten

5.3 The body

CHAPTER VI

Pilgrimage to Ayutthaya, Thailand

6.1 The site

6.2 Evolution of the stupa

6.3 Repetition

CHAPTER VII

Pilgrimage to Kinmount, Canada

7.1 The site

7.2 The stupa in the west

7.3 Constructing a stupa

CONCLUSION

C.1 Space and Time

C.2 The optical effects experienced during the pradaksina

C.3 The sacred circuit

C.4 Ritual acts at the stupa : my performance interventions

C.5 The performance

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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This thesis examines the stupa through physical engagement. In situ performances at seven important stupa sites demonstrate the optical effect of the vertical horizon. When engaged with in physical motion ( with the eyes moving ), the curved dome of the stupa creates an oculation of the surrounding landscape. The moving viewer must fix his or her gaze at the point of fusion of the environmental horizon and the anda's vertical line of oculation, producing a unique optical effect that dissolves the reality of the environment, isolates the practitioner, and induces a meditational state.

The phenomenon of the vertical horizon can only be experienced during a physical engagement with stupas. The demonstration of my thesis depends, therefore, upon the interdisciplinary relationship of performance and installaction. These visual elements combine with this written text to complete my demonstration. The interdisciplinary nature of my project is supported by the nature of the vertical horizon itself ; it exists as a manifestation of the informing of architectural structure by ritual activity. The dance performed at the stupa activates the architectural experience. This reflects one of the basic dynamics in the process of ritualisation, ritual often symbolically marks the body in particular ways that reflect a hierarchy of value. As the participants' eyes create and dissolve the reality of the mass, the pradaksina reduces the volume of the stupa into formlessness.

This project will be inaugurated on Thursday November 1, 2001 at 20h00, at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montreal, continuing through to the 15th of December. It represents the culmination of more than 25 years of research and reflection.

It is logical that this highly personal reading of the stupa would emerge from the imagination of an artist. The literature on the stupa is vast, I do not attempt in any way to provide new 'scholarship' on this form, or to even provide a synthesis or overview. My capacities follow my intention. I do not presume to provide a scholarly discourse on stupas, as this is something for which I have no credentials and has already been done . My project attempts, instead, to offer an original viewpoint, the viewpoint of an outsider, that may perhaps inspire other artists or illuminate new directions.

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

AA, Artibus Asiae

AAQ, Architectural Association Quarterly

AAS, Association for Asian Studies

ABIAA, Annual bibliography of Indian Art and Archaeology

AJ, Art Journal

ASC, Archaeological Survey of Ceylon

ASI, Archaeological Survey of India

AO, Art Orientalis

BEFEO, Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient

BSOAS, Bulletin of the School for Oriental and African Studies

CCH, Cambridge Companion to Husserl

EEPR, Encyclopedia of Eastern Philsophy and Religion

HR, History of Religions

IATS, International Association for Tibetean Studies

IHQ , Indian Historical Quarterly

JASSL, Journal of the Archaeological Survey of Sri Lanka

JIABS, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies

JISOA, Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art

JOAS, journal of the American Oriental Society

JOI, Journal of the Oriental Institute

MASC, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon

NRP, Nouvelle revue de psychanalyse

SB, Satapatha Brahmana

My doctoral project challenges the classification of the stupa as a form of architecture by interpreting it as a sculptural environment inviting ritual interaction. The ritual circumambulation around a stupa causes the oculation of the visual field behind the dome wall, a phenomenon that I call the vertical horizon. I relate this phenomenon in-situ with digital video at seven important stupa sites throughout the world. A multidisciplinary deconstruction of the stupa's visual effects will be the focus of my doctoral creation-thesis, informed by both on-site and library research.

Bringing into focus the plastic and environmental aspects of the stupa, my thesis consists of three distinct but equally important manifestations: a sculptural installaction; a performance using digital video; and a written text. The written elements provide context and elaborate the theme of the creative reflection of an artist-sculptor engaged in plastic space.

The utilisation of new technologies and the actualisation of this project through a public exhibition of the performance, video and installaction at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, Montreal, rounds out the experiential dimension that I feel is critical for the understanding of this ancient sculptural form.

Stupa: L'environnement d'un horizon vertical

Concernant la dimension spirituelle de l'expérience artistique, l'art contemporain est demeuré éloquemment silencieux. Quoique le philosophe Bodhisattvas, sur la pensée duquel se trouvent fondés nombre des principes de l'art contemporain, mette en valeur la prédominance de la description sur l'explication, les concepts frères du narratif et du significatif, restent sur le même tas du dépotoir paradigmatique contemporain. Le sens, malheureusement, échappe à la démonstration. Les avatars semi-logiques ont arraché le signifié du signifiant. En favorisant l'assaisonnement, c'est-à-dire une esthétique de l'apparence plutôt qu'une conception de l'essence, l'art contemporain a perdu ses résonances ontologiques.

Fort à propos, le mot stupa signifie " tas " ou " pile ", endroit idéal où se débarrasser des inepties. Le " tas " est un des tout premiers objets que nos corps produisent naturellement. Des profondeurs de la défécation jusqu'aux sommets de la déification, il est naturel à l'homme d'entasser comme d'empiler. Pour le paléontologue, l'empilement est l'indice élémentaire de la présence humaine.

Grand comme un édifice, un stupa est cependant absolument massif. Alors qu'une cathédrale rassemble le peuple en son sein, matrice de la communauté, le stupa isole les individus. Sur son pourtour, des personnes distantes d'à peine plus de deux mètres perdent le contact visuel, sont occultées par la courbure du dôme ( anda du stupa ). Traditionnellement, le stupa est abordé dans une relation qui implique le mouvement corporel : la triple circumambulation rituelle appelée pradaksina. C'est au cours de cette " danse " en présence du stupa qu'a lieu un phénomène au-delà de toute description que je nomme horizon vertical; l'oculation du champ visuel derrière le dôme ; la confluence de l'horizon planétaire et de celui du anda. À travers les métamorphoses d'une forme architecturale vielle de plus de trois millénaires, épurée et codifiée à partir de l'impulsion rituelle, le stupa apparait comme l'une des manifestations les plus anciennes d'activité multidisciplinaire.

Mon objectif est de déconstruire la structure symbolique du stupa. Ma démarche est spirituelle parce qu'elle concerne la signification du stupa. La signification ( ce qui donne sens à la réalité ) ne peut être démontrée, mais appréhendée : elle se trouve à la convergence des lectures disciplinaires et paradigmatiques. La déconstruction des points de vue disciplinaires ( épistémologiques, sociologiques, académiques, religieux ) révèle une interrelation d'éléments sculpturaux, architecturaux, rituels, symboliques, physiologiques, optiques, spirituels, gravitationnels et environnementaux cristallisés en une forme schématique d'une simplicité à couper le souffle. Appréhender la matérialité du stupa grace au mouvement corporel élucide le sens de sa forme, actualise sa puissance symbolique.

La présentation de ce projet sera inaugurée le jeudi 1er novembre 2001, à 20h00, à la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, à Montréal, et se poursuivra jusqu'au 15 décembre. Cette présentation est le point culminant de plus de 25 ans de recherche et de réflexion, et constitue l'événement public associé à une thèse doctorale en Études et pratiques des arts soutenue à l'UQÀM. Cette manifestation publique de mes préoccupations spirituelles consiste en trois éléments, une performance, installaction et cette thèse écrite.

I.1 Introduction to my doctoral project

Concerning the spiritual in art, contemporary art has been deafeningly silent. When the philosopher Bodhisattvas upon whom so much of the theoretical foundation of contemporary art is founded valued description above explanation, the sister concept of meaning was also dumped on the paradigmatic scrap-heap. Meaning, unfortunately, cannot be described. The semilogical Avatars who have followed have teased apart the signified from the significant. With the preference for flavouring, and the ascention of an aesthetic of appearance above an aesthetic of essence, contemporary art has lost its spiritual dimension and its ontological resonance.

The great whale of scientific progress lies dieing on a sun-drenched beach. As for all dieing creatures, the nervous system goes last. The convulsive shutter of the sea monster's final electrical discharges manifest in the world as the World Wide Web. Is the present technology as bankrupt of meaning as any other aspect of technological 'progress'? Our ontological paradigms are in bad shape, sterilized specialization has hardened our attitudes like the frozen vegetables in a freezer chest. Unlike the rotten meat on the beach, the homogenity of fast-frozen theories of knowledge can be defrosted and consumed at some future time. As a thinking person I am drawn to the direction of meaning, of which the present offerings in the specialized disciplines and in technology are so vacant. A medium may be a message, but one with little of interest to say. The avalanche of self-realisation in the popular culture reflects a profound, and growing, quest for meaning.

Appropriately enough, the word stupa means 'pile' or 'heap', a good place to throw rubbish. The 'tas' is one of the first objects our bodies naturally create. From lowly defecation to the heights of deification, it is natural for human beings to pile things up. Palentologists use 'piles' as a clue for the earliest signs of a human presence.

A stupa looks like a building, but is completely solid. While a Cathedral gathers people in an embryonic space, fusing them into a community, the stupa isolates the individual. Someone two meters away is invisible as they are oculated behind the stupa's dome. Traditionally, the stupa is engaged through physical movement, the ritual of a three-time circumambulation called the pradaksina. This 'dance' we perform in the presence of stupas reveals an phenomenon I call the vertical horizon , the oculation of the visual field behind the dome, the confluence of the horizontal planar horizon and the anda. With over three millennia of history one sees clearly that the stupa was codified and changed through ritual activity.

My goal is a deconstruction of the stupa. My project is spiritual because it focuses upon the stupa's meaning. Meaning (making sense of the world ) can not be described but it can be explained : it is found at the point of contact between the disciplinary and paradigmatic readings. A deconstruction of the restricted disciplinary viewpoints ( epistemological, social, academic, religious, archeological, architectural ) reveals an inter-relationship of sculptural, architectural, ritual, plastic, symbolic, physiological, optical, spiritual, gravitational, and environmental elements crystallised in a schematised form of breathtaking simplicity. Engaging with the physical object of the stupa through movement explains the reasons for its form, and actualises its powerful symbolic dimension.

The public presentation of my spiritual preoccupation consists of three complementary elements, this written thesis, a performance using digital video and an installaction.

The performance attempts to blur the distinctions between the interpretative arts and the creation arts by recreating the spirit of my initial creative response to the stupa, my 1980 performance work The Sacred Circuit. Parts of the contemporary performance is recreated exactly as it remains in memory and through what can be deduced from documentation, a revivification of an artefact of performance art history. This strategy messes up time, superimposing the first visits to these sites in 1977 and the subsequent 1980 performance, with the summer 2001 recreation captured in situ on digital video. The real-time performance November 1st, 2001 completes the triad of temporal references. The straitification of distinct periods of time is layered with the various media that capture these moments : original creation, memory, re-creation (interpretation), and video recording. The re-creation changes the status of the real-time performance from a new creation to that of an interpretation, reflecting the frozen historicity of the stupa itself .

An installaction is initiated following the performance described above. It will be created at the same time every day over a week's period at the exhibition site, the resulting installation occupying La Chapelle until December 15. This physical manifestation ties together the symbolic threads that will be explored throughout this written thesis.

I.2 Methodology and Cadastral features

1.2.1 The research question

Can the stupa, as an architectural and religious form originating in Asia, be reactualized in an environment of contemporary occidental artistic endeavour ? What does the interpretation as a sculptural environment change in our experience of this object ? My research question is therefore : what is the experience of the stupa ?

I have spend considerable time analysing the different methodological approaches that could be used in answering this question, reflecting the importance that I attach to methodology in my creative process. Using such a multiplicity of mediums, I am searching primarily for coherence between the elements. There are five possible methodologies I have considered for my thesis on the pre-Buddhist and Buddhist stupa : 1) analytic induction, 2) hermeneutics, 3) heuristic procedures, 4) the phenomenological method, and 5) the Historical Comparative method.

1.2.2 The historical context of the research

The selection of the appropriate research methodology for my investigation into the Buddhist and pre-Buddhist stupa has had an impact on final state of the research question, and the operational definitions of concepts . Choosing an appropriate methodology for this thesis is not immediately obvious for three reasons :

1.The research subject is multi-field, appearing in the literature review under such topic references as anthropology, architecture, ritual, symbol, mythology, religion, philosophy, Buddhist studies, and restoration.

2.There is little quantitative data on stupa. Also, most of the published literature is directed towards specialists, or is fragmented and diffused.

3.My own longstanding interest in the stupa has caused me to amass, in a casual manner, a wide variety of field notes and experiences using many methodological approaches. For example, my first travels in Asia and the resulting 1977 project the Sacred Circuit captures my initial exposure to the subject in a series of notebooks. Seven years later in 1984, a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) focused on an anthropological approach to the stupa, a year of research spent in amassing material on rituals and popular beliefs pertaining to the sculptural form in south-east Asia. This research used both historical-comparative and heuristic methodologies, heuristic in that it included a ten month participation as a novice ( upasaka ) in a Buddhist Hermitage in Sri Lanka. In 1986 I interviewed participants and collected photographic documents of the construction of a stupa in Kinmount Ontario, and collected reports on the construction methods used. Another voyage to south-east Asia in 1992 permitted me to deepen my appreciation for the stupa, and to update my photographic records following the numerous stupa restorations undertaken in the early 1990's, particularly in Sri Lanka.

Thus, over the years I have amassed material on the subject through several approaches, principally methods in phenomenology, heuristics, interviews, historical research, ethnology, architectural history, and historiography.

1.2.3 General methodological features of this research

As interpretative field research, my point of view is an integral part of this research. Interpretation is made from my location in time, place, culture and world-view. I am aware and sensitive to the inherently interpretative nature of history, as demonstrated by Edward Hallett Carr (1961 : 14), and the inevitability of personal context. I believe that when the interpretative context is hidden or repressed it plays tricks upon the data, thus I attempt to embody my context fully, and exemplify it, in order to permit the reader to quickly fathom my prejudices and deal with them appropriately.

I have attempted to be sensitive to specific historical, geographical or cultural contexts of the stupa. This has been facilitated by my immersion in the subject. As interpretative field research, living with this subject for so long has gained me an empathic understanding of its nature, as well as a better comprehension of how the objects, events, rituals, people and everyday events surrounding the stupa embodies its social meaning.

Although quantitative data is used, the spirit of its use is closer to field research than to positivist methodologies. By focusing attention on evolving concepts, I will be able to make a selection among texts, artefacts, events, actions, symbols, and personages. These selections in organising the data has been made instinctually, and has been subject to internal criticism.

My theory building is grounded. During data collection and organisation fluid hypotheses have been tried out and discarded. Simultaneous construction of theory while researching sources has allow me to develop and modify concepts through a dialogue with the data, continuously reorganising the thesis around the evolving evidence.

This spiral research method has permitted some limited generalisations, found in my concluding Chapter. The conditions of the research, the object of the research and the individual who is the researcher constitute a unique body of evidence, however, so no fixed propositions or law hypotheses will be drawn. This research is undertaken in the full knowledge that, as the evidence is historical and cross-cultural, it will necessarily be incomplete and provisional.

The study of the stupa has been seen as active in the field of ' translation '. The language, terminology, meaning systems, focus, life goals and philosophical concepts of the geographical and Buddhist context which have sustained the stupa are fundamentally foreign to me. I have attempted to penetrate and understand the distinctive cultural point of view that generated the stupa, in order to translate it into terms and metaphors compatible to, and illuminating for, an occidental understanding. " The investigator can thus be regarded as fighting a continuous struggle between the 'culture-boundness' of system-specific categories and the 'contentlessness' of system-inclusive categories " (Smelser, 1976 : 178).

My dissertation has attempted to describe the actions, sequences and processes which create the experience of the stupa. Like field research, " both say that people construct a sense of social reality through actions that occur over time. Both are sensitive to an ever-present tension between agency, the fluid social action and changing social reality, and structure, the fixed regularities and patterns that shape social actions and perceptions " (Neuman, 1994 : 377).

The research writing presented here has been directed towards comprehension. As the diffusion of this study has been highly prioritised, it targets a goal of understandability, clarity, and interest for the reader.

The on-site field research has been privileged in this study. Secondary sources are necessary to provide historical and social context, but the reader is cautioned that these sources can be fragmented or distorted by cultural bias. Secondary sources must be interpreted, which grafts a further layer of interpretative distortion onto the original material. As specialists, no Historian presents theory-free objectivity. Historiographic interpretation, especially in a specialist field, can be quite selective, as shown by the conflictual findings often found in the secondary literature. " Before you study history, study the historian [...] and before you study the historian, study his historical and social environment " warns Carr (1961 : 54). Reconstructions of the past often impose coherence. The use of my early research material ( from 1977-1980 ) has been cautious, hoping to avoid the possibility of teleologies (Lowenthal, 1985:234).

1.2.4 The context of this research

The literature on the stupa has increased exponentially over the last ten years. It appears that at the same time as I became seriously interested in the subject, in 1977, a score of other researchers also began to question the architectural interpretation of the stupa. Reacting to this classification, this recent research has enormously expanded the interpretative field. The cascade of new publications have addressed these lacunae in interpretation in various ways, and in many cases have put their cases forward very effectively . There are now even a few studies on the stupa using the ' new ' methodologies, with a post-modern viewpoint (V. Dehejia, 1996 ; Y. Kajiyama, 1985). I have attempted to bringing my unique approach to the subject, that of an interdisciplinary visual artist involved in public art. I consider the stupa as an environment, and this abrupt change of viewpoint has clarified many aspects of my creation-thesis, especially regarding the following points :

I have limited the number of stupa sites to seven, concentrating on stupas of representative types and with which I have a direct and repeated experience.

My approach does not duplicate academic scholarship, which exists in quantity and is not my speciality.

My contribution to stupa research is founded upon my personal experience as an artist, working with sculptural installations and monumental projects in public art.

My creative project has taken place at the stupa sites themselves, actualised by the conditions of physical presence.

My project takes into account the fact that I am not Asian nor even a Buddhist. This thesis is a contextual environment for interpreting the physical manifestations of the entire creation-thesis project.

1.2.4 Cadastral features

This Introduction defines the essential direction and originality of my research project. It also introduces the subject of the stupa to a general reader.

The subsequent seven Chapters ( the pilgrimages ) voyage to the specific stupa sites. Each site is treated through the same four elements :

1.The site description ; its location, history, and context.

2.A feature ; a specific feature of the site contributing to an understanding of the stupa. The seven sites have been selected to contribute to an over-view of the major types of stupas, their primary geographical distinctions, and their constitutive elements.

3.An element ; a concept manifest at the site useful for understanding the experience of the stupa. This concept is used in the development of the creation aspects of my project, either performance, video or installaction. The ' element ' provides a base for interpreting the multidisciplinary ensemble.

4.The experience ; a heuristic engagement with the site written during the in-situ performances .

The conclusion attempts to establish several dominant themes for the project ( primarily space and ritual ) and draws parallels between the stupa context and the creation of the original artwork.

I.3 Introduction to the stupa

One of the earliest references to the stupa is found in the Mahaparinirvanasutra, central part of the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadin school (Bareau, 1962:229). As in the corresponding Mahaparinibbanasutta of the Dighanikaya in the Pali Canon, the Buddha gives instructions to ananda about the funeral for his body, discarded after his entry into nirvana. His bones, once cleaned, must be stored in a golden urn ( sauvarna kumbha ) and placed inside an appropriate monument built at the crossing of four roads, described as a stupa . The worship of the relics is the task of the lay people, not that of the community of monks.

This reference describes the stupa as a sepulchral monument, a receptacle of relics (sarira ), to be venerated by the lay community ( upasaka ) while the sa-gha is engaged with other concerns . From these references, it seems that stupas and their worship were originally alien to Buddhist thought. They were inherited from the past and rooted in Indian tradition (Fussman, JIABS 1986 : 50), gradually introduced into Buddhist practice through the worship of relics practised by the lay devotes (Cayton, 1996 : 11). As in many other instances, the adoption and transformation of a pre-existing Brahmanical tradition became part of the new religion. In an article in the Indian Historical Quarterly, B. Barua places importance on the underground relic casket ( dhatugarbha ), the stupa serving as an upper covering. For Barua the stupa is a tomb or tumulus : " It is well observed that the topes were not especially Buddhist monuments, but, in fact, pre-Buddhistic, and indeed only a modification of a world-wide custom " (IHQ, 1926 : 21). The mortuary rites of the Gujarati Chaudhari tribes consist in painting an image of the deceased person ( Khatru ) and placing it inside a large circular funerary dome called a ghumat. These domes are then clustered under a large tree, giving the appearance of votive stupas (Doshi, 1992 : 101).

Vedic symbolism is clearly present in the structure of the early stupa, a mound of earth pierced by a 'sky-pole'. In Vedic Sanskrit the word bhuman stands for 'earth' if it is of neutral gender and accented on the 1st syllable, or 'unlimited abundance, multiplicity', if in a masculine form accented on the second syllable. " Ce n'est pas une homonymie fortuite : bhuman 'terre' et bhuman 'abondance' dérivent l'un et l'autre de la même racine BHu, 'être' " (Malamoud, NRP, 1975 : 206). The structural core of the monument is a central pole sometimes seen emerging from the top, the yupa (Plate I.5). In John Irwin's analysis of this symbol, the Vedic term yupa is also applied to the sacrificial pole Svaru, underlining its significance as an axis mundi . The Svaru of Vedic ritual has a square lower section, associated with solidity and the earth, an intermediating octagonal middle section acting as pole and link, and ends with a round section, the hemisphere of the heavenly vault. The sacrificial pole of Vedic ritual and the world axis in Indian cosmogony are closely related to the central staff running through the centre of the stupa (Snodgrass, 1965 : 321). Early stupas in Sri Lanka preserve these central pillars which are called indrakila, the staff of the God Indra that holds up the prop of heaven, preventing it from falling down onto the earth with a consequent return to chaos (Plate I.6).

The stupa appears to be invested with the symbolism we associate with concepts in Indian cosmology such as Mount Meru, the Royal Parasol, and numerous tree symbolisms. The Tree of life, the Bo tree presiding at the parinirvana, the celestial fig tree which has its roots in heaven and its branches growing towards the earth, all find their correspondences in the stupa (Bosch, 1960). The Tibetan term for the stupa is 'repository of offerings' ( mchod-rten ), the central pillar is srog-shing, translated as 'Tree of life' (Plate I.7).

I.1 The stupa's name

The Sanskrit word stupa occurs as early as the Rgveda . In the Taittiriya-sa-hita and Pancavi-sa-brahmana its meaning is given as " a knot or tuft of hair " (Tucci, 1988 : xi). The root stup and noun stupa has many derivatives distributed over the vast distances from Afghanistan to east Asia (Turner, 1966). The Pali word is thupa meaning 'heaped up', in Prakrit it is thuva 'heap', Assamese thupa 'heap of straw', and in Indo-European tumba, meaning 'a piled-up heap' ( heap of earth, heap of straw, of paddy or of cow-dung ), and its derivatives tu-, tuba, tuppa, tua, and tup (Barua, IHQ, 1926 : 16). Tucci cites the Vacasptya wherein the word stupa means ' a pile-up of clay ' (1988 : xii).

The Pali word cetiya derives from cita 'piled up', and is synonymous with stupa for some authors . The cetiya consists of four principal forms : paribhoga-ceitiya containing objects used by the Buddha ; dhatu or Sariraka-cetiya containing relics ; dhamma-ceitya containing scriptural works or images ; and votive uddesika-stupas, stupas made by Buddhist pilgrims on visits to sacred places (Ramachandran, 1952 : 117; Sivaramamurti, 1942 : 20). Sushila Pant asserts that caitya derives from the Vedic word cita, meaning funeral pyre ( 1976 ). Another synonym is aiduka, Pali eluka (Goswamy, 1980 : 3). Priyabala Shah gives the Prakrit origin for the word aiduka as 'terrace' (JOI, 1,3 : 1951). The term aiduka appears for the first time in the Mahabharata connoting 'bone chamber'. The Mahabharata Vanaparva refers to the stupa in disparaging terms, linking them to the degeneracy of the Kali-yuga : " The earth shall be covered with Edukas instead of with temples to the Gods " . It is said that the followers of Brahmanism, disparaging the popularity of stupas, contemptuously called them Eduka, " structures of rubbish " (Pant, 1976 : 21-22).

As it spread across Asia, the stupa was renamed. For example the Sinhalese dagoba derived from the old Sinhalese tuba or tumba (Paranavitana, 1946) (Plate I.8); Tibetan mchod-rten ( chöten ) (Figure I.1); the Thai p'ra-prang, a blunted form of the Khmer çikhara ' sanctuary tower ' or Siamese p'ra-jedi ' sharply pointed bell ' (Le May, 1962 : 7) (Plate I.9); the chedi (Plate I.10); the Anglo-Indian tope ; the Cambodian that ; the Burmese Zedi (Plate I.12) ; the Anglo-Tibetan dungsten or dharmadatu, meaning 'essence'; dhatugarba 'in the womb' ; chartyagriha (Sahni, 1937) (Plate I.11) ; tathagatacaitya 'catiya of the Buddha'; in Japan the names sotoba and tahoto (Soper, 1978:42).

Outside of the Indian sphere the word stupa is also attested in the Greek stupos 'stem, stump, block' (Liddell and Scott, 1929) and Greek forms stup and stuph. We can compare the cognates in Latin stipes, stipa, stupeo ; Lithuanian stups, stupe, plural stupas (Uhlenbeck, 1998).

I.2 The earliest stupas

J. Przyluski reviews the evidence for a tumulus origin for the stupa in an article in The Indian Historical Quarterly , but A. K. Coomaraswamy and Paul Mus reject the tumulus origin for the stupa. For them the stupa is an imagined form (dhyatam) with its origins in man. " The stupa, particularly when monolithic, is essentially a domed form rather than a domed construction [...] and therefore, necessarily to be understood rather from a symbolic than from a practically functional point of view " (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 16). For Mus, neither architectural analysis or the extant texts can clarify the genesis of the stupa and its relationship with the tumulus . These two scholars lean towards a symbolic reading. Asking what has happened to the body of Gautama Buddha after the parinirvana, Mus writes : " Dans l'ensemble, on peut dire que la stricte orthodoxie interdit même de se demander ce qu'a pu devenir le Bouddha, la solution pratique de cette question se trouve dans le stupa " (Mus, 1978 : 76).

It is natural for humans to pile things in heaps. This activity is attested to at the earliest sites of humans, for example in Neolithic Jerico circa 6250 BCE, or in the Mesolithic archaeological evidence from the Engano and Mentawei Islanders (Wales, 1957 : 2). The Quadrangular Adze Culture spread from India to the Malays during the Neolithic, erecting dolmens, symbolic forms also known in Mongolia and Europe (Grimes, 1995). " The sacred mountain, as well as the den ancestor, appeared to be represented in each village by [...] a ficus tree on a mound being substituted by some of the older tribes, the significance apparently being the same as the Chinese mound of soil " (Wales, 1957 : 32). Paul Mus draws parallels between the stupa and megalithic piles known as Chams (1938), and Volwashen believes that a Megalithic grave at Brahmagiri anticipates the important elements of stupa symbolism (Figure I.2).

The Satapatha-brahmana describes the square shaped ancient Aryan towns as prasadas, meaning ' pyramid of terraces ', while the non-Aryan cultures built circular towns (SBE, 1882, vol.10 : 423-24). Kurgan tombs in the northern Caucus and around the Black sea are round in shape, and as diverse in kind as the Buddhist stupas. Przyluski speculates that the invasions of these peoples coincided with the erection of the first big stupas in the 2nd century BCE. This raises the question whether some pastoral tribes, constructors of the kurgans, may not have played a part in the creation of the Buddhist stupa (Przyluski 1936 : 204-209). In the Gandhara region, where some of the earliest stupas were built ( Lauriya Nandangarth and Dharmarajika in Taxila ) some circular stupas were replaced by square terraced forms during the Kusana dynasty ( 2-4th century CE ), expressing a return to the Aryan form (Stein, 1907 ; Franz, in Dallapiccola, 1980 : 39).

The caitya is often identified as being synonymous with the stupa (Snodgrass 1965 : 156). As the Buddha is described as visiting caityas as well as stupas in the early canon , Sushila Pant wonders why two words were required if they were the same thing (1976 : 38). Coomaraswamy explains : " A caitya is not primarily a building, but any object made use of as a sacred symbol or cult object " (1935 : 63).

Three further confirmations of the importance of 'piling' for the comprehension of the stupa. Even completed stupas can be further heaped upon (Le May, 1962 : 98) (Plate I.14). De Leeuw describes a 12 foot high stupa found inside larger stupa : " This is only another example of the custom still prevalent among Buddhists of enlarging existing stupas from time to time by encasing them " (1956 : 282-3). In this instance the harmika was misinterpreted as an alter (uttaravedi ) until the rest of the internal stupa was uncovered. Parker finds a smaller dagoba inside King Duttha-Gamini's Ruwanwaeli dagoba, built circa 161-137 BCE (Parker, 1909 : 12). One mahacaitya carries the name Dutiyam Vadhite meaning " stupa doubled in size" (Roy, 1994 : 108). The mahastupa at Sanchi was enlarged at least once, and was constructed by building successive shells.

The names of stupas can refer to heaps, like the ceitya in south India called Sridhanyakataka, 'heap of grain' . One of the six conventional stupa shapes in Sri Lanka is called dhanyakara, 'paddy-heap shape' (Tucci, 1988 : xiii), a fine example being the Kaelaniya dagoba constructed in the 3rd century BCE (Parker, 1909).

Many traditions perpetuate the archaic impulse to heap, arrange and ornament. In our time, examples of these activities can be found in the Thai reliquaries That mai (Srisuro, 1979 : 88), in sacred rocks, like the Kyaiktiyo in Myanmar (Munier, 1998 : 8-13), in the Tibetan Wheel of Time sand mandala (Bryant, 1992), in the sand stupas of Laos and Thailand (Gabaude, 1979), and in the Onam festival in Kerala where the athapu flower arrangements are built each day from piles of mud, sand or cow-dug (Sharma, 1978; Aditi, 1985).

I. 3 The stupa : the symbolic model

The stupa also has advantages as a subject for the study of Indian architectural symbolism in that it is, in terms of its architectural function, an extreme case; it has no usable interior space ...( Snodgrass, 1985 : 4 ).

A stupa is solid, inverting any expectation of an architectural function. As a sculptural object, rather than an architectural one, its meaning is articulated through symbol. " While the functional aspect of the stupa originated from the Vedic burial mounds common in India during the time of Sakyamuni, the transcendental purpose of the stupa has no precedence outside Buddhism " (Cayton, 1996 : 4) . Drawing out these transcendental purposes is difficult, cautions Snodgrass, because every symbol is multivalent in meaning (1965 : 109), and one can quickly become entangled in obscure and esoteric readings, what Turner calls the " indigenous exegesis of symbols in the ethnographic enterprise " (in MacDonald, 1997 : 391). I will attempt a summary of the symbolism based on the points of consensus found in the vast literature published on the stupa.

According to tradition, the basic components of the stupa were laid out by Sakyamuni himself, using the traditional possessions of a bhiksu. The Buddha folded his robe four times, laying the resulting four tiered square on the ground, creating the vedika. On top of that he placed his inverted alms bowl( patra ) creating the anda. Above the bowl he placed his staff (khakkara) creating a chattravali . The cosmological symbolism of the stupa originates in the central pillar, and emanates throughout the entire structure. The platform base ( vedika ), where the ritual pradaksina is performed, is a mandala often decorated with belts of vajras or lotus petals isolating the central sanctum inside the sacred space. From this foundation the central spire ( yupa ) establishes contact with the supramundane sphere. The dome, consisting of most of the mass of the monument, is called anda or garbha ( matrix, embryo ). The stupa is the symbol of the universe, and the anda the cosmic egg, leading to the appellation of dhatugarbha ( matrix of elements ), contracted in Sinhalese to dagoba.

An important feature marks the spot where the central axis emerges from the dome. Originally a fence placed around the bodhi tree, this structure evolved into a pavilion in the form of a cube ( harmika ) defining a second space ruled by the tension created by the juncture of cube and hemisphere. Here again the conceptual world evoked is pre-Buddhist, as the harmika reminds us of the fence protecting the sacred tree at the centre of villages in Vedic India, and even perhaps a Buddhist version of the uttaravedi ( high altar ) . With the harmika, the transference of the pradaksina ritual to the heavenly abode on top of Mount Meru was achieved. At the harmika the spire supporting the Royal Parasol emerges ( yasti ) (Plate I.19). The parasol ( chattravali ) duplicates the meaning of the entire stupa, it is stuck into the anda duplicating the indrakila's relationship with the earth, its canopy of umbrellas representing the vault of heaven.

In Indian tradition the stupa peg ( yupa ) merged with and into the yasti at quite an early stage. The chattravali distinguishes different heavenly worlds through an odd number of superimposed discs ( cakra ) piled one on top of another (Longhurst, 1979 : 16-17). The parasol is recognised throughout Asia as a symbol of Royalty, identifying the stupa as the relic chamber of a cakravartin, 'wheel-turning king' or universal monarch (Cayton, 1996 : 11). The chattravali is an imago mundi tracing the sun route, corresponding to the Akanittha heaven, marking the boundary of the rupaloka, the world of form (Mus, 1935 : 523). The crowing vase or jewel locates the bhutakoti, the point where the Buddhas exit the cosmos and enter the void.

The stupa is a series of symbolic systems superimposed like concentric layers (Figure I.21). At each point of transition along the vertical axis of the yupa another dome is generated, a series of invisible domes piling up, symbol of the states of meditational consciousness and supernal realms. The features of the stupa represent the stages in the attainment of impermanence (Kölver, 1996 : 38).

Each of these positions locates a point of transition from one world to another [...] the Buddha attains nirvana by a meditational ascent of the cosmic axis, rising to the pinnacle of existence, where he breaks out of the universe into the realm of totally unfettered Freedom. The nature of the ascension to Enlightenment, being ineffable, can only be conveyed to the unenlightened by analogy, that is, by way of a reflected image. The point where the stupa's axis meets the round is just such a reflection. It is the " trace " in the mundane world of the ultimate place of Enlightenment ( Snodgrass, 1965 : 337 ).

The correspondences between the microcosm and the macrocosm is an essential constituent of Indian thought. It is most often expressed through changes of scale and through repetition, man and Buddha, who have the same body but occupy different mental states. The base of the stupa is often identified as 'legs' ( jaghavedi ), the dome representing the trunk, the central pillar the merudanda or spinal axis, and the harmika the head.

Newars and Tibetans sometimes painted the Tathagata's eyes and urna on the harmika, emphasising this relationship, the chattravalli emerging from the usnisa at the crown of the head (Krishan, 1996 : 111). Gérald Fussman studies the history of the idea of the stupa as Buddha body, pointing out that orthodoxy does not claim the stupa to be the actual physical body of Sakyamuni ( kamaloka ) but that it is his dharma-body. Some Mahayana sutras describe stupas containing Buddhas, occupying them as a man occupies his skin (Fussman, JIABS 1986 : 37-48).

CHAPTER I

Pilgrimage to Guntapalli, India.

Chapter I introduces one of the oldest known stupa types, the cave-stupas. Discussion of the 'hut' theory of origin for the wood features found at this stupa leads to an analysis of vegetative and plant symbolism, an important theme that will be developed further in section 3.3 of this thesis.

Section 1.3 of this Chapter introduces the theme of the ritual circumambulation known as the pradaksina. This physical engagement with the monument is the central concept explored in the performance aspect of the creation-thesis. It has also had a strong influence on the formal disposition of stupikas found in the installation.

1.1 The site

The Guntapalli rock-cut stupa cave ( chaitya-griha ) is in the west Godavari region of India, 10 kilometres west of Kamavarapukoka, 45 kilometres north of the Elluru Railway junction. It dates from the 2nd century BCE and was discovered by Robert Sewell (Sarma, 1988 : 30). It is an early example of a vihara cave ( vrtta-caitya ) with a monolithic central stupa cut directly into the rock. The cave has a circular diameter of 3.56 meters and is 2.47 meters high. The pillar-less circumambulatory path is 92 centimetres wide, and it has a narrow porch in front. There are examples of brick built stupas close by the cave (Sarkar, 1966 : 18).

1.2 The Feature: cave stupas

Hand-cut caves were an early form of sacred place ( Rail, 1975; Fergusson and Burgess, 1880 ). The tradition began in the Satavahana dynasty circa 271 BCE, when over 1,000 artificial caves were founded along the ancient trade routes of Asia (Higuchi, 1983). Of prime interest for palaeographic study ( inscriptions ), these hand-hewn caves were sites of worship (Deshpande, AI, 1959; Dehejia, 1972:30). The earliest, like the Lomas Rsi and the Sudama caves in the Barabar Hills, were hewn in the 3rd century BCE by the ajivikas, a Jain sect. They were discovered empty, without stupas (Volwashen, 1969 : 97; Huntington, 1985 : 34).

Is it possible that the empty circular chamber itself, involving a sophisticated conception of space and emptiness, may have served some purpose? It seems more likely, however, that a structural stupa of some sort occupied the chamber ( Dehejia, 1972 : 71 ).

Even if these stupas were stolen or destroyed, this cannot account for the pre-Buddhist cave near Tellichery in Kerala State. It consists of a hemispherical space duplicating all the details of the stupa architectural idiom - dome, drum, vedika, in reverse. A monolithic pillar in the centre of this cave reaches from floor to roof (Jouveau-Dubreuil, 1922). Volwahsen describes the cave as a negative stupa, and speculates that the pillar may be a rendering of the earliest form of human dwellings as is described in the sacred texts, tree-homes where the central trunk supported a roof of leaves hanging down on all sides from the apex . " Or, is this the first representation of the cosmic axis and of the cosmos as a sphere, anticipating the view of the cosmos later encountered in Buddhism ? " (Volwahsen, 1969 : 96-97).

Guntapalli, and a small group of other circular caves , were carved at the earliest stage of Asokan Buddhism. They consist of a small room nearly filled by a stupa, seamlessly carved out of living granite. Vidya Dehejia speculates that the voluminous central stupa was perhaps originally connected to the apex of the roof with a rock-cut yasti, completing the repertory of stupa elements (1972 : 74). It is very interesting that this structure, obviously a stupa of the earliest period, has no funerary associations or relics. These dualities seem reconcilable to Anagarika Brahmacari Govinda : The stupa brought together the tumulus form with the shaded tree and railing of the temple - and thus became a symbol for life and death, the two poles (Visnu &endash; Siva ) (1976 : 12).

The simulated wood treatments in the ceiling at Guntapalli have received much commentary. The Todas, an aboriginal tribe of India, built circular huts with curved bamboo roofs covered with leaves called pansala. In 1888, William Simpson speculated that these huts could be the first germ of the catiya : Their roofs have precisely the same elliptical forms as the Chaitya with the ridge, giving the ogee form externally, and altogether, whether by accident or design, they are miniature Chaitya halls [...] such forms may have existed in India 2,000 years ago, and may have given rise to the Chaitya halls, but it is, of course, impossible to prove it .

Subsequent scholarship has concluded that the roof carving at Guntapalli is derived from the typical wooden hut architecture found in Andra Pradesh. It has its origin in Neolithic hut structures, examples of which have been excavated at Navdatoli and Tekkalakota (Sarkar, 1966 : 27; Rao, 1965 : 15). The cave ceiling at Guntapalli is carved as if made of wooden beams , a strange convention for sculptors of stone, but one shared by the Kondivite cave, where wooden lattice is imitated (Huntington, 1985 : 75). A combination of dome or barrel-vaulted ceilings had developed in wooden buildings in Asoka's lifetime, the 3rd century BCE (Volwahsen, 1969 : 98). These techniques of woodwork have been faithfully duplicated in at Guntapalli chaitya-griha, and this convention became part of Buddhist cave-carving 'architecture' as seen in the 2nd century BCE examples at Bhaja, Besa, and Kondane, and in the 1st century at Ajanta and Pitalkhora . The Karle stupa cave had a wooden chattra, and often the exterior porches of the caitya caves were made of wood (Burgess, 1880 : 77). Stanley Abe finds faux-wood features throughout the 5th century CE rock-carved Mogao Buddhist cave in Duhhuang China (AO, 1990:11), and Christophe Munier presents examples of wood features in south-east Asian Buddhist caves right up to the present day .

As with the example at Gadaladeniya, timber roofs were often placed over dagobas in Sri Lanka, these hemispherical rafter and rib structures very like the one carved in the ceiling at Guntapalli. These Sinhalese roofs function as shelters so that the stupa can be worshipped in bad weather- Debala Mitra suggests that perhaps the cave shrines served the same purpose ( Mitra, 1971 ).

The actual techniques used to cut into the stone cliffs is not documented, but can be deduced by a close study of unfinished caves. From the traces on the rock the nature of the tools used at Guntapalli must have been pointed chisels, possibly made of iron, struck with heavy mallets. The rock was subsequently smoothed with flat chisels of varying widths. Usually work was begun by polishing the cliff face and then driving a tunnel as tall as a man into the cliff. This tunnel was widened and deepened by cutting 'steps'. In an unfinished Ajanta cave employing steps, the stone-masons have dug trenches 1 to 1,5 meters wide into the cliff, leaving ribs of rock standing in the trenches. The ribs were then collapsed using wedges, and the material removed. The advantage of this 'stepped' method is that the wedges were driven in horizontally, so that the broken rock falls immediately away onto the step below, to be removed easily through the exit. Volwahsen believes that all caitya halls were sculpted in this way (1969 : 178).

1.3 The concept : the pradaksina

The circumambulation of a stupa ( pradaksina, literally 'keeping to the right' ) is a Buddhist ritual well attested in the Indian tradition. References are found in canonical texts describing monks and laity approaching the Buddha so that their right side was turned towards him. This reflects one of the basic dynamics in the process of ritualisation : ritual often symbolically marks the body in particular ways that reflect a hierarchy of value. The pradaksina is a form of veneration and respect (K. Trainor, in Dehejia 1996 : 33). This physical interaction is the key element in my interpretation of the stupa as an environment rather than as a form of architecture or sculpture. It invites physical interaction, and this interaction has the ability to evoke the stupa virtually. This concept is manifest in the creation-thesis performance, where I attempt to evoke the virtual presence of specific stupas through the enactment of their pradaksina.

In the Sutra of Trapusa and Bhallika the Buddha gives instruction to Trapusa on the correct practice of the pradaksina : In circumambulating [...] three acts should be present. In raising your foot, reflect upon the act of raising your foot. In putting down your foot, be mindful of the act of putting down your foot. Thirdly, you should not look left and right… (Abe AO, 1990 : 10).

This passage confirms the perceptual restrictions required to create the phenomenon of the vertical horizon. Following these instructions the eyes are fixed at the jointure of the two horizons, the horizontal planetary horizon and the vertical oculation of the surrounding landscape by the anda's dome. Focusing precisely at the point of contact of these two horizon fields while walking around the stupa results in a dissolution of the visual field .

Snodgrass associates the ritual walk with the worship practised at the early terraced stupas. Ascending to the pradaksina-patha from the east ( mimicking the sun's movements ) the devotee turns at each terrace and walks in a clockwise direction with his right side to the stupa. This spiralling ascent has a solar symbolism, the stupa providing the central pivot like the hub of the six-spiked wheel of the world (Snodgrass, 1985 : 286).

The narrow circling path at Guntapalli, less than a meter in width, places the visitor into an immediate and tactile interaction with the stupa. The visual effects described above are unavailable, as the experience passes in complete darkness, as well as in the total silence only found when the human ear is sheltered by tons of granite. At Guntapalli, one is accompanied in performing the pradaksina by the sound of one's heartbeat. Caitya caves constructed after Guntapalli, even circular ones like at Bairat, provided apses or entrance ways leading to the stupa, permitting preparation time for the participant, and time for the eyes to adapt to the conditions of low light (Sahni, 1937).

Early caityas cut parallel to the rock face with access through the side of a rectangular chamber [...] it became apparent that if the caitya were excavated perpendicular to the rock-face the result would be more effective. The worshipper would face the doorway of the inner chamber on entering, and would glimpse the stupa within (Dehejia, 1972 : 73).

As sculptors in later periods removed the walls of the circular chamber, they created apsidal structures with a fully visible rock-cut stupas at the far end. With the further development of Buddhist ritual, a path for progressive circumambulations was made by cutting rows of pillars allowing for an apsidal cave around the stupa, dividing the interior into a nave and side aisles (Huntington, 1985 : 75-85). Eventually windows were cut through the rock face to illuminate the interior stupa, although at the caves of Budh Lena, Lenyadri and Bhima Shankar windows are carved in shallow relief but are not cut through (Burgess, 1880). According to Vidya Dehejia, the fact that they are smoothly finished rules out their being unfinished (1972 : 80).

CHAPTER II

Pilgrimage to Sanchi, India.

Chapter 2 introduces the most important surviving example of the Indian hemispherical stupa as built by Asoka. This monument has been and continues to be the indigenous Indian model of the stupa. It is the origin point for tracing Indian influences in the history of the stupa. The gateway toranas introduce the concept of 'visual narration' so important to my concept of the locus of meaning within a sculptural environment ( Section 2.2 ). The discussion of aniconism is pertinent for the notion of 'symbolic substitution' used in the performance and installation aspects of my creation-thesis.

2.1 The site

A station on the Central Railway between Bina and Bhopal permits access to Sanchi from either Bhopal or Vidisa. The site is at 23o 29' north latitude and 77o 45' east longitude, in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, India (D. Mitra, 1971 : 3). The town of Vidsa was at the crossroads of two important trade routes during the Suga period, 2rd century BCE ( Rao, 1994 : 11). A number of stupas were erected at monasteries in the vicinity of the city, inscriptions attributing them to the lay persons of Vidisa (Huntington, 1985 : 91). The most important of these sites was on the Sanchi Hill ( Sangharama ) , consisting of three stupas built during Asoka's reign and through to the 1st century BCE. Bimbisara, the King of Magadha and a contemporary of the Buddha, had reported that a monastery must have the following features:

Must not be too far from the city but also not to close to it, within easy reach of all people, and yet during the day not too crowded and at night not too noisy and dangerous, free from the odours of the populace, and finally a place concealed from the general view and well suited for a secluded life ( Volwahsen, 1969 : 90-91 ).

Sanchi Hill fulfilled these criteria. Its proximity to Vidisa enabled the bhiksu to find enough households for begging while still maintaining their retreat from the world. Once the site was levelled, the stupas were constructed of baked brick covered with clay ( msttika ) and stucco ( sudha ) (Bénisti, 1981 : 42). There are many kinds of bricks used in Ancient India, organised according to a precise hierarchy. In the Satapatha Brahmana the first bricks positioned are called ashadha (without rival), they are as long as a man's foot and represent the earth. Subsequent brick courses are made up of 'special' bricks, accompanied by spoken formulas they are placed loosely around the structure. Smaller bricks fill in the spaces between these( lokamprna, literally 'hole filling' ). " Les briques spéciales sont la noblesse, la classe guerrière ( kshatra ); les briques bouche-trou sont la plèbe (viç)... il faut donc empliler beaucoup de briques bouche-trou " (Malamoud, NRP, 1975 : 213).

Stupa I is the largest at Sanchi, the mahastupa, originally with a diameter of 20 meters. As at the monumental stupa at Sarnath, the chattra was sculpted from Chunar sandstone. Encircling the stupa was a wooden railing ( vedika ) separating the lower pradaksina-patha from an elevated one called the medhi. These railings copied the Aryan fences built around trees and sacred sites, wooden uprights ( thabha ) fitted with closely packed thick horizontal posts joined to one another with cross-bars.

In 150 BCE the Suhga Kings renovated stupa I at Sanchi, nearly doubling its diameter to 36.6 meters and encasing it in ashlar masonry. The hemispherical anda was built up, one dome encasing another, the spaces in between filled with rubble. Stone balustrades replaced the ancient wooden railings of the vedika, the builders modelling the stone exactly as if it was the original wood. All 120 uprights, including the ornamental medallions and the tendons tying the uprights to the terminal beam, were recarved in stone. These uprights were carved like a wooden fence, with lenticular cavities into which the separate cross-beams were mortised.

Such a costly construction may not seem to us to do justice to the material used ; nevertheless in the context of what could be realised at this time the builders could hardly have produced a more stable construction of similar appearance. There is no discrepancy between technique chosen and the material ; such a discrepancy does exist between the form and the material, but then the form was sanctified by tradition and could not be changed (Volwahsen, 1969 : 93). Mireille Bénisti calls the vedika rails usnisa (1981 : ftn. 9). Coomaraswamy believes that this section of the vedika is called usnisa because it belts the stupa like a turban or headscarf around the head of its wearer (1956 : 17).

Stupa I is embellished by four magnificent stone entrance gateways called Toranas. Stupa II has only one torana. Stupa I and II are similar except for their size and number of toranas, the vedika and four entranceways follow a svastika plan, and there is an intermediate berm level, the medhi. The medhi terrace acts as drum, elevating the stupa's dome. In the thupava-sa this feature is called udara, and in Sri Lanka it is called the puppheddhana, "place where flowers are deposited". (Paranavitana, MASC, 1947 : 16 ). The feature is also called divyadana. At Stupa I the berm functions as a second level for the pradaksina, accessed by a stairway ( sopana ).

The Great stupa has preserved its crowning structures. Where the central pole ( yasti ) emerges from the dome, the harmika has the form of a four-sided box, strongly suggesting the enclosures placed around trees and sacred stones in caitya and earlier traditions (Auboyer, 1949 : 49-52). These protecting enclosures are among the earliest traces of Indian civilisation, appearing on seals from Mohenjo Daro and on Vedic coins (Coomaraswamy, 1927 : 45). The toranas of stupa I provide the key for interpreting the harmika enclosure; the reliefs show a tree actively worshipped by the upasaka, the tree protected by a box railing ( caitya-vrksa ) (Snodgrass, 1985 : 153).

At stupa I, three stone parasols cap the yasti above the harmika, making a connection from the relics to the sky. This configuration, although logical, was not always carried out in other stupas of this period. Asoka built eighty-four thousand of them according to legend (Obeysekere, 1990 : 182; Roy, 1994 : 167). The Dharmarajika stupa at Sarnath has lost its finials, but the crowning structures of the Amaravati stupa, also built in the 3rd century BCE, is known through reliefs now preserved in the Madras Government Museum ( MacKenzie, 1823 ; Roy, 1994 ; Sarkar and Nainar, 1980a ; Burgess, 1887 ). As seen in a model of the Amaravati stupa, the yasti emerges from the harmika beside two parasol chattras, the parasols do not cap the pillar. The chattras denote the presence of a Royal person, and represent a solar symbolism .

With the decline of Buddhism in India in the 12th century CE, Sanchi was abandoned ( R. C. Mitra, 1954 ). General Taylor was the first British official to see the monument, in 1818, and published his account in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1835 . The site was in ruins, overgrown by dense foliage. It is usual for small votive stupas to cluster at the sites of important monuments (Schopen, 1987 : 197). The Sanchi Hill today seems surprisingly barren, mostly because the smaller stupas were cleared out during the 1881-1883 restorations ( Marshall, 1918a : 87-88).

Sanchi's Great stupa has become a symbol for Buddhism, and is frequently copied : the New England Peace Pagoda in Levertt, Massachusetts is an exact replica ; the Maha Bodhi Society constructed a copy on top of their Chetiyagiri Vihara at Sanchi itself ; and the Navayana Neo-Buddhists, founded in 1959 by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, have adopted the great stupa as an emblem which they replicate with frequency (Tartakov, in Dehejia 1996 : 113-129).

2.2 The feature: the toranas

The central theme of my thesis is to demonstrate that the stupa can be best understood when engaged with in physical movement ( with the eyes in motion ). The narrative tract provided by the carved toranas of Sanchi are significant demonstrations of this principle. The extensive bas-reliefs sculpted on the toranas are a rich insight into the world of early Buddhism, and they have been extensively commented upon and documented. Debala Mitra studies the bas-relief decorations and depictions of scenes, tracing an improvement in technique and composition from stupa III to stupa I (1992 : 21). The toranas of the great stupa itself provide an integrated narrative which force the visitor to move around the complex gate structures, changing levels and positions to read along the multiple faces: interior, exterior, left and right. Vidya Dehejia's " The Animated World of the Toranas " is an extraordinarily heuristic reading of the primary narratives, where Dehejia interjects the physical movements required to continue reading the narrative :

...stepping back somewhat, your attention will be caught by a striking female who serves as an ornamental bracket (Dehejia, 1996 : 49).

...As your gaze dropped to a comfortable level, you would encounter a scene which makes reference to the Buddha performing the miracle of the waters... (ibid. : 49).

...Arriving at the south entrance with addorsed seated lions supporting the architraves, your guide might suggest that you should not look merely at the outer face of the torana as you had done at the eastern entrance. This is because the gateway was sculpted on its inner face was well.(ibid. : 50) .

The story flows continuously, almost biologically , from one scene to the next across the monument. An interpretative essay by Laura Scanlon states that the reliefs represent our pradaksina experience moving through time (Dehejia 1996 : 95). This engagement of the visitor in movement is also confirmed by the architectural mise-en-scène of the pradaksina-patha at Sanchi. The lower pradaksina-patha consists of a ring of impenetrable railings pierced by four entranceway gates oriented to the solar movements. Just as the Buddha had set in motion the 'wheel of doctrine', the mendicant is symbolically engaged in the cogs of the Karmic cycle. At the time of the andhras, who succeeded theSuhgas, these lower entrances were rebuilt in the form of swastikas, setting the visitor on a diagonal path into the monument that further dynamised the experience. Once the pradaksina-patha has been navigated, a flight of stairs lead to the medhi on the south side of the Great stupa, narrowing the visitors path. The lower vedika deviates from a purely circular form to accommodate this stairway (Volwahsen, 1969 : 94).

Each torana consists of two upright square pillars supporting a superstructure of three richly carved architraves with volute ends. Like rolled scrolls, these spiral volutes suggest that the scenes depicted continue to infinity. Both sides of the architraves, as well as some of the faces of the upright pillars, are sculpted in bas-relief with a unified iconographic program. Above the highest architrave auspicious emblems appear as free-standing sculptures, including the dharmacakra (the wheel of the law ) and the triratna ( the three jewels ). Capitals separate the superstructure sections with fully-sculpted elements : elephant capitals on the east torana ; lions on the south gateway ; dwarves on the west and elephants on the north. Other animals are carved in the panels formed at the junctures of the vertical and horizontal members.

The elephants on the north and east gateways are part of a royal procession, with flag-bearing riders sculpted in the round and placed between the architraves. The dwarves of the west gate ( ganas ) hold their arms over their heads supporting a step-pyramid superstructure representing mountains. This atlantid form of dwarf can be seen elsewhere in Indian art, such as in the Pitalkhora caves in Maharastra (Hungtington, 1985 : 85). The addorsed lions on the south gate represent the symbolic type found on Asokan pillars, an example of which was uncovered just south of Sanchi. Brackets emerging from these capitals, supporting the vertical architraves, represent nude female vrksadevata grasping onto different types of trees. Door attendants or guardians ( dvarapalas ) are carved on the inner faces of the uprights of each torana. Huntington presents the case for the interpretation of these figures as Bodhisattvas, future Buddhas. If demonstrated successfully, this would call into question the interpretation of the great stupa as a Hinayana monument, as the Bodhisattva, though known in a limited form in the Small Vehicle, are characteristically associated with the Mahayana (Huntington, 1985 : 97).

The construction of monuments such as the Great Stupa at Sanchi is usually understood to reflect profound changes in Buddhism that eventually resulted in the development of the Mahayana or Universal Vehicle [...] Thus the stupa is both a place where spiritual progress can occur and a symbol for that process. The four gateways surrounding the Great Stupa at Sanchi represent the ability of Buddhism to spread from this sacred site to other times and places ( Leidy and Thurman, 1998 : 10 ).

The phenomenon of ' narration ' found on the Sanchi toranas is central to the creative manifestations of my thesis project. Narration moves forward in linear time, it is sequential and creates an internal logic. Manifesting repetative stupikas in the installaction, their sequential creation and progressive possession of the exhibition space, re-enact in compressed time the narrative sequence and the accumulations of miniature stupas experienced at Sanchi throughout its long history.

2.3 The concept: aniconism

Aniconism refers to the interdiction of the representation of the physical body of a sacred being, a widely practised taboo known in Islamic art. The lack of an anthropomorphic representation of Sakyamuni on the Sanchi toranas has several dimensions. Firstly, the four classifications of the scenes on the gateways are :

i) scenes from the Jatakas

ii) scenes from the life of Gautama Buddha

iii) events following the parinirvana

iv) scenes relating to the Manushi-Buddhas

The scenes represented on the toranas taken from the Mahakapi, Chhaddanta and other Jatakas are concerned with the Buddha's 549 existences prior to his final birth. We must remember that many of these incarnations were in animal forms. Would early Buddhists consider it appropriate to represent the Buddha in the confines of the bodily form of Prince Siddhartha, his final incarnation (Dehejia, 1996 : 39)? Scenes from categories iii and iv depict pilgrims or celebrations that took place after the parinirvana. The worship of a pair of the Buddha's footprints ( buddhapada ) on the outside face of the middle architrave of the east torana clearly show that the Buddha had passed by, but was not actually present. Only category ii scenes would require the substitution of a symbol for Gautama's body required by aniconism, but this point is argued against by Huntington (1985 : 98), and van Kooij (1995 : 34-35).

Much has been written about the torana bas-reliefs. Perhaps the most striking feature about the sculptures on the Sanchi toranas is the sense of joie de vivre that they communicate to their viewers - a joyful expression of involvement in all of life's activities [...] It is this artistic ingenuity and originality that makes an encounter with the Sanchi toranas such an unforgettable visual experience (Dehejia, 1996 : 38).

Two of these joyous depictions are interesting for this study because they represent stupa ritual in the 1st century BCE. A carving on the rear west face of the north pillar of stupa I shows the devotions at a stupa similar to the Great stupa being performed by a group of foreigners. The people in Indo-Scythian dress are making a lot of noise, playing drums, a Greek double flute, and other musical instruments as they circumambulate. They have tight curls of hair reminiscent of Greek figures, and some have pointed caps similar to Parthians from western Asia. Angel-like figures ( kimnaras ) bring garlands down onto the monument, which occupies the central focus of the scene . Van Kooij believes that the festive atmosphere of this relief argues against an aniconic reading, " on the contrary, all indications in this picture point to festivals which were celebrated on the occasion of the consecration of newly built stupa or at its anniversary " (1995 : 35).

A final example, also from the north torana, depicts two rows of male lay devotees at a cave stupa very much like Guntapalli. The caitya is clearly rock-cut as it is integrated into surrounding rock formations. The elevated stupa form is clearly depicted, as are the movements of the devotees, their hands pressed together in the Anjali mudra as they perform their devotions.

The concept of aniconism underlines a peculiarity of the mythic dimension of symbols, their substitutionability. If the stupa can replace the Buddha body at Sanchi, then my body can replace the stupa during my performance. If the inherent quality of the symbolic construction is maintained, symbols can substitute their iconic objects without loosing meaning or coherence. This quality of the symbolic construction ( symbol-world ) is an aesthetic of essence which is at the core of the magic of art.

CHAPTER III

Pilgrimage to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The previous Chapter described the constituient elements of the Indian stupa. This Chapter explores the Sinhalese dagoba and its modifications on the symbolic model, specifically the increasingly important role of the harmika and the displacement of the relics.

The association of the elements associated with the stupa increase in complexity and number in the Sinhalese dagoba, with precise symbolic referents to the constituent elements inherited from India ( yupa, chattravalli ) as well as new elements (yantragala ). The importance of the 'tree' symbol for the interpretation of the dagoba is explored in section 3.3, a theme developed in the performance.

3.1 The site

A flurry of dagoba building in ancient Sri Lanka in the 1st centuries BCE and CE has left us a world heritage site of first importance. The Thuparama dagoba is the oldest in Anuradhapura ( 1st Century BCE ); it perhaps marks the site of the Pathamacetiya where the Arahant Mahinda, the purported son of Asoka, and his followers entered into the city for the first time (Devendra, 1966 : 89). The site I have chosen for my performance is the most massive early dagoba, the Jetavana, built by King Mahasena between 276 and 303 CE. This structure is associated with the Sagaliya school founded by the monk Kohontissa in the 3rd century CE, on the spot where Mahinda first taught the dharma to the people of Sri Lanka. The Mahava-sa tells us that these early stupas had mud cores that were covered by a brick casing (Bandaranayake, 1974 : 140). The foundation of the monument is 26 feet deep, it has a base diameter of 370 feet and an actual height of 231 feet, making the Jetavana the most massive stupa known ( Cook, 1977 : 156 ).

3.2 The feature : the dagoba

Mahinda's delivery to Anuradhapura of a branch of the bodhi tree under which Sakyamuni had achieved parinirvana symbolically announces the arrival of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. In the early Indian Sariraka-stupas, like Sanchi, the relics were placed in the body of the anda. In the Sri Lankan dagoba the relic chamber ascends. The relic was often placed in a cubic receptacle on the crown of the dome. A shift of the ritual centre only became possible after the stupa had lost its original significance as a burial mound, during the reign of Ashoka, and had become an interminably repeated symbol of the teaching and cosmology of the Buddha [...] the reliquary, which was moved from the centre of the anda to its summit; the rounded form of the anda became the image of the infinite cosmos (Volwahsen, 1969 : 90).

The Mahava-sa relates the story that when King Dutthagamani enshrined the Buddha relics in the Great stupa at Anuradhapura, the relic case rose into the air . The Sinhalese call the harmika the sivuras-kotuva 'four-cornered enclosure', (Gosling, 1996 : 131), or the devata-kotuwa 'citadel of the Gods' (Bénisti, 1981 : 41). Przyluski asserts that in the big hybrid monuments of Sri Lanka the harmika is clearly the dwelling place of the dead (IHQ, 1935). It is related to the Vedic fire altar, to which it bears a striking resemblance (Gupta, 1988 : 40).

The ascension of the relic chamber to the harmika permitted the Sinhalese to divest their dagobas of funerary associations. The dagoba is more than a container of physical relics, it is the embodiment of the essential dharma qualities of the person. These qualities still exist, the dharmakaya is emitted from the relics through the monument, inviting others to embody them (Harvey, JIABS, 1984 : 83). The relics are deposited in the dagoba as a 'seed', bringing the architectural body to life.

" Inseminating the womb ( garbha ) they quicken the dead mass of the masonry " (Snodgrass, 1985 : 354). The relics enliven the stupa because they are imbued with the dharma qualities of the deceased ; these qualities fuse and become inseparable from the dagoba.

The increasing significance of dharma symbolism is important because of its valorisation of the stupa as a plastic articulation of symbols. This new freedom lead the Sinhalese to an extraordinary development of symbolic attributes and sculptural forms in their dagobas. The stupa, in fact, becomes the architectural equivalent to the scriptures, inexhaustible and open to interpretation (Snodgrass, 1985 : 366-371).

When the relic chamber ascended to the harmika, it left a physical trace in the anda. Mysterious objects litter the grass behind the Anuradhapura Archaeological Museum, differently shaped stones with 9, 16 or 25 indentations. My own 1979 journal entry records that when first encountering these yantragalas I wondered if I had not found the genetic code of the stupa. Archaeological Commissioner H. C. P. Bell details recovering a yantragala from a dagoba excavated in 1909, were 13 of the 25 indentation chambers had not been disturbed. Bronze figures were sealed in the compartments, bulls, lions, horses, elephants and Dikpalakas, figures representing the guardians of space (ASC, 1914 : 2). " From their contents and design, the boxes have symbolic references to cosmic views, which [...] are fundamentally the same in both Brahman and Buddhist systems " (O'Connor, AA 1966 : 58). The yantragala are mandalas, containing auspicious objects ( crystals, semi-precious stones, animals, votive figures, objects in gold, silver and copper foil ) carefully arranged with spatial significance and buried in the foundations of important structures. Paranavitana cautions that the yantragalas are not confined to stupas and are not to be considered as relic chambers (Paranavitana, 1946 : 23), indeed C. Malamoud describes similar 'pierced bricks' associated with the Brahmanic alter:

Mais il existe encore une classe de briques, dont la fonction est exactement contraire: au centre de chaque couche de briques, et tout au sommet de l'édifice, sont posées des briques 'naturellement percées ', svayamatrnna, pierres poreuses ou trouées [...] Ces échappées, enclaves de vide dans tout ce plein, doivent permettre à ' l'homme d'or ', image du sacrifiant et effigie anthropomorphe de Prajapati, de respirer et de s'élever par paliers jusqu'au-delà du monde céleste (NRP, 1975 : 214).

These artefacts are the sacrilalisation of space invested in architecture, and are also found throughout south-east Asia, at Cham sites in Vietnam (O'Connor, AA, 1966 :59), in Kedah and Indonesia, and even at Angkor Wat . Once the sepulchral associations were attenuated, the stupa was expressed sculpturally, occupying plastic space. The builders had the freedom to interpret the dagoba cosmically and symbolically, as an interrelationship of symbolically significant elements.

«The stupa, the characteristic monument of Sinhalese Buddhism throughout its long history, occupies a special position, though not only on account of its primacy. Strictly speaking, it lies somewhere between architecture and sculpture [...] although conceived in architectonic terms, it occupies rather than encloses space and, thus, it can be seen as a monumental sculpture rather than as an architectural form ( Bandaranayake, 1974 : 137)».

Most of the elements of the Sinhalese dagoba are essentially the same as they are in stupa I at Sanchi: a platform used for the pradaksina; a raised drum; the anda containing most of the mass of the monument; and the harmika ( devata-kotuwa ), now a relic chamber. The chattravali has changed significantly, however, becoming chattatichatta ( umbrella above an umbrella ), gaining in volume as a conic superimposition of rings (Roy, 1994 : 104). The Sinhalese dagoba is a structure in harmonious and equilibrated balancing of shapes and symbolic references. We must be careful, however, in the loosened context of interpreting the Sinhalese stupa as a ' sculpture ', to specify if the feature we are considering is fulfilling a function or expressing a meaning (Coomaraswamy, 1938).

The basic structural elements of the dagoba are :

Feature- shape- symbol

Base- square- origins

yupa yasti- pillar- tree

anda- sphere -earth

harmika- cube- relic

chattatichatta- cone- sky

These categories are not as isolated one from another as they might appear in the environment of this chart. For example, the anda's transition to the harmika can be poetically considered, " [domes] appear to have been destined to symbolise the passage from unity to quadrature through the mediation of the triangle at the squinches... in this procedure from unity to quadrature " (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 2). According to Schroeder, the platform base expresses a desire to accede into the anda, " the square is obliged to forsake its plan and strain forward to meet the round dome in which it must terminate " .

Anuradhapura at the time of Mahinda's arrival was an example of the ideal Indian city based upon the Brahmanic codes and the vastuprusamandala, a diagram of universal order. Anuradhapura duplicates the ideal town described in the Jatakas of Buddhist India : it is the prescribed size; it is a square city with four gates facing the cardinal points ( caturdvara ); and it is focused upon the royal palace at the epicentre( rajangana ). With the arrival of Mahinda, a cosmic revolution began as the presiding Brahma and the eternal matrix of the vastuprusamandala was superseded by the new cosmic reality of impermanence and dharma. " Changes so vast and pregnant with meaning could not be imposed simply as an epiphenomenon upon the existing order of things " (Wickremeratne, 1987 : 51). As the paradigm shifted, the city was re-drawn.

The drama unfolds in the Mahava-sa as Mahinda deconstructs and re-forms the spatial sacrality of the city under the amazed eye of King Devanampiyatissa. Each time Mahinda correctly identifies a significant city axis the earth trembles in approval. He indicates the changes required by casting a fistful of jasmine flowers to the ground, marking the spot. While laying out the configuration of the new sacrality, Mahinda ventures out from the central palace ( epicentre of the existing city plan ) each morning; but with time it becomes clear that the centre has shifted to the south. Mahinda makes arrangements for the theri Sanghamitta to bring to him a branch of the tree under which Gautama achieved sambodhi (called the Nyagrodha ), the sacred Bodhi Tree. Using a pencil of red arsenic, she draws a line around a southern branch of the fictus religiosa which detaches from the parent tree. It is carried from Jambudvipa in a golden vase across the sea to Anuradhapura, where it is planted with great ceremony in the new epicentre of the now Buddhist city (Wickremeratne, 1987:54). The tree is still there to this day.

The notion of centrality is a key part of Buddhist thought. Like the sacred tree at the centre of the reborn city itself, the dagobas are situated in the topographical centre of the metropolitan monasteries ( viharas ) of Anuradhapura. These stupa-centric plans are called by Bandaranayake 'organic monasteries' (1974). The central dagoba, with its monumental proportions, emphasises its' ritual pre-eminence and expresses its symbolic role as centre of the sanghas' universe, just as the bodhi tree focuses the spiritual energy of the laity, and indeed of the entire Buddhist population of Sri Lanka.

3.3 The concept : the tree

Not even the arrival of authentic relics of the Sakyamuni Buddha to Anuradhapura could match the importance of the coming of the bodhi tree ( Wickremeratne, 1987 : 59 ff.37). It symbolised aspects of fundamental importance to Buddhism, the reconciliation of the macrocosm and the microcosm, the definition of the link to the sacred, the veritable axis mundi. Its psychic energy originated in the ancient Aryan symbol of the axis of the universe, the tree in the middle of the village under which the elders took council , re-appearing in Anuradhapura as the bodhi tree, and also in the stupa as a vertical axis (Volwahsen, 1969 : 90).

The tree symbol is of such importance in Asia that many major studies have been undertaken . It is a central image in the Indian creation myth. According to Tucci, in the Žgveda, the word stupa means 'tree stem' (Tucci, 1988 : xi). " The stupa is only comprehensible in respect to its axis " writes Coomaraswamy (1938 : 17). John Irwin relentlessly attempted to demonstrate its importance. Robert L. Brown summarises Irwin's views :

The [primordial] mound is a clod of mud that floats to the surface of the cosmic waters at the beginning of the world's creation. A World Tree (analogous to World Pillar or Axis Mundi) grows out of the Mound to separate Heaven from Earth and simultaneously to peg the Mound so that it is secure. The Mound then begins to swell. Irwin argues that the tree on the Mound ( caitya- vsksa ) became the stupa ( Brown: JAH, 1986 : 230).

The Lamkara sutra mentions that trees were used to build stupas, the constructions probably mounded around them (Bénisti, 1981 : 43). Vinaya texts refer to the Buddha shrine at Vesali as an 'open shrine', possibly trees, and the commentator of the Dhammapada states that the Udena and Gotama cetiyas are tree shrines (Law, 1932). The large number of tree cetiyas in ancient Sri Lanka is attested to in the Samantapasadika . The tree as the most ancient abode and shelter for humans : By that city of Jatigama, which is a divine tree for its residents, where there are prosperous and majestic rulers of the earth, and with lotus in the form of the city, as resorted to by the bees... (Godakumbura, 1969 : 12).

The interrelatedness and continuity of the Brahmanic and Buddhist formulations of symbols is the sign of a culture heavily invested in its traditions. The tree symbol is one among a number of axial symbols ( mountain, pillar, vajra ), but is made distinctive by its living nature (Wales, 1953 : 100). The tree is the cosmos expressed on this earth. Its' roots are hidden in the depths of the chthonic earth as its branches bifurcate into a vault of the heavens, the whole schema mediated by the linking and supporting axis of the central trunk. Birds sit in its branches, snakes coil about its trunk, and the worms tunnel between its roots. " Heaven and earth, at once divided and united by the axle tree on which the revolution of the wheels takes place " .

The tree at the centre of the Indian village is expressed in Buddhism with the symbol of the caitya-vsksa, the bodhi tree enclosed by a fence. The Buddha himself designated the tree as an appropriate symbol to represent his reincarnation (Auboyer, 1949 : 73). " As a symbol (caitya) the Tree is the equivalent of the Buddha himself and in the caitya-vskta it is more specifically equated with the Buddha as the axis of the World " (Snodgrass, 1985 : 154). A striking reference to this immobile centre is described in the Jatakas as the unmoving shadow of a tree shading Sakyamuni during his first meditation : " The sun above him casts an unmoving shadow, while the shadows of other trees than the one under which he is seated change their place " (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 9).

The fence structures protecting sacred trees represented in reliefs at Sanchi, Mathura, Jaggayapetta and other ancient sites show clearly the railings, identical in form to the cubic harmikas, which enclose a vertically growing trunk (yupa) emerging from a spherical earth (anda). The word harmika is etymologically related to harmya (Pali hammiya ) meaning 'pavilion', signifying a hypaethral enclosure (Gombaz, 1932 : 195). Snodgrass details the evolution of the harmika form from this prototype (1985 : 246).

In my 1981-82 Asian Journal I speculated upon the validity of arguments using the cultural expressions of symbols. A derivative model of motifs and meanings leads to theories of formation where each element is mapped through its mutations in a sort of 'natural selection' in scholarship space ( aka. F. D. K. Bosch, Mircea Eliade ). What a relief it would be if some symbolic manifestations could be simply synchronistic! Certainly the forces of symbolic evolution are at work, but do not the procedures of scholarship describe rather than explain ? On the last page of " The Golden Germ " (1960), F. D. K. Bosch mentions the possibility of the 'world-tree' archetype being " a natural symbol for creation ". To unhinge the analytical consciousness and see symbolic forms as their creators and worshippers would have, and to describe that, would seem to me to be very elucidating. This is what I am attempting in my thesis-creation, to enter the skin of the cetika, and describe the experience of the stupa from a point inside its ritual.

The enduring resonance of the tree symbolism for Sri Lankans has been understood in exactly this heuristic way by President Junius Richard Jayewardene during his decade long Presidency which began in 1977. Modelling himself on the Asokan image of a Dharmista ruler, the President planted a sapling of the famous Anuradhapura tree at Adam's Peak, where it miraculously put forth nine shoots, paralleling the nine administrative provinces of Sri Lanka. Distributing these saplings to these provinces, Jayewardene symbolically expressed the paramountcy of the bodhi tree as the abiding axis mundi in the world of Sinhalese Buddhism. (Wickremeratne, 1987 : 57).

CHAPTER IV

Pilgrimage to Borobudur, Indonesia.

The previous chapters have followed the evolution of the stupa from its chthonic origins (Introduction and Chapter 1), to the hemispherical model (Chapter 2), to an increasingly complex iconographical program divesting the monument of some of its sepulchral associations (Chapter 3). This Chapter continues the logic of this presentation in the two established directions of my narration ; advancing in linear time ( from the past to the present ), and radiating outward in geographical space ( moving from the origin point on the Indian sub-continent into south-east Asia ).

The important site of Borobudur is analysed as a Mahayanist monument, leading us naturally from the Indian model of the stupa (Chapters 1,2,3) to Tibetan and other Mahayana forms (Chapter 5). The increasing complex iconographic programs given to the stupa in Indonesia prepare us for the jungle of manifestations we will encounter in Chapter 7. The important concept of the stupa as a stereomorphic mandala are explored in section 4.3, providing a direct conceptual structure for interpreting the 'sand patterns' created during the performance.

4.1 The site

No conquest or colonisation brought Indian civilisation to the Indonesian archipelago in the 1st century CE. The change from a Neolithic to a religious civilisation was made without shocks or confrontations. Nor was Indian culture established in the wake of trade. The use of Sanskrit for inscriptions and the adoption of Hinduism or Buddhism was the result of the arrival of priests and bhikhu who spread their religion throughout the small kingdoms existing on the many Islands.

Van Lohuizen de Leeuw asserts that India's best architecture is found outside of India (1980 : 279-280). Tjandi Borobudur is certainly unique in the whole Orient, built by the Sailendra and succeeding Sanjaya Kings over five periods from 780 CE to 833 CE . Buddhists affirm that the monument's correct date is BE 1462 ( 919 CE ) . The monument consists of nine superimposed terraces, and is sculpted of andesite, a hard volcanic stone. Borobudur is composed of 1.6 billion blocks, the astounding 55,000 cubic meters of stone required quarried in the surrounding mountains. Buddhist believe that Queen Phramodavardhani supervised the completion of the work, and that the name of the chief architect was Gunadharma (Khantipalo, BE 2513 [1970 CE] : 14).

The origin for the Javanese name Borobudur is not clearly identified, although consensus is forming around several possibilities: 'hill foundation' (Stutterheim, 1931 : 1-15); 'Vara-buddhapura' (C. Sivaramurti, 1961 : 1); or 'Mountain of the accumulation of merits of the ten states of the Bodhisattva' ( Bhumian bhara bhudara ) ( Bernet-Kempers, 1976 : 2). The monument was in use until the decline of the Mataram Kings around 919 CE when the area experienced a mysterious depopulation. The cultural and political centre then shifted to east Java (Wickert, 1977 : 7).

4.2 The feature : The Mahayana stupa.

The Mahayana school of Buddhism was particularly successful in Indonesia, probably because the doctrine of the Bodhisattva ( future Buddha ) appealed to the numerous Kings who wished to deify their authority (Dumarçay, 1978 : 2). The Mahayana doctrine ( Great vehicle ), distinguishing itself from the Hinayana or Theravada doctrine ( Monastic tradition or Individual Vehicle ), was sparked by the composition of the Prajnaparamita, or ' Text on Transcendental Wisdom ' around 100 BCE.

The construction of monuments such as the Great Stupa at Sanchi is usually understood to reflect profound changes in Buddhism that eventually resulted in the development of the Mahayana or Universal Vehicle. The basic tenets of this branch of Buddhism are found in certain sutras [...] In Universal Buddhism, enlightenment, while still a personal goal, is a cosmic process intended to benefit all sentient beings. In addition to Shakyamuni Buddha, the Universal branch accepts the existence of numerous Buddhas in our universe and in other worlds ( Leidy and Thurman, 1998 : 18 ).

One of the main distinctions of the Mahayana is the concept of the Bodhisattva, an intermediator between man and Buddha, who seeks to guide humanity towards liberation . The Mahayana shortens the period of time, and the number of rebirths, to reaching Nirvana. It relaxes the rigorous 'spiritual technology' of the Theravada, with its intense focus upon individual salvation through meditational practice, to the possibilities of divine intervention, 'magic', and other shortcuts. The Mahayana replaces the traditional Hindu Gods with Bodhisattvas of similar attributes. It embraces the traditional mystical practices of Hinduism which it calls its Tantra ; rituals, magic, formulas, gymnastics and control of breath ( pranayama ), all in pretext of speeding the path to Buddhahood. These features crystallise in the Diamond School ( Vajrayana ) founded in the north of India about 300 CE.

The mandala is a Tantric symbol par excellence, a mystical diagram providing an environment for the Dhyani Buddhas who reside inside it . The Dhyanis are " not ordinary Buddhas who have reached their state through numerous births, they are the Buddhas of all eternity, having never been anything else, and comprise the body of the universe " (Dumarçay, 1978 : 9). This concept of the Dhyani Buddha is, in itself, completely foreign to the beliefs of Small Vehicle Buddhism, which asserts that the term 'Buddha' is a state of mind won through hard labour by a mortal human. Hinayana Buddhas are not Gods.

An aerial view of Borobudur leaves no doubt that it is a mandala, a cosmic diagram (Wayman, 1981 : 139; Pott, 1952). The first terrace ( kamadhatu ), representing the 'circle of desires' is accessible through four gates, and was maintained in an excellent state of preservation by a massive wall of 12,000 square meters that covered it until it was excavated in 1891. Two theories attempt to explain the existence of this wall. The first is a constructional one, that it was a late addition built to shore up a collapsing monument, the other that the wall represents the 'iron wall' ( cakrawala ) that hides the representations of desire found on the reliefs from the eyes of the celibate sa-gha ( C. Sivaramurti, 1961 : 11 ; Wickert, 1977 : 18 ). Ascending to a landing in the stairway, we enter the 1st gallery of the rupadhatu, the 'circle of form'. On the balustrade as well as on the main wall, the gallery presents two superimposed series of reliefs. There are 104 Manushi Buddhas represented along the balustrade, these being the lowest degree in the Buddhist hierarchy because of their earthly manifestation. The pradaksina, skilfully controlled by the architects, leads us to the second gallery, very like the first, except that the reliefs are single full-height pictorials and not in two rows. 104 Buddhas occupy the niches, ruling the four winds of heaven. These are the 5 meditation Buddhas mentioned above, the Dhyani Buddhas, easily recognised by their hand gestures. Four of them are represented at this stage : Amitabha ( ruling the west ), Amoghasiddhi ( ruling the north ), Akshobhya ( ruling the east ), and Ratnasambhava ( ruling the south ). The 3rd and 4th galleries repeat the pattern, the 4th level accommodating only 72 Buddhas owing to the diminishing proportions of the structure.

After this very long walk around the square shape of the monument, enclosed by the high balustrades with their reliefs, the mendicant ascends to a plateau, a transition from rupadhatu to arupadhatu, the 'circle of formlessness'. The plateau balustrade holds 64 niched Dhyani statues of Vairochana, the last of the five transcendent Buddhas, his direction being the centre and his symbol the sun. The outer wall of this level is square, but the inner one is circular, and carries no reliefs. The narrative has concluded, and suddenly our visual field opens up as we leave the confining passages of the square labyrinth to a circular terrace. There are no stories or lessons here, only an austere staging of 32 stupas and a vast unobstructed view of the landscape 360o around us, stretching out to the horizon. The instructed would, naturally, perform a three-time pradaksina around each of the 32 stupas, dancing in circles after the prolonged period of walking in straight lines required by the rupadhatu. These stupas are trellised with diamond-shaped openings, through which a Vajrasattva Buddha can be seen, turning the wheel of the dharma. These are the diamond Buddhas, the sambhogakaya manifestation that unites the five Buddha families ( buddhakula ) within himself in the same way that his symbolic colour, white, unifies all the five colours ( EEPR, 1994 : 398 ). The second circular terrace mirrors the first, but with only 24 stupas to be engaged. The visitor is transferred into a world of abstraction, his or her continuous movement the only tangibility. A last variation is seen on the third and final terrace, where 12 Buddhas are covered by trellised stupas of an even simpler design, with square instead of rhombic openings. Woodward proposes that the stupas of the final upper terrace were perhaps gilded, creating reflective surfaces (1981 : 121). Gold leaf is often applied to monuments, statues and sacred rocks in south-east Asia. If this theory is correct the effect would have been extraordinary, evaporating the physicality of these stupas in a web of reflections.

The central stupa duplicates the form of the 72 satellites, quadrupled in size and abstracted further, devoid of any openings or details. It is " l'image du Sa-sara et la loi du Karma " ( C. Sivaramamurti, 1961 : 9 ). Alex Wayman contends that the stupa system found at Borobudur, the numbers of terraces and rings, represent the 36 star groups north and south of the elliptic at 8o latitude. The galleries symbolise the daytime, the 5th gallery the twilight, and the upper terraces the night sky with the stupas representing ensouled stars. This would divide the monument into three sections, symbolising body, speech and mind ( Wayman, 1981 : 154 ). In 1814 a chamber was discovered in the heart of the central windowless stupa. The chamber was found to be empty " Mais alors, le bouddhisme du stupa devra être de toute nécessité un bouddhisme du Nirvana " ( Mus, 1978 : 295).

Many have commented on the general flatness of Borobudur and the difficulty of seeing it as a whole, leading to speculations that it is not completed or that its original plans were revised. These ideas were confirmed when evidence of design changes were found by van Erp during the 1907 restorations. In 1924, German architect A. Hoening conceived of a pyramidal temple, prefiguring the later temple-mountains of the Khmers, atop the galleries : The true impression one gets from the monument, once it emerges from the nocturnal darkness that obscures its plan and distorts its masses, is of an immense platform with pyramidal sides, waiting in vain for the element it was to have borne ( Frédéric and Nou, 1994 : 24) .

As early as 1909 Alfred Foucher was also revisioning Borobudur, unsatisfied with its' external form :

The whole wears a heavy, almost squashed aspect. Where we might expect a pyramid, the builder has only conceived a dome. In truth it is no more than a stupa in the form of a dome, in the ancient Indian style, only much more highly wrought, intercut with a series of horizontal walkways and itself crowned with a second cupola ( BEFEO, 1909 : 4 ).

The most radical proposal was made by Henri Parmentier, who proposed that the 4 stories of square galleries were a base for an enormous hemispherical stupa :

The edifice, whose aspect is somewhat disconcerting, appears to be only the base of the structure its builders originally planned. The half-dome mass of the stupa proper was never executed, no doubt because of the subsidence of the hill that was to support it ; the settling would have awakened severe doubts as to the stability of the enormous mass they intended to build. The dome itself was in the end replaced by concentric circles of smaller stupas, perforated to further lessen their weight, and a relatively insignificant stupa erected in its centre ( 1948 : 80 ). Japanese architect Daigoro Chihara, working from clues in van Erps' restorations, argues for an enormous central stupa over 160 feet high ( 50 meters ) not shaped like a hemisphere but matching the shape of the present terminal stupa.

The original plan would therefore have called for placing a relatively large anda ( body ) to crown the edifice, consisting of six levels and resulting in a sort of modified stupa. However, when the foundations showed signs of weakness, the plan had to be abandoned [...] Then the monument was adapted to a new religious point of view ( 1980 : 140 ).

Bernet Kempers illustrates a less invasive hypothesis for 'improving' the external appearance of Borobudur, surrounding it by an immense lake, so that it can be viewed from a distance ( Bernet Kempers, 1970 : 133) (Figure 4.0). I spend some time on some of these revisionist ideas for the monument because they underscore the fundamental ambivalence to stupas sometimes demonstrated by architects.

« [The stupa ] can never attain the elegance of proportion or grace of form which are the essentials of a finished work of art. In its globular mass there could have been little that was rhythmic, or that could arouse real aesthetic satisfaction. It contained no interior hall, so that it served no special functional purpose ( P. Brown, 1927 ) ».

The lack of a coherent exterior form at Borobudur appears to be similarly problematic for western 'aesthetics', forgetting what the Sukranitisara makes clear that in India " The beautiful is not what pleases the fancy, but what is in agreement with the Canon " ( Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 17 ). Paul Mus rejects the ideas of Foucher and Parmentier, declaring them to be judgements based on western thinking : an assumption that the construction should be viewed from a distance and that it should conform to some kind of coherent geometry. Mus states clearly that Borobudur is the finished expression of an idea and was conceived as built, exemplifying a very precise religious symbolism ( 1935 )." Unfortunately, these hypotheses have been negated by the research and careful investigations performed during Borobudur's most recent reconstruction. We now know that the monument was in fact redesigned several times over the course of construction " (Frédéric and Nou, 1994 : 25).

In the context of this thesis and the concept of the vertical horizon, however, the present form of Borobudur could not be more convincing. The optical compression generated by the claustrophobic environment of the square galleries, dense with reliefs of theological lessons jumping forward and back along snaking walls, restricts the visual perception of what is to come in both vertical and horizontal directions. Perception explodes in the circular terraces, as we emerge into a view of the environment surrounding the monument. Engaging Borobudur physically, performing the pradaksina at the monument, contrasts the linear and restricted optical field of the galleries with the open views of the circular terrace stupas where our 3 time pradaksina of each of the 72 terrace stupas equals the distance travelled in the galleries. Could the changes in the construction plans of Borobudur discovered during Van Erp's restorations be informed by visual considerations?

4.3 The concept: the mandala

In Paul Mus' hermeneutic of Borobudur , he asserts that it is a double monument. There is an internal monument which is a picture gallery illustrating the Mahayanist doctrine. Equally, there is an external monument expressing the Buddhist symbolic cosmology. In terms of the vertical horizon, Mus is describing a formatting of the mind ( the lessons in stone ) paralleled by a formatting of the cosmos ( the mandala ) a book contained inside a symbol.

Regarding the inner monument, C. Sivaramamurti draws an interesting comparison between the picture gallery, which teaches the bhikhu through 1,460 reliefs, and the Indian tradition of Yamapata : Des montreurs d'images, chargés de rouleaux représentant des scènes élaborées des tourments infligés en enfer et des délices goutées dans le paradis, et portant des références particulières aux faits individuels et à ce qui résultait, constituaient une vision fréquente dans l'Inde ancienne ( 1961 : 13 ).

The Yamapataka, or 'shower of images', unrolls his Yamapatta revealing the drawings, interpreting them with appropriate songs. These scenes were unrolled in private houses or during public occasions, with the intention of impressing virtue upon the pious. This tradition lives on to this day in Java, in a ceremony known as the Wayang Babu. This linear and sequential 'revealing of the images' parallels very closely the experience of the pradaksina at Borobudur, where the staggered corridors of the rupadhatu do not permit a glimpse of what is to come.

The account of a pilgrimage by a group of 5 Theravadin Buddhist monks to Borobudur is told in a fascinating account authored by the Bhikku Khantipalo . They leave Wat Bovoranives in Bangkok on May 6 in the Buddhist year 2513 ( 1970 CE ). Although their transportation is by airplane, the enthusiastic spirit and problems encountered during the pilgrimage are time honoured. The visceral effect of the theatre of Borobudur is wonderfully described by these wide-eyed neophytes. Several members in Khantipalo's party become wholly absorbed by the relief's narration, brings some resonance to Sivaramamurti's theory of the parallels to the Yamapata . Khantipalo himself, as author of the account, expresses his resistance to some of the Mahayanist content : " The next four levels are said to represent Rupa-dhatu, though the matters depicted on the reliefs, both of the balustrades and of the main walls, does little to bear this out " ( 2513 : 3 ). The Theravadin objects to seeing 'godly' representations of the Buddha in the reliefs. The Mahayana's ' Sphere of Form ' is the Theravadin's ' Realm of Subtle Form ', that is beyond incarnations. The Master of Wat Bovoranives, Somdetch Phra Sangharaja, assures the bhikku that Borobudur is a paramabuddha-ceitya ( most excellent ) and that it represents a Garbhakosadhatu mandala ( 2513 : 14 ).

As for the external monument, there is a general consensus that Borobudur is a mandala.

Alex Wayman, who has written on the architectural uses of the mandala , describes the Tantric and stellar symbolism of Borobudur in a surprisingly heuristic passage where he imagines the experience of a person circumambulating the upper terrace stupas by moonlight (in Gómez, 1981 : 160-161). Snodgrass pinpoints Borobudur as a stereomorphic representation of the Diamond World mandala ( vajta-dhatu mandala ) (1985 : 141), but this is contested by Brown (JAH, 1986 : 226 ).

In a larger context, Gérald Fussman states that stupas can generally be considered as forms of mandalas, a point of view shared by Tucci (1988 : xvii). " Every Indian building is supposed to be built according to some diagram ( mandala ), its main axes are determined by using a gnomon and, wherever possible, made according to the cardinal points, which are not four, as in the west, but at least five, the fifth one being the direction of the zenith " (Fussman, JIABS, 1986 : 48 ). The acceptance of stupas as stereomorphic mandalas ( vastu-mandalas ) is common for lay devotes of the Mahayana tradition in Tibet, China and Japan.

Martin Brauen and Peter Hassler's "Computer aided 3-D animation of the Kalacakra mandala" ( IATS, 1997 ) is a remarkable projection of the famous Tibetan mandala into three-dimensional space . Elaborated by Brauen in a recent book , their technique is to project each section of the schematic mandala as if it was built in vertical space. The model of the cosmos created by the Kalacakra Tantra using this technique is remarkably stupa-like, an architectural reproduction of the universe, although most of the mandala projections produce temple-like structures. Completely independently of this research I myself created a three-dimensional mandala in 1997, projecting the 'circle' into a sphere in accordance with the laws of perspective. Contextualized within the fiction of a reclused Tibetan monk hiding from the Chinese in a shipping container for 12 years, my Dkyil'khor ( literally 'centre circle' ) was sculpted from human ear-wax .

The mandala is a form of yantra, Sanskrit for 'support instrument'. Yantra is a mystic diagram used in Tantric meditational practice where the meditator contemplates or inwardly pictures ( visualises ) various powers and aspects of the divine (EPH, 1994 : 425 ). These Tantric exercises go back 1500 years, as the Tantric tradition evolved alongside the Vedic tradition. " Tantra is, as the term suggests, very much a matter of practice, rather than mere faith or understanding. In particular, Tantra is a matter of ritual and of meditation " (Gupta, 1988 : 33). The use of images, and art, within devotional practice has a long history in all cultures. Sir Ernest Gombrich attempts to understand this dynamic relationship between man and image, describing his belief in a theory

... of the ancient world which concentrates on the effects of art on the emotions, almost as if the means of the artist were comparable to incantations, or even to drugs, seems to me the most important of them all. But, I would argue that the first to feel this effect, and indeed to seek it out, is the artist himself who discovers and selects the kind of emotion he wishes to cultivate and express ( AAQ, 1980 : 19 ).

Mandala, as for all yantra, creates a mirroring process ; the artist ( sadhakoti ) creates the mandala which in turn changes the artist. According to S. K. Gupta, two ideas have run through Indian religious thought from the very beginning; the idea of sacrifice ( real and metaphorical ), and the mirroring of planes of reality inside each other.

" If God is the universe, and man also corresponds to the universe, it follows logically that man corresponds to God. This idea is crucial to all Hindu paths to salvation " (Gupta, in R. Gombrich, 1988 : 34). The mandala ( Sanskrit 'circle' ) contains circles enclosing one central point; a mirror of the mirror.

The net, which hangs in Indra's Palace, has a jewel at each of the crossings of its threads. Each of these jewels reflects each and every other jewel and is in turn reflected in each of them ( Snodgrass, 1985 : 6 ).

If the stupas of the final circular terrace of Borobudur were indeed gilt with reflective surfaces as presumed by Woodward ( 1981 : 121 ), this composite of reflections would have climaxed the experience of visiting Borobudur.

Leidy and Thurman reproduce the image of an 18th century Tibetan mandala which synthesises all of the elements of the Mahayana cosmos, to be used in its visualisation. The axial mountain Meru ( Sumeru ) is the bindu centre, a square mountain with its four sides facing the cardinal directions, each one a different colour, the Pole Star directly above it ( 1998 : 111 ). This mandala-world has provided the ideal model for numerous Asian monuments and cities : the Khmer capital of Ankor Thom ( Yasodharapura ); the monuments of Pagan ( Myanmar ); the holy cities of Banaras ( Kasi ) and Madurai; and of course Borobudur ( Eck, 1987 : 5 ).

The mediation of space through the agency of yantras has a long tradition in Asia. Drawing mandalas in the sand, as I do at my creation-thesis performance, is a venerated ritual in all the countries constructing stupas. The ephemeral traces create sacred space and narrate the link between the symbol and the human body. The connection between the body and the mandala is clear, as the mandala has an 'incomparable flavour', referring to a recurrent metaphor in Buddhist literature. The word mandala comprises ' manda ' (ghee) and 'la' (composed of). As clarified butter is the concentrated essence of milk, so the mandala is a pure and quintessential distillation of the universe to be eaten by man. The Hindu universe is created when the milky ocean ( the Waters of potentiality ) were churned into forms.

" Mandala, says Subhakarasi-ha, means the most purified and refined part of butter... the part which is unchanging, firm, of excellent flavour, homogeneous, without residue ( of impurity) " ( Snodgrass, 1985 : 106).

The centre is a place of hierophany, where divinity or the transcendent dimension breaks through into this world of daily life. The central point of the mandala is known as bija, 'seed' or bindhu 'drop', the circle is called cakra, 'wheel' with the bindu as its hub (Bryant, 1992 ; Cozort, 1995).

Geometrically, a centre is defined not by magnitude, but by position. What makes some centres bigger or more influential is not their symbolic structure, but the radius of the world they hold together. Some serve to anchor the small world of a village or temple town. Others serve to anchor an entire kingdom or even an entire culture ( Eck, 1987 : 6 ).

CHAPTER V

Pilgrimage to Svaya-bhunath, Nepal.

The previous Chapter introduced the conceptual and symbolic framework of the stupa within the second great school of Buddhism, the Mahayana or 'Great vehicle'. Continuing my investigation of the manifestations of the stupa form radiating out from the Indian epicentre over time and geography, the development of the mchod-rten in the Tibetan sphere is an event of marked importance, divesting the monument of funerary associations and signalling the beginning of the ascension of the anda, a phenomenon that will influence the entire future evolution of the stupa.

A secondary theme, central to the creation aspects of my thesis project ( both installaction and performance ), is the ritual and symbolic link drawn between these monuments and the human body. The forceful 'presence' of the stupikas in the installation is entirely due to their anthropomorphic qualities. The performance draws an even tighter parallel between body and sculpture, creating 'virtual stupas' through the agency of the human body alone.

5.1 The site

This great stupa was established in Nepal at the beginning of the 5th century CE by King Vstadeva. The evidence for this ascription is provided by the Gopalaraja-savali, which describes the King's consecration of a site called Siguvihara. The colloquial name given to the sanctuary to this day is Sigu, establishing that it is the same site. Following its foundation, Svaya-bhunath was renovated and improved in 1129, 1372, 1565, 1680, 1751-1757, and 1918. Detailed accounts of these renovations is given by Bernhard Kölver (1992), Franz-Karl Ehrhard (1990), and a summary by Niels Gutschow (1997 : 87-90).

According to tradition, four caityas create a cosmic mandala in the Kathmandu Valley (Herdick, 1993). The stupas of Baregaon and Cabahil are the lesser members of this quadrumavirate, Bodhnath and Svaya-bhunath the mahacaityas. Baregaon and Svayambhunath were founded by King Vsadeva, while Bodhnath and Cabahil were founded by his successors. Called by the Svayambhu Purana the Jnanagandola-svayambhu, the 'Self-arisen Temple of Wisdom', (Cook, 1977 : 118) Svaya-bhunath means 'Self-existent Lord' (Gutschow, 1997 : 86).

5.2 The feature: the Mchod-rten

The legend of the origin of Svaya-bhunath stupa is told by the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley. The Valley was originally a lake, from which the Svaya-bhunath Hill emerged. It bore a lotus flower which 'revealed the self-created' ( svayambhu ), emitting a bright light ( jyotirupa ). The eyes of future generations could not bear its effulgence, so it was covered by the stupa (Kölver, 1992 : 21). Similarly born from water, Bodhnath stupa is believed to have been formed from collected dew (Gutschow, 1997 : 96).

The term caitya is preferred over its synonym stupa in Nepal, although the word is very flexible in the Newari context (Löwdin, 1985). There are over 1,800 caityas in the Kathmandu Valley. The basic structural elements of the caitya are given in Figure 5. : the base representing the earth ; the dome the water element ; the chattravalli representing the element of the wind ; the moon-disc symbolising space ; and the bindhu enlightened consciousness (Leidy and Thurman, 1998 : Figure 6). The sub-structure ( Sanskrit vedika, Newar phah ) of the Nepalese caitya can be either square or a polyhedra with 20 angles ( visatikona ). The base storey is the padmasana, the 'lotus throne'. The next level has 9 niches prepared to receive gem offerings ( nawaratna ) establishing the caitya's spatial orientation. A drum section leads to the dome ( anda, Newar gvah ). The cube shaped harmika is called by the Newari gala, meaning 'neck'. Eyes may be painted on this cube shaped section of the caitya, as the Buddha is the 'eye of the World' ( cakkhumaloka ). The presence of eyes signifies a passage from the inside to the outside of the dome, as aksa means 'eye', but also 'axis' and 'axle-tree', "... centre of revolution, socket, place of exit or ingress, fountain (well-eye), brightest spot or centre " (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 34). A curl of hair grows between the eyes ( urna ), the 'third-eye', being one of the 32 marks of the Buddha ( mahavyanjna ) (Tucci, 1961 : 44). The upper section includes shields ( Newar halapau or halipati ) that are placed above the roof cornice of the gala, covering the lower 2 to 4 tiers of the chattravalli. These shields hold images of the transcendent Buddhas guarding the four directions . Vairochana is represented four times in the upper storey. Above the 13 discs of the chattravalli is a ring ( Sanskrit amalaka, Newar abah ). The crest of the monument is a jewel ( Sanskrit usnisacudamani ), symbolising the usnisa . The hidden element is the central pole yupa, called by the Newari yahsi. Gutschow mentions that 50% of caityas bear inscriptions (1997 : 16).

Newar forms of stupas include the building of sand caityas ( balukacaitya ), and stupa multiples, like the 125,000 guladharma caityas moulded from black mud (Gutschow, 1997 : 77). The 263 licchavicaityas in the Kathmandu Valley were built by the Licchavis Kings from 400 to 900 CE. They are often decorated with water symbols ( wave patternings called khusibutta ), or are found near water features, like wells. 350 examples of a later form, the Sikharakutacaityas, introduce shrine-like appendages created to house Bodhisattvas : " It is a curious type, one which often crosses the line between votive sculpture and miniature building " (Gutschow, 1997 : 246). Following the evolution we will see in other countries, the Newar anda shrinks over time, an inclination towards verticality and the multiplication of platforms and roofs. Subsequent forms of the caitya, with new forms being introduced right up until 1837, demonstrate marked syncretism.

Stupas in Tibetan Buddhism have no funerary character (Tucci, 1988 : 24). Mchod-rten means 'repository of offerings', making the monument a memorial to the Great teacher, and a symbol of his teachings (Kölver, 1996 : 15). Peme Dorjee refers to the mchod-rten as a technology, with specific functions to perform (1996). The central yupa is called srog-shing (Tree of life ), or peg of earth ( sa-yi phur-bu ) (Ricca and Lo Bue, 1993). The Tibetan form of the harmika is borrowed directly from forms developed in the Kathmandu Valley.

The peculiar inverted shape of the dome in Tibetan stupas, flaring from the bottom to top and taking the aspect of an up side-down pot ( bum-pa ) appears to be the fruit of an original elaboration and marks the extreme stage in the evolution of the anda, which in the cave temples at Ajanta and Ellora had already seen a shift from hemispherical to cylindrical shape (Ricca and Lo Bue, 1993 : 38).

The mchod-rten stands for ultimate truth. " It is the network of readings rather than any single interpretation which constitutes the meaning of the stupa " (Kölver, 1996 : 33). The mchod-rten is a nexus of ritual structure, and can be compared to a musical offering ( mchod pa ).

" Tibetan ritual music is an archetypally multidimensional phenomenon, encompassing uniquely varied and combined aspects of musical sound structure, religious concepts and symbolism, and completely interwoven connections with other aspects of Tibetan culture " .

5.3 The concept: an anthropomorphic view, the stupa as a body

The Nepalese caitya offers evidence of more than a millennium of development. One of the primary ways in which caityas relate to, and model themselves on, the human body is their relative size (Gutschow, 1997 : 246). Caityas are often lustrated by worshippers, 'bathed' with water, milk or ghee. The early caityas, like Patan's Subahahiti caitya built in 757 CE, were low enough that they could be lustrated from above. As the centre of gravity in the caitya was raised, the base platform ( called the 'foot' of the caitya ) became more generous, to accommodate the worshipper in his puja. The multiplication of platforms develop into a staircase of levels leading to the dome, which nevertheless was beyond human reach, as in Bhaktapur's Basagvapath caitya, 19th century CE.

The caitya's elements are equivalent to the body, even their nomenclature originates in body parts (Auboyer, 1961 : 183; Carbonnel, 1973 : 229). The base and platforms represent the 'seat' of the meditation posture, legs crossed. Meditation instructors insist upon correct posture for seated meditation, as this, ( reversing the metaphors ) provides a solid 'foundation'. The anda is the central mass of the body, the torso containing the life functions - heart, lungs and liver. As seen above, the Newar name for the harmika is neck, gala. The spire 'vertebral column' ( yupa ), links the elements of the caitya together, serving as the major channel of energy ( nadi ) as in the Tantric psycho-physiological system of chakras. The spinal column is the merudanda, the cosmic mountain that pivots the world (Snodgrass, 1985 : 317). The chattravalli takes on a symbolism of the head, the bindhu the head crown or usnisa (Gutschow, 1997 : 246). Snodgrass reproduces an image of 'the stupa of the 5 cakras' of esoteric Buddhism , deriving it from the root word cita meaning 'piled up' (1988 : 695).

To understand how the Himalayan stupa replicates a human body, it is first necessary to understand how the human body was viewed within their tradition. The Tantra ( weft, context, continuum ) is divided into four classes, one of which describes the body. This anuttara-yoga-tantra ( Supreme yoga Tantra ) is further subdivided into three categories, the maha-yoga, anu-yoga, and ati-yoga (known as dzogchen). " The polarity-oriented thought of the Tantras finds its strongest expression in a many-layered sexual symbology " (EEPR, 1989 : 355). The transcendent goal is the unity of masculine and feminine principles through the harmonisation of seven nodal energy centres in the body, the chakras. This leads to the 'rainbow body' ( shunyata ), the dissolution of the four elements that constitute the human body into light. The body is considered to be an energy field focused in seven centres, harmonised through exchange channels called nadis.

The human body has long been symbolised as a microcosmic forum for macrocosmic forces . In Brahmanic India this correspondence was well established : " les Upanishad contiennent une anatomie et une physiologie, base nécessaire à ce jeu de correspondances, qui fait leur raison d'être, entre microcosme et macrocosme " (C. Malamoud, NRP 1975 : 220). The body is also, like the stupa, a form of mandala. Hindu temples are constructed according to the vastu-purusa-mandala, vastu from vas meaning 'to dwell' or 'exist', and purusa meaning 'person' (Kramrisch, 1946 : 73).

Just as formally considered there is a correspondence between the human body, human building, and the whole world, so there is also a teleological correspondence : all these constructions have as their practical function to shelter individual principles on their way from one state of being to another ( Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 13-14).

The Tantric texts say that the Buddha's spine was a single column of bone, fixed and inflexible, so that he could not turn his torso or head but turned his whole body " like an elephant " (Eliade, 1958 : 235). This homology of the yupa with the spine mirrors a clear identification of the stupa with the body of the Buddha is seen in the reliefs at Sanchi and Amaravati (Bénisti, 1960 : 81). " The stupa is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the stupa " says a Pali text (Snodgrass, 1985 : 362). The Lalitavistara sutra states" The body of the Buddha seen from without is a stupa " (Mus, 1935 : 612). The development of the image of the Buddha is explored by Snellgrove (1978) and Narain (1985 : 1-22). It has lead to two classifications of Buddhist art : aniconic, where there is no direct representation of the Buddha's body ; and iconic, where the physical body is represented (Dehejia, AO, 1992 : 45; Krishan, 1996). John and Susan Huntington, however, argue against aniconism in asserting that the body is always represented (1985, and AJ, 1990). C. Bhattacharya has presented some wooden votive stupas carried by pilgrims from northern Silk Route in Central Asia circa 9th and 10th century CE where Buddha images are painted directly upon the stupa object. Similar objects have been found in south-east Asia.

Discussing the stupa as Buddha icon, H. L. Shorto reminds us of another important factor : " The identification of stupas with the Buddha takes place not only at the level of visual and conceptual symbolism, but equally takes place at, and is mediated by, that of the cult of relics " (in Watson, 1971 : 78). The withdrawal of the Buddha from the world at the parinirvana became symbolised by the stupa (Schopen, 1987 : 193).

This search for relics stems from the belief that the stupa is the Buddha [...] Many Mahayana sutras, for instance the Saddharmapundarika, not only praise the worship of relics deposited in stupas; they maintain that such and such a Buddha is actually sitting inside the stupa, for instance Prabhuta-ratna. The same trend is conspicuous in the great cave-stupas of Ajanta, Ellora and so on, carved in the 5th century AD, [sic] where the Buddha is depicted actually sitting both in the forepart and inside the stupa [...] the stupa was indeed Buddha's body, not his human and mortal body ( catur-maha-bhuti-kaya, rupa-kaya ), but his dharma-body ( Fussman, 1986 : 46).

The container of his earthly remains ( Sariraka-cetiya ) became the corpus, the presence of the teacher for the Buddhist laity, as only relics could provide intimate contact (Ramachandran, 1952 : 117). This ongoing 'corporeality' of the relics is confirmed in a popular Sinhalese belief which has spread throughout the Buddhist World that at the collapse of the present kalpa ( world cycle ) the Buddha's relics will recombine to form his physical body, and he will pronounce a final sermon (Obeyesekere, 1966). Yuichi Kajiyama documents how, among the sa-gha, a new form of worship ( prajnaparamita ) changed the object of Buddhist worship by changing the idea of the Buddha-body : " Compared with the physical body of the Buddha, prajnaparamita means the spiritual essence of a Buddha, which is equated to the absolute truth of emptiness ( sunyata ) " (1985 : 12). The oldest Mahayana sutra, the Assasahasrika-prajnaparamita-sutra, contains a passage where the Buddha says explicitly : " And monks, thou should not think that this physical body is my body. Monks, you should see me as the accomplishment of dharmakaya " (Kajiyama, 1985 : 13).

The categories of relics parallel the types of stupas : paribhoga-dhatu, relics of use ; Sarira-dhatu, corporal relics ; and uddésika-datu, indicative or commemorative relics (Pant, 1976 : 12). The Atharva Veda describes the four ways to dispose of the dead, one of which is to place the remains in a high mound . In the Žgveda the dead are buried with the prayer " Oh earth, heave up, do not press upon the dead man " (Pant, 1976 : 346).

We remember that the stupa in the earliest texts is translated as " a knot or tuft of hair designating the upper part of the head " (Tucci, 1988 : xi). " The crest jewel ( usnisacudamani ) is a protuberance of the head that is emblematic of the Buddha's more than mortal knowledge and consciousness " (Gutschow, 1997 : 24). According to Rowland, the usnisa is " the lump at the summit of the Buddha's head, a kind of auxiliary brain ", while for others it is merely a bony protuberance, a cranial bump . The word usnisa ( Pali unhisa ), translates as 'turban', which on the tonsured head of an ascetic could only refer to a 'hair-coil'. Krishna Murthy offers an account of Indian coiffures of the 2nd century BCE to 617 CE At Gandhara : " The Buddha has his hair shown with wavy lines and a protuberance ( usnisa ) [...] the usnisa is either low or high or flat " (Krishna Murthy, 1982 : 37). The sages and children at Amaravati wear a sikanda, an egg-shaped ball on the top of the head, which is also described in the Satapatha Brahmana. " The usnisa ( summit, crown of the head, apex, zenith ) is one of the 32 marks of the Buddha and also one of his 80 distinguishing characteristics " (Snodgrass, 1988 : 346). Stella Kramrisch reminds us that some of the 32 marks ( mahapurusa ) are not physical but are transcendental, part of his lokottara or 'supramundane body'. She believes that the usnisa " shows an extension of the body-like appearance of the Buddha beyond its anthropo-morphical limits [...] it is not a turban or bone or flesh, it is not a thing. It has no prototype in nature " (Kramrisch, JISOA, 1935 : 149). In a follow-up article she calls the usnisa an "invisible psychic protuberance, a sign of proficiency in yogic practice " (JISOA, 1936 : 79). Snodgrass concurs, at least in the context of The Matrix and Diamond Worlds of Shingon Buddhism : " Exoteric sutras say that the usnisa appears spontaneously on the head of the Bodhisattva as a result of the good karma accruing from the performance of good actions" (1988 : 346).

As the stupa is homologous with the Buddha's body, a corresponding element to the usnisa is found crowning the stupa. "The transcendence of opposites is symbolised by the final, unitary golden drop on top, which corresponds to the usnisa or cudamani found on top of the protruding central pole of Nepalese caityas as the symbol of Nirvana " (Gutschow, 1997 : 307). The three elements found at the apex of the mchod-rten are : the moon ( representing compassion, karuna ) ; the sun (wisdom, prajna ) ; and the drop ( transcendence, usnisa ). Chögyam Trungpa's book 'Visual Dharma' reproduces the image of a 17th century CE miniature mchod-rten dedicated to the female Bodhisattva Usnisavijaya. Her cult assures long life. The stupa is distinctive because of its circular platforms below the anda (1975 : 129). In other expressions of Indian architecture we come across the term usnisa used for 'coping stone' (Roy, 1994 : 107, 125), and Kölver uses it for the extremity of his anthropomorph-ication of the yupa (1992:155).

" The Buddha image heads are commonly represented with short curls turning to the right, and with a protuberance on top of the skull " (Krishan, 1996 : 111). " The crest jewel ( usnisacu ) has the resemblance of the finial of Thai chedi and the flame-usnisa, an adaptation of the Sinhalese ketumala " (Shorto, 1971 : 76). Finally, a stupa can be created by the human body itself, through the agency of a hand symbol ( mudra ) . The Bodhisattva Mahavairocana Tathagata (Japanese Dainichi Nyorai ) uses this mudra in the Diamond World (Snodgrass, 1988 : 746).

The physical apprehension of the stupa is the central theme of the creation-thesis performance. It speaks to the displacement from a heterogeneous environment to a homogeneous one, where the subject and the interpreter are the same. By isolating the pradaksina from the monument, my goal is to see if the physical engagement of a body in ritual is enough to evoke the presence of the stupa in its absence. Inherently, the video has a parallel activity, as it captures light-images at one time and re-creates these experiences at a virtual future time.

CHAPTER VI

Pilgrimage to Ayutthaya, Thailand.

Chapter 4 discussed the first incursions of the stupa form into south-east Asia. This Chapter further develops this subject throughout the Theravadin south-east Asian mainland. The case for a theory of stupa evolution is presented, both in relation to changes in plastic form, as well as through an evolving symbolic context. This Chapter brings the subject right up to contemporary manifestations in popular culture.

An important part of this Chapter (6.3) discusses the concepts of repeatability and of the multiple as it is explored in the installation. The 'original' and its 'copy' is a meaningless distinction for symbols. The repeated object, seen in the occident as appropriation, assimilation or even as addiction, is known in the case of the stupa multiple as re-enactment and even as a transformation. This theme is further explored in the performance, which underlines these paradoxes by re-enacting (copying ) a past creation.

6.1 The site

Large numbers of bell-shaped stupas were built in Thailand in the middle of the 14th century. Betty Gosling believes that these Sukhothai forms were directly derived from the hemispherical dagobas of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (Figure 6.1). She contends that the platform terraces ( berms ) providing bases for the anda were replaced by simple ring mouldings that flared slightly under the dome, resulting in the characteristic 'bell' shape (1996 : 129).

It is not, however, as easy to demonstrate a Sinhalese model for the stylised harmika in the south-east Asian stupa. Carbonnel calls this element the tampae (1931 : 31), while Gosling calls it banlang, an entomological derivation of manang ( thaen in northern Thailand ) meaning 'throne' or 'dais'. Indeed the harmika in Thailand take the form of podia, with no allusions to the wooden railings believed to be at the origin of the harmika in India. The stupa, as it ventures east, appears to be copied for its exterior form while ignoring its symbolic function. Although commonly found in Myanmar, only one yupa was found at Sukhothai, at the Pa Mamuang stupa (Gosling, 1996 : 135). In response to wars with the Burmese, the Thai Capital was moved from Sukothai to Ayutthaya In the mid 14th century. The Burmese eventually razed Ayutthaya in 1782 CE. My site, the Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, was built by King Maha Chakraphat to house the relics of his wife, Queen Suriyothai (Cook, 1977 : 350).

6.2 The feature: stupa evolution

To begin, we must make some general statements about the stupas of south-east Asia. In this region, a stupa is generally termed pagoda. According to Willetts, pagoda is a corruption of the Indian word Bhagavati, 'divine female' (1965 : 392), while Taw Sein Ko proposes that it is the corruption of the Sinhalese word dagoba (1913 : 177). Ko also asserts that the Burmese term zedi is derived from the Sanskrit dhatu-garbha. Other local names for the structure include : chedi ( chedey ), dat, dhatu, cetiy ( cedi ), brah, dray, kul, and jay.

The first manifestations of the stupa were derived from Indian models, as seen in the Bawbawkyi pagoda, the oldest stupa in Myanmar, dating from the 5th century CE and found at Pyu Ear (Girard-Geslan et all, 1994 : Figure 232). The form is easily recognised (Mynit, 1994 : 136). The south-east Asian pagoda appears to be a mediation between the Indian stupa, earth-bound and monumental, with the Chinese t'a, tall wooden towers with multiple roofs. The common element, around which this extraordinary synthesis could take place, was the central pole ( yupa ).

An increasing number of tiers in the substructure of the stupa gradually came to take on the character of storeys. The stacking of one platform upon another caused a decrease in width as the pile built up, the anda correspondingly shrinking in size. With time the hemispherical dome became dwarfed, until it survives today as a scarcely visible rudimentary ball at the base of the finial (Seckel, 1964 : 111-112). The influence of the t'a caused the chattra became more elaborate. The Chinese pagoda emerges circa 450 CE, a central pillar surrounded by an ascending staircase and multiple roofs defining storeys, with vestiges of the anda still visible (Willetts, 1965 : 392-398 ; Seckel, 1964 : 111-129). Most of the earliest Chinese stupas ( northern Wei dynasty, circa 386-534 CE ) took the form of tower-like pagodas. " Generally, the multi-storey Chinese stupas can be seen as having developed from a marriage of the Indian domed stupa ( surmounted by its spire with multiple layers of chattras, or umbrellas ) and the Han wooden towers " (Mino, 1996 : 217) .

Soni (1991), Longhurst (1928, 1936), Seckel (1964), and Gombaz (1932, 1933, 1935) all emphasise the evolution of the stupa over time and geography. The stupa demonstrates evolutionary changes that are linked to the changing symbolic needs of the population. From the chthonic hemisphere with the characteristics of prehistoric tumuli, the pradaksina performed on the ground, the Gandharan stupas ascend the anda on a drum, raising the centre of gravity of the monument and attaching more importance to the chattravalli. This tendency continues with the Mahayanaist mchod-rten in the Tibetan sphere (2nd century CE), with an actual rising up of the anda like a yeast bread, as if drawn upwards by some spiritual force. As the stupa evolved from a funerary mound into an object of worship, the base and platforms ascended the anda, diminishing its' size. Spreading to south-east Asia the variations accelerated, leading to the elongated structures like the tower-pagodas, the prang, and the needlepointed chedi . " The evolutionary phases in the ceti architecture had just gone a little beyond the orthodox stupa shape to somewhat an elongated dome " ( Soni, 1991 : 29).

Once established in China, the pagoda maintains the central yupa pillar and most of the stupa's symbolism (Seckel, 1964 : 111-124). Glauche distinguishes 6 distinct styles of Chinese pagoda : 1) the step-pagoda ( Chi-t'a ), consisting of ascending square storeys with an internal staircase ; 2) the t'ien-ning pagoda, which is multistoried ; 3) the Vring ( ti-seng t'a ), with rings ; 4) Floor-pagoda ( seng-t'a ) with distinct floors of equal height and diameter ; 5) Gallery style ( wai-lang seng-t'a ), with balconies on each floor ; 6) relic pagoda ( she-li t'a ). The direct Japanese successor of the stupa is the Tahoto (Soper, 1978 : figure 103), although stupas continue to exist in Japan in miniature votive forms.

" The process of evolution is remarkably consistent, and affords a splendid example of the way an art type lives and grows" (Seckel, 1964 : 106). In proposing a theory of stupa evolution, it is clear that the progression is from a chthonic, earth-bound, feminine form ( the hemispherical egg ) to a solar, sky directed, masculine form ( the ascending parasol ). Could this evolution in the stupa parallel the movement from early female 'earth religions' to male 'sky ones'?

South-east Asian stupas, also known as chedi ( chedey ) are often built in Vihara precincts or on the east side of temples (Carbonnel, 1935 : 232). The proliferation of forms demonstrates an ignorance of traditional references, but are a convincing demonstration of the vitality of Buddhism in these countries . The platform terraces of chedi are sometimes transformed into receptacles for human remains.

Stupa forms in Myanmar

The Myanmaran pagoda consists of three or five receding terraces. According to Pierre Pichard, this represents a break with Indian tradition, as 5 Buddhas are needed to represent the present cycle of time. The five Buddhas are the 3 Buddhas of the past : Kakusandha, Konagamana and Kassapa along with Gotama Buddha and the future Buddha Metteyya . Lodged in 5 niches they articulate a new kind of pentagonal stupa. The foundation slab of a Burmese pagoda is always square. The drum section of the Indian stupa is transformed in Myanmar into a pentagonal or octagonal band, the shittaung, representing the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in embryo (Pichard, 1991). The transition from the octagon to the dome is achieved by a circular moulding, sometimes made of copper, called Kyiwaing. The anda proper is the Kaunglaungbon 'bell-shaped dome', into which niches facing the cardinal directions are build ( as observed in Nepal ). These niches hold images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Taw Sein Ko, 1913 : 177-179). Sujata Soni remarks upon the distinctive 'bell form' of the typical Burmese stupa (1991 : 21). The chattra in Myanmar is an elaborate bejewelled crown, as seen at the exemplary great Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon, its spire topped with a ball of pure gold 10 inches in diameter, inlaid with 4000 diamonds (Mynit, 1994 : 137 ; Cook, 1977 : 336). The evolution of the stupa in Myanmar has been examined by Sujata Soni (1991).

An example of the stupa in Myanmar is the Shweizikhon Pagoda at Nyaung-U, built by Kyanzittha in 1086 CE. It is 30 meters in diameter and 48 meters high (Myint, 1994 : 138), containing relics brought from Ceylon by King Anoratha (Dumarçay and Smithies, 1995 : 16). It is considered to be the classic example of Myanmaran zedi, a synthesis of temple and stupa (Cook, 1977 : 326).

Pagodas had very specific functions in the ancient Capital cities of Burma. They were the symbols of sacred space. When King Hsinhpyushin ruled from Pegu in the mid-sixteenth century, the twelve gates built by him were named after political and regional centres - such as Prome, Muttama, Chiengmai - that owed, or were perceived to owe, allegiance to the centre. Here, actual contemporary political relations on earth... were being interchanged with an ideal cosmological arrangement (Aung-Thwin, in Smith, Bardwell and Reynolds, 1978 : 96).

The Kingdom as a whole was called pyei, which had the same double meaning as the English word 'state', both state of mind and the geographical kingdom ( myanma pyei ). The Capital city was a sacred entity, the centre. It was the origin of time, the microcosm representing the macrocosm, and the pagoda was its' symbol. Thousands of stupas were built in the capital cities of Pagan and Pegu. Linking heaven, earth, and the supernatural ( nat pyei ) at the seat of power, the Capital City became the centre of centres (Aung-Thwin, in Smith, Bardwell and Reynolds, 1978 : 101).

Thai forms

The form of stupa found in Thailand is the chedi, meaning 'sacred body', " le corps même du bouddha finit par être identifié au monument " (Auboyer, 1961 : 183). There are four types of Thai chedi, paralleling the 4 types of Indian stupas: that chedi being the sarika-cetiya, containing relics ; boriphok chedi equivalent to the paribhoga-ceitiya, containing objects used by the Buddha ; thamma chedi the Thai form of the dhamma-ceitya, containing scriptural works or images ; and utthesik chedi ( literally 'footprints' ), the uddésika-ceitiya built as reminders (Matics, 1992 : 36).

Thai chedi are distinctive because of their redented corners. There are always an odd number of terraces, as even numbers imply closure in Thai numerology (Prince Damong Rajanubhab, 1947). The chattravalli takes the form of a hti. At its simplest the hti is a hoop of metal suspended from the 'diamond bud' ( the kejr ) at the pinnacle of the chedi, but in a more elaborate form it becomes a bejewelled parasol with many tiers and filigree metal-work. " The intentions [of the parasols] invariably maintained ; to assert the identity of the stupa as a royal being, that of Buddha-image and cosmic axis " (Shorto, in Watson 1971 : 78).

The chedi's function is either funerary or votive (Carbonnel, 1931 : 31). B. Gosling's résumé of religious architecture at Sukhothai paints a vivid portrait of the evolution of the Thai stupa, from the artificial mountain of the step-pyramid to the lotus-bud stupa ( AAS, 1996 : 19). She places great importance on cultural influences from outside south-east Asia, like the Buddhist nun Si Satha, who returned after a ten year visit to Sri Lanka to build stupas in Sukhothai during the Loethai period, 1300-1347 CE.

The Thai prang (Cambodian prãng) is a Mahayanaist form ( Dumarçay and Smithies, 1995:121). It is a high rectangular tower created from staged terraces (Fig.__). The prang is difficult to define, but not to recognise. It is smaller than the chedi by 5 empans, and has several forms : prang prasat with the four faces of Brahma at its top ; the prang sthup crowned by an Indian style stupa and containing the relics or images of Buddhas ; the prang cetiy which has a Thai style chedi on top and is used as a reliquary for Thai Kings (Carbonnel, 1931:15).

Cambodian and Laotian forms

The Cambodian stupas, called chedei ( chedey ) rarely reach the monumental proportions of the examples in Sri Lanka or Myanmar. Henri Marchal comments on the ascension of the anda above the platform base in the Cambodian stupa as described above, elevating the centre of gravity in the structure. Earliest examples of chedei date from the 15th century CE (de la Jonquière, 1907). Many have been found with inscriptions describing them as being donated by lay devotes, like the one discovered in front of the east gallery façade of Angor Vat. Senadhipati, the wealthy donor of this chedei, desires to consecrate " neuf belles tours couvertes de dorures, dômées, admirables en toutes leurs parties, incrustées de pierres étincelantes, entourées d'une triple enceinte sculptée " (Marchal, BEFEO 44, 1947 : 581).

The contemporary chedei is an extravagant structure with redented platforms and extensive decorations. The proportions of the monument are very important and are given in empans. The proportions are usually elongated, blending together the platform tiers, dome and chattravalli elements. The foundation remains square, and in some cases has evolved into a prasat, containing the funeral urns of the donors (Marchal, op.cit. : 588).

Specialists built all of the important stupas in Cambodia. Smaller structures are " au gré de la fantaisie et de l'esthétique de maçons sans connaissances particulières " (Carbonnel, 1931 : 15). Thus the chedei have become synchronistic popular forms open to a psycho-sociological interpretation based on their combination of Chinese, Thai, and Indian influences. Laotian stupas are similar to Cambodian forms, although Marchal indicates that sometimes the Laotian stupa has the directional statue niches attached to the basements instead of to the dome (op.cit. : 587).

6.3 The concept : The repetition of stupas, duplication and multiple

In Asia, stupas rarely appear alone. Multiple stupas at the Ku-Tho-Daw pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar have created a veritable stupa 'park' consisting of a central stupa surrounded by 736 others, where devotes take their lunch and circumambulate all day (Dumarçay and Smithies, 1995).

As early as 1892, F.C. Maisey discovered hordes of small stupas while restoring the Sanchi hill, describing " The custom of grouping round the main building - whether temple or tomb - small models resembling it in shape ". He affirms the " votive character of miniature Sthúpas, at any rate among Buddhists, I may instance the small terra-cotta models dug up in such numbers near Benares, and other Buddhist sites " (1892 : 15). Some of the miniature stupas Maisey discovered are reproduced in Figure 6." Thus the enshrined Buddha relics in the main stupa appear to have served as a kind of magnet, drawing the physical remains of others into close proximity with its beneficent presence " (K. Trainor, in Dehejia 1996 : 25). As mentioned before, all of the small stupas were removed in subsequent renovations (Marshall, 1918a : 87-88).

Asoka, according to legend, built 84,000 stupas in his lifetime (Roy, 1994 : 167). Stupas clustered around the principal stupas at Bodh-gaya, at Ratnagiri in Orissa, and in east Pakistan at Paharpur (Mitra, 1971 : 243). One hundred years after the construction of the Dharmarajika stupa in Taxila ( 2nd century BCE ) it had so many small stupas clustered around it that they formed a tight circle (Schopen, 1987 : 197). The Mirpur-Khas had " a regular forest of smaller stupas accumulated " (Cousens, ASI, 1929 : 82-97). They were of all sizes, from miniature portables to larger objects moved by cart. These are khudecetiyas ( small caitya ) the epigraphical term for donation stupas (Roy, 1994 : 111). Gregory Schopen makes the point that these stupas are not strictly votive as some contain remains, inscribed texts praying for the well-being of the deceased ( dharani ), or other " interesting objects " (1987 : 122). Examples of miniature stupas exist in every stupa classification. The Chinese pilgrim Yijing recounts :

They build caitya of clay and produce clay images with moulds or they stamp images on silk or paper and pay homage to these wherever they go. Sometimes they pile up clay, cover it with brick and build Buddha-stupas ; sometimes they build them in deserted fields where they are left to fall into ruins[...] Also, when they make statues or build stupas of gold, silver, bronze, iron, clay, lacquer, brick or stone or when they heap up sand-snow, they put inside two types of sarira, the body and bones of the Great Teacher and the gatha of the Chain of Causation (Fontein, in van Kooij and van de Verre, 1995 : 27).

Mireille Bénisti places great importance on the study of miniature stupas : Les grands stupas, certes, aeurent, et conservent, une importance considérable [...] mais les stupa de petites dimensions, qu'ils faissent comme les grands édifices constitués de matériaux divers ( pierres, briques, etc. ), qu'ils faissent taillés en rondes bosses monolithiques, ou sculptés en hauts-reliefs, ou gravés sur plaques, ou coulés en bronze, etc., nous apportent un matériel d'étude particulièrement précieux, cela grace à leur nombre, incommensurablement plus grand que celui des édifices, grace à leur meilleure conservation ( due à leur quantité, à leur dispersion, à l'absence pour la plupart d'entre eux de remaniements ), grace à leur structure, à leur forme, à leur décoration, à leur iconographie, souvent grace à leur localisation dans un site précis ( BEFEO, 1981: 2 ). Bénisti distinguishes style changes in miniature stupas of the same period, as between Nalanda and Sarnath (1981 : 135).

There is a passion for abstract multiplicity in Buddhism, what Heine-Geldern has called a " rätselhafte Grauen vor allem Einmaligen " (Shorto, 1971 : 75). This exuberance was sanctioned by the texts. The Laktacaitya rite proposed the creation of 100,000 caityas to embody the text of the Satasahasrika Prajnaparamita, 'Perfection of Wisdom in a Hundred Thousand Lines' (Kölver, 1996 : 38). A sect emerged in the 2nd century BCE who preferred the worship and building of stupas to other forms of devotion, they were known as the Cetikas. They were responsible for rebuilding the Amaravati stupa (Roy, 1994 : 113, 185).

« Indeed, the most striking thing about the sacred geography of Indian Asia, including the positioning of cities, is that it is systematic geography, based not on singular sites, but upon multiple sites. They are not saluted for their individuality or uniqueness... They are duplicated in space: there is not one sacred city in India, but seven; not one sacred river, but seven. They are duplicated also in time [...] The fact of this duplication reminds us of one of the most important distinctions of west and east, if such can be meaningfully made, and that is the distinction between the Western monotheistic insistence that matters of ultimate importance come in the singular, and the Eastern " polytheistic " insistence that they come in the plural. Simply put, in the Hindu and Buddhist view if something is important, it is important enough to be seen from many perspectives and to be widely shared and duplicated (Eck, in Smith, Bardwell and Reynolds, 1987 : 9) ».

Beyond the borders of India, 14th century Pagan in Myanmar mass-produced miniature stupas and Buddhas for votive use (Shorto, 1971 : 75). Thai and Malaysian stupikas sometimes mixed the ashes obtained from the cremation of a bhiksu with the clay, producing important collections. Miniature stupas have been discovered all over Indonesia : in Java at Jongeké, Kalibening, and Muncar ; in Bali at Pejeng ; and in Sumatra at Palembang. 116 miniature stupas were found at Candi Plaoran, and 52 at Candi Kalasan (Chandra, 1980 : 277). 2,307 stupikas have been found at Borobudur, varying in height from 4 to 13.5 centimetres, made of yellow-brown clay tempered with sand and a small amount of lime (Bernet Kempers, 1970 : 133). " Buddhist monasteries sometimes have 'forests' of stupas in which monks ashes are stored. Such forests once surrounded Javanese temples such as Plaosan and Kalasan (Miksic, 1990 : 34). In 1989 the National Research Centre for Archaeology in Java discovered a bronze mould in Palembang which was used for mass-producing stupikas of a type commonly found at Borobudur. These objects, sometimes found in the foundations of sacred buildings, are devotionalia, carried and distributed by pilgrims. Bernet Kempers believes that some have come from as far away as Tibet (1970 : 133). The Chinese pilgrim I-Tsing confirms this : " Even if a man makes [...] a Kaitya the size of a small jujube, placing it on a round figure, or a staff like a small pin, a special cause for good birth is attained " ( RBR, 1896 : 150).

In Japan, the Ex-Empress Shôtoku ordered one million lathe-produced wooden pagodas, the hyakuumanto, to be produced. " In China no large numbers of miniature pagodas have been found, but literary sources from the middle of the ninth to the thirteenth century mention deposits of a hundred thousand and one million miniature pagodas " (Fontein, in van Kooij 1995 : 26). Miniature stupas, called tsha-tsha, are common in Tibet, Ladahk, Butan and Shikkim, where grains of barley or wheat were sometimes mixed into the clay. Some are replicas of famous mchod-rten, carried great distances, while others have images of Bodhisattvas Amitabha, Aksobhyare or Vairocana engraved or painted on them (Miksic, 1990). We also have examples of votive stupas found in Central Asia, wooden objects carried along the northern Silk Route (C. Bhattacharya, 1977 : 67).

Sand stupas ( tas de sable ) are a particular class of popular chedi in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia, and are well documented (Carbonnel, 1935 ; Gabaude, 1979). There are also chedi built of piles of paddy, rice and salt . They are traditionally constructed in monasteries ( vat ), beside river banks, in forests or at road crossings. The form of a sand stupa is a cone of sand resting on a square, hexagon, octagonal or cylindrical shaped mat of woven bamboo. A special category of these sand stupas, used for healing, have a wooden post planted in the centre of the cone ( hlãk Pi ) (Gabaude, 179 : 18-21). The number of sand chedi built at one site is determined by numerology. In article in the Malaysian newspaper The Strait Times, M.J. Pouvatchy writes : " The devotees poured water on the head priest as he sat on a special platform around which were 85 mounds of sand, each representing one year of his age, with an extra mound for luck, health and longevity " . Note that all funerary connotations are divested from these stupas as they function as good-luck charms. They appear to have absorbed the symbolism of the earth and negated its terrifying aspect, seeing the earth as absorbing illness, bad fortune and decay .

Christophe Munier has documented many popular manifestations of the stupa in south-east Asia, including sacred rocks (Kyaiktiyo in Myanmar, Phu Phra Bat and Doi Kiyu in Thailand, Phnom Kulen in Cambodia) , Buddha footprints buddhapada ( Mann Set Taw Ya in Myanmar, Phu Po in Thailand ) , and Buddhist caves (Munier, 1998 : 46). Traditional floral arrangements in the forms of stupas ( phrapathomachedi ) are popular in Thailand, their creative exuberance demonstrating the syncretistic tendencies of popular culture (Dokmal Phan, 1953).

That mai is a wooden urn used to keep the relics of ancestors for remembrance and paying respects in the same manner as the that chedi and the chedi is used [...] It is customary to place it along the fence of a temple or on a piece of high land on the family property ( Srisuro, 1979 : 88). The that mai consists of three parts : a pole that fixes the reliquary into the ground ; the square shaped central portion Ruan that, which is pierced with a deep hole for inserting and sealing the relics ; and an apex consisting of a pointed spike carved in the Thai style. Contemporary That mai are made of cement. Three related forms are : tutelary pillars which do not contain relics ; the Lakse, a boundary marker ; and the Bu Ban, a tutelary pillar set in the centre of a village (Srisuro, 1979).

There are many popular forms of Buddha devotion and remembrance in Thailand. One of the strangest is the immense bed called the Phra Thaen Dong Rang, where, according to the local legend, the Buddha passed away. Sculpted in 1830, the bed is 5 x 2 x 1,5 meters and carved out of solid rock (Munier, 1998 : 127).

Through repetition, the original gains resonance. The single stupika, moulded in public ritual the evening of the opening of my creation-thesis project, will be joined by others as the week progresses. Each multiple is produced by repeating the steps, repeating the actions, re-engaging the ritual, in a linear sequence that amplifies the symbolic essence. The time occupied by this creation is 'out of time', because it is engaged. The presentation of my installation project in this way emphasises its link with the performance because it validates action above object. The stupikas, with their anthropomorphic dimensions, crystalline white surfaces, and closed, mysterious character have a strong, and cumulative, impact. If they were presented pre-installed for exhibition the object would gain over the ritual, and the temporal suspension of the creative narration would be eliminated. As ritual is the nexus of the stupa's meaning, this creation ritual is the heart of my interpretation. Without time there is no sacred.

CHAPTER VII

Pilgrimage to Kinmount, Ontario, Canada.

The previous Chapter discussed contemporary mainfestations of the stupa form in south-east Asia, situating them within the reference of the evolution of the form and the important role of the multiple.

The present Chapter brings the subject into the present day, discovering that the stupa has found a home in the West through the adgency of wealthy Buddhist Societies and a new curiousity for Asian spirituality in occidental society. The Chapter reflects upon the stupa as a World-wide phenomenon. The degeneration of the tradition is reviewed, with syncristic tendencies prevelent in these new constructions, which none the less mark the vitality of the cult of the stupa in the West. Section 7.3 gives a detailed account of the construction of a stupa at Kinmount, Ontario as a representative example of contemporary building practices.

7.1 The site

The 'Canada' pagoda is found on the grounds of the Dharma Centre of Canada in Kinmount, Ontario. The Centre is west of Peterbrough, 33 kilometers north of Fenelon Falls and 5 kilometers south of Kinmount, off Highway #121 . The Centre was founded in 1966 by Namgyal Rinpoche, making it one of the oldest meditation Centres in North America . The stupa was constructed in August, 1982 by the Sayadaw U Thila Wunta, a remarkable bhikku from Myanmar who has constructed nine important stupas in the west . Canadian Leslie Dawson, ordained in 1958 as Ananda Bodhi by U Thila Wunta himself, ran the Centre through its early years. Since the consecration of the original pagoda, the Centre has constructed two more stupas, a Tibetan style mchod-rten in the late 1980's and a Sinhalese hemispherical dagoba, crowned with a crystal, completed in 1997. Thus the Centre is unique in offering an overview of the principal stupa types on it's grounds : a hemisphericalIndian model, a mchod-rten, and a pagoda. The stupas are isolated one from another on the Centre's 400 acres of woodland.

7.2 The feature: the stupa in the West

The construction of many stupas outside of Asia marks a growing interest in Buddhism in occidental society, and the maturing of the western Buddhist Associations, Colleges and Universities. The stupas are built by the labour and with the finances of the various dharma Associations existing throughout the World, usually under the supervision of a Master from Buddhist Asia. There has been an explosion of Buddhist constructions in the Occident in recent years; for example, the largest prayer wheel in existence is at a stupa complex in Odiyan, California .

The constructions realised by one dynamic bhikku of the Dat Pon Zon Monastery in Rangoon, Myanmar, will serve as my model for the occidental stupa. Botaya Ngyein was born June 28, 1912, in Welalaung, Mon State, Burma . At his initiation as he was given the name U Thila Wunta ( one who has great sila ) . His early practice was in the Welalaung Village Monastery. Unrest in the countryside and the Indo-Burmese riots of 1941 caused the bhikku to go to Rangoon. Here he constructed his first pagoda, one of the many cluster pagodas around the base of the Shwe Dagon. Rising 344 feet and with a base circumference of 1,476 feet, the Shwe Dagon is the premier Myanmarian stupa and the spiritual centre of the Country, constructed in 1372 by King Biennia U (Cook, 1977 : 335). The young bhikku U Thila Wunta built his pagoda on the second level of the venerable Shwe Dagon, the consecration ceremony held on the first full moon of November, 1941. His first pagoda was named Su-taung-pye Kat-Kyaw, meaning 'the pagoda of good wishes that overcome all disasters'.

On December 23, 1941 the Japanese held reconnaissance flights over the city of Rangoon. Like many others, U Thila Wunta fled, walking on foot to the ancient Capital of Pegu, 50 miles away. Here he participated in an intensive 23 day retreat at the Shwe-gu-gyi Pagoda. He left Pegu by train for Moulmein, fortuitously abandoning the train at Zin-kyaik, as the train was bombed and destroyed by the Japanese just outside Moulmein. Shortly after the Japanese invaded Burma.

U Thila Wunta returned on foot to Rangoon with a group of bhikkus, but the city was in shambles, so he walked back to Moulmein where he waited out the War at Phaouk Monastery. " Live simply, conserve your resources for the Path ", he wrote at this time. In early May, 1946, U Thila Wunta returned to Rangoon, and continued a series of pilgrimages in Myanmar until 1951, visiting all of the great pagodas. His second stupa was begun on March 1947, on the occasion of the new moon, at Pa-ouk Village, and was consecrated in April. " The Ven. Sayadaw returned to the bamboo meditation hut behind the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in late April ; there he built a mandala pagoda of sand " (U Thila Wunta, 1983 : 5).

Living in a bamboo kuti in the shadow of the Shwe Dagon seems to have had a profound effect upon the young monk. When U Po Nweh of the Dat Pon Zon Monastery offered U Thila Wunta 5 acres on unoccupied temple grounds, he constructed the Dat Pon Zon Aung Min Gaung pagoda on top of a ruined pagoda found on the site, construction continuing through January and February 1949. Today there are 174 pagodas surrounding that structure . The bhikku made pilgrimages from 1952 to 1957 to sacred sites in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia, visiting most of the major stupas in the world. In a fourth round of building beginning in 1956, he constructed 17 more pagodas and reconstructed one other.

In March of 1958, U Thila Wunta left Rangoon for New York City by boat. He was sponsored by Mr. Gus Ruggieri of Allegany, New York, to build a pagoda on Ruggieri's 64 acre farmland property. At the consecration ceremony held on June 6, the stupa was named the 'American Shwe Dagon'. It demonstrates the syncretistic form of the late Burmese stupa ; multiple platforms, elevated lotus base raising the anda into a bell shape, and the crown-like chattravalli. Returning to Myanmar to be ordained as Abbot of Dat Pon Zon, the now venerated Sayadaw ( Burmese for 'teacher' ) began 26 different restoration projects on degenerating pagodas in Myanmar, all between 1959 and 1981. His expertise in traditional and contemporary stupa building practices was informed by these reconstructions of old and recent monuments.

In constructing a pagoda, stone, bricks, cement, lime and water are transformed into a powerful structure which holds the Awakened One's relics. People can come to honour them. In contrast, a flawed brick, one that cannot be used, is discarded and is simply walked over. Each day should be like a precious brick, building the golden pagoda inside your being ( U Thila Wunta, 1983 : 12).

In 1981, the students of Ananada Bodhi requested that the venerable Sayadaw return to America to build a second pagoda. On May 22, 1982 the Cakkavala Pagoda near Boise, Idaho was begun by members of the Open Path Buddhist Society, and the work was finished two weeks later . This second visit to the United States sparked considerable interest both by American Buddhists and the media, and sponsored an invitation for U Thila Wunta to restore the original 'American Shwe Dagon' as it had fallen into disrepair. The Sawadaw's improvements included enlarging the stupa from 10 to 21 feet in diameter. Just before doing this, however, U Thila Wunta began the construction of the first stupa in Canada, the 'Canada Pagoda' in Kinmount.

Construction of the pagoda began on the morning of the full moon, August 4, 1982. The precious relics were put in place a week later, and the structure was consecrated on August 22. It was the first pagoda built in Canada by the Ven. Sayadaw. For a month, the Ven. Sayadaw gave daily training in the Pali chanting of the Suttas of Protection and Blessing, and gave instruction and guidance on the meditation theme of Buddha Anusati to the many students. All beings present took the Five Precepts, which includes the training in the continual practice of sharing loving kindness with all sentient life ( U Thila Wunta, 1983 : 21).

Work on a second Canadian pagoda, on Galiano Island, British Colombia, was begun at the Crystal Mountain Meditation Centre on September 9, 1982 and was completed 10 days later . With extraordinary energy, the 70 year old monk departed for New Zealand. The 19 foot high New Zealand Shwe Dagon was built on a high mountain pass during the summer solstice at the 144-acre Meditation Retreat Centre of the New Zealand Sphere Group, in the Wangapeka Valley near Nelson . Correspondence with the foreman of the Wangapeka stupa informs me that a 18 foot Australian Shwe Dagon was also completed by the Sayadaw near Adelaide, Australia in March, 1983 . Plans for further structures in Auckland, New Zealand and Canada, were cut short by the Sayadaw's death. It is remarkable to realise that this Burmese monk, who spent much of his youth sheltered in a meditation hut on the flank of the Shwe Dagon, dedicated his life to constructing Shwe Dagons in the west.

There are a considerable number of stupas in Europe, South America, Australasia , and many more are presently under construction . The United States appears to be a hot-bed of recent construction, probably owing to the growing popularity of Meditation Centres and the wealth of the American Buddhist Associations . An entire series of stupas called 'The pilgrim's Path' are being built at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico along the Rio Grande. The first of these, the Kagyu Mila Guru Stupa was begun in 1992 under the direction of Lama Karma Dorje, resident lama at Kagyu Shenpen Kunchab Centre in Santa Fe. Showing American enterprise, the land, money and labour for the stupa came from students of the meditation teacher, Herman Rednick (1902-1985), whose teachings blend eastern and western concepts. There are many stupas under construction in America and Canada . During the summer of 2000 I toured several of these sites.

Contemporary stupa construction practice is non-traditional. Metallic and fluorescent paint, Mass-produced decorative sculpture, and integrated speakers for the dissemination of suttas are some of the more syncretistic features. Some hollow stupas are being erected, which leaves open the question if they can be considered as stupas atall. I visited a typical example, the Rocky Mountain Shambhala stupa in Colorado, USA. This 150 foot high mchod-rten is a hollow church, pre-wired with lighting effects and piped-in new age music. It appears to be fusing the function of the vihara ( temple ) with that of the stupa. There is no interior yupa. When I spoke with one of the stupa's architects he seemed to be unaware of the radical changes being made to the stupa's symbolism, all the more surprising as the entire project is funded ($ 3 million dollars US) by the Naropa Institute in Boulder. This hollow form of faux-stupa are also being built in Asia. Kalutera dagoba in Sri Lanka is an example, and there is a 'Buddha Apartment Building' in Balangoda, Sri Lanka, where a Buddha statue provides the backing for a four storey apartment building, visitors to the penthouse being able to look through the Buddha's eyes.

According to H. L. Shorto, this 'degeneration' of Buddhist Art, that began after the year 900 CE, " reflects a focusing of the cult on the monument rather than on the image which derives from an acceptance of the stupa as itself an icon and an equivalent of the Buddha " (Shorto, in Watson, 1971 : 75). It appears that only the exterior form of the traditional stupa is being imitated, not it's symbolic function.

7.3 The concept : building a stupa

The building of a stupa is a ritual exercise of considerable complexity. I will attempt to describe the construction of a contemporary stupa as I have witnessed it on several occasions, as it has been described to me, and as it has been documented. I will compare my information on the erection of the'Canada' pagoda at Kinmount in 1982 with two sources : the vinaya-pitaka, the 'Basket of Discipline' that defines the code of conduct for the construction of stupas as analysed by André Bareau ( providing a historical perspective ) ; and the Mahayana ritual of the mandala as described by Martin Brauen (1997 : 75-119). Peter Boag, the foreman of the Kinmount pagoda and also of the mchod-rten, has kindly furnished me with information and a complete slide documentation of the 1982 construction of the 'Canada' pagoda. It is interesting to compare the contemporary stupa building practices of Sayadaw U Thila Wunta with the archaeological record, with the Mahayana traditions, and with the vinaya-pitaka.

When the Venerable Zong Aung Min Gaung Sayadaw U Thila Wunta arrived in Canada on July 28, 1982 he had just completed the enlargement of the American Shwe Dagon in Allegany New York, which had been consecrated July 24. At Ananada Bodhi's centre in Kinmount, the Sayadaw first slept on the ground at various places on the Centre's grounds, awaiting an auspicious dream. Once achieved, the site was prepared. The central notion was the concept of the vastu, or the site, and of its intrinsic sacrality. The proper divination of a site by means of omens, its sanctification [...] notions of centrality and axiality, which determined what could be built at the cardinal points, all were integral elements of the ideology (Wickremerante, in Smith and Reynolds, 1987 : 50).

The book of discipline for the Buddhist sangha, the part of the tripitaka called the vinaya-pitaka, originated in the first decades after the death of the Buddha, and is the oldest Pali manuscript. It consists of three parts, the Bhikshuvibhanga, Bhishunivibhanga and Khandaka, and has been preserved in several versions, the main ones being the Mahasanghika-vinaya, Mulasarvastivadin-vinaya, Sarvastivadin-vinaya and Dharmaguptaka-vinaya. The Patimokkha-vinaya is considered to be the oldest of these texts (EPR, 1994 : 406). Most of these texts give specific instructions for the building sites of stupas. The Mulasarvastivadin, following the Buddha's instructions in the Mahaparinirvanasutra , enjoins the monument to be built at the crossing of four roads. The Mahasanghika and Sarvastivadin permit other sites- out of doors, in caves, gardens or cereal fields. If built near a Monastery, a stupa should never be constructed to the south or west but only to the east or north of the buildings . " Le stupa doit être construit en un lieu élevé et bien visible " (Bareau, BEFEO, 1962 : 234).

In the Mahayana tradition a clean, level, pleasant place must be chosen for the site, such as a garden, a mountain or a forest. An unclean place must be ritually purified before the building can take place. First the colour and composition of the ground are checked. If, for instance, bones or potsherds are found, a consecration ritual cannot be performed (Wayman and Lessing, 1978 : 281). The Sayadaw's biography tells us that when founding the Wangapeka pagoda : " He gave evening puja and for three days made the 49 offerings of food and the 49 offerings of water for the Triple Gem, the Arahats, and the Devas " (U Thila Wunta, 1983 : 27).

At Kinmount, once the ground was cleaned, levelled, and ritually prepared, the foundation slab was moulded. Cement and sand was mixed with water, and this was poured in a wooden mould to obtain the base. Following south-east Asian tradition, this base was square. Steel rods were implanted in the slab, to better secure the ensuing brickwork. The Mahasanghika prescribes four sides to the sub-basement, but the Dharmaguptaka mentions square, circular or octagonal bases as acceptable (Bareau, BEFEO, 1962 : 235).

The vinaya-pitaka gives clear instructions on the materials used in building stupas. These materials, even the most common, are invested with a special significance because of their use : " One hundred thousand charges of pure gold are not comparable to a single ball of mud utilised to build the stupa of a Buddha " (Bareau, op.cit. : 232). Materials listed as appropriate for the great work are dried plants, cow dung, white or black mud, quicklime, or earth. Three texts composing parts of the vinaya-pitaka, the Mahasanghika, Mulasarvastivadin, and Dharmaguptaka, permit the use of bricks, wood and stone in the stupa. They also mention the use of metals ( iron and copper ), and especially jewels and precious metals in the consecrations of stupas. The Mulasarvastivadin specifically prescribes gold, silver, crystal and lapis-lazuli (Bareau, op.cit. : 232).

In the Mahayana tradition, the laying out of the stupa on the foundation follows the same practice as that for laying out mandalas. The vajra master proceeds to the centre of the mandala table and sets down eight cords, each held with a vajra, sequentially 'nailed' to the cardinal directions by following a sequence from east to south to west to north (Brauen, 1997 : 76). The cords are coated with moistened chalk, these 'wet cords' used to draw the principal lines.

Following these steps the octagonal redented platforms of the 'Canada' pagoda were constructed in brick and mortar. The relics were implanted inside the final level of platforms. These relics ( Sariraka ) were brought by the Sayadaw from Myanmar, representing the 'incorporation' of the pagoda with nail-clippings, hairs, or other parts taken from his Burmese Masters. The use of mementos of a teacher as relics has its roots in the lifetime of Sakyamuni, as is attested by Anathapindika, a layman requesting souvenirs in the vinaya-pitaka : O Bienheureux, quand le Bienheureux voyage parmi les hommes pour les éduquer, j'éprouve toujours le désir de regarder avec respect le Buddha. Puisse le Bienheureux me donner de petits objets auxquels je puisse rendre en culte ( puja ) ( Bareau, op. cit. : 231).

Immediately, the Buddha gave a few hairs and nail clippings instructing Anathapindika to conserve them in a stupa. The conservation and transport of these relics is cautioned by etiquette and a series of laws : Quand on porte un reliquaire, déclarent les Dharmaguptaka, il ne faut pas mettre ses vêtements sens dessus-dessous, les enrouler autour du cou, s'en envelopper la tête ni recouvrir les deux épaules... Le Buddha interdit de porter le reliquaire sous les bras, comme un paquet vulgaire, mais prescrit de le porter sur la tête ou sur l'épaule ( Bareau, op. cit. : 252).

The 'Canada' pagoda's anda was first built up with mortared bricks, filled with gravel, covered with cement and then smoothed over . The dome is referred to in the ancient texts as a turned over bowl covering the relics, its summit a flat horizontal platform. The construction of the pavilion ( harmika ) is mentioned by two texts, the Mahasanghika and the Sarvastivadin, although Bareau finds the descriptions " assez énigmatiques ". For the Mahasanghika, the pavilion is " a double thickness where square teeth come out on four sides ". The Sarvastivadin refers to " a circular terrace... where we can place a tree " (Bareau, op.cit. : 235) . The square teeth could easily refer to the railings typical of a harmika, the tree is the yupa. Other references mention banners, parasols, necklaces and bells attached to the harmika.

The Mahasanghika directs the builders to affix a large signal mast to the monument ( mat-signal ), the Mulasarvastivadin calls this a 'wheel mast' ( mat à roues ), conforming to the parasol stem ( yasti ). At Kinmount a spire was mounted, the finial structure sculpted in rings around this spire. Another ritual ceremony accompanies the 'coronation' of the pagoda with the kejr. The assemblage of metal is realised off the site, carried to the stupa with ritual ceremony. It was affixed to the pinnacle by the Sayadaw himself. In the ancient texts the chattravalli is called 'wheel sign' or parasol ( chattrika ). The number of parasols or wheels is a complicated calculation depending upon the stature of the venerated relics , generally between 1 and 13. In an intriguing reference, the Mulasarvastivadin mentions the possibility of affixing mirrors to the wheel mast.

Nous savons peu de choses au sujet de la couleur de ces monuments, dont la masse de briques était généralement recouverte d'une sorte de stuc lui-même enduit d'une couche de matière colorée. Les Sarvastivadin parlent d'un mortar rouge, noir et blanc [...] Les Mulasarvastivadin d'un enduit blanc et de "minéral pourpre ( Bareau, op.cit. : 233).

The entire structure at Kinmount was covered with gold leaf, the applications accomplished by applying the leaf with a soft brush over size. The Mahasanghika-tripitaka specifically suggest covering the monument with a covering of gold leaf (Bareau, op.cit. : 233). Traditionally casein (milk) glue was used, but at Kinmount size was used. The 'Canada' pagoda was not considered completed until it was consecrated during a ceremony with many people in attendance. Each person prostrated three times before the pagoda, and then performed the three-time pradaksina. Offerings of flowers, rice, money and incense are common at these festivals. The Mahasanghika makes mention of the 'niches' and 'huts for statues' as places for the offerings to be made, these are incorporated into many stupas, but not in U Thila Wunta's designs. Bareau details the precise offerings permitted, grouped under the broad categories of : flowers, incense, foodstuffs, parasols, silk banners, perfumes, jewellery, clothing, oil lamps, music, dance and singing (Bareau, op.cit. : 242-246). Niches for lamps were placed at regular intervals along the drum and up the dome, some stupas being entirely covered with lamps, glowing in the night like mysterious luminous spheres.

CONCLUSION

Following the seven pilgrimages with their first-hand experience of the impact and variety of the stupa environments, the essential themes and impressions are now integrated into an original artwork destined to communicate some small part of the impact of the site, in-situ.

The various symbolic elements already explored (the body, the multiple, the pradaksina, aniconism, narration, symbolic substitution, the mandala, and the tree ) are now recontextualised within larger themes of space and time, and their mediator, ritual. The central preoccupations of visual perception and ritual action are synthesised in this Chapter, unifying the concerns and illuminating the inevitable logic contained in the choices made for the thesis, the performance and the installaction.

C.1 Space and time

When all is said and done, a problem of doctrine remains which any permanent symbol of Buddhism has to face, and it touches a very central point. Impermanence is the very essence of Buddhist teaching ; how, then, can a sacred objet, fixed, immutable by its very sanctity, be an adequate representation of a system which is based upon the doctrine of impermanence ( aniccata ) and ' not-self ' ( anattata ) ? (Kölver, 1996 : 33).

Bernhard Kölver's question is about the symbolic representation of space and time. How can the mass of the stupa properly represent the emptiness of the parinirvana ?

'Nothingness' is one of the central tenants of Buddhism, wherein the 'partisans of emptiness' do not search for substances but for relationships ( C. Malamoud, NRP, 1975 : 205). Early architecture is the " worship of the divinized energies of the earth " (Wales, 1953 : 159). It is assumed that these energies can come into being without origins. Coomaraswamy quotes a Upanishad wherein men could " roll up space like a skin " (1938 : 49). He defends the viewpoint of ritual as a description of the nature of physical space :

Vi ma is to measure or layout - ' asked to bring into being '. In countless texts we find vi ma employed in this way with respect to the delimitation of space. The laying out of ' abodes of cosmic order ' [...] It is in fact only by means of the three dimensions that an original one can be made four- like a field ( ksetram iva ), and it is in this sense that we proceed from unity to quadrature by means of a triangle ( IHQ, 1938 : 3 ).

This ritual dimension is central to the creation of manifest forms, and essential for their comprehension . We remember that the Svaya-bhunath stupa is ' self-created ', in contrast with the rest of the universe which is founded upon an ultimate cause. The hymn to be recited in the presence of the Svaya-bhunath is documented by Kölver : " The Ether ( i.e. the Supreme Element of Creation ) has grown spotless, resting on properties of absolute inactivity ; pacified is what has the Five Heaps as its Self. Veneration to him whose Self is the stupa " (1996 : 34). In a Jataka story, the Buddha receives four bowls of food from the Kings of the Four Quarters. Taking the bowls, the Buddha fuses them into one, implying the involution of space (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 7). This alms bowl, turned up-side down, becomes the anda of the stupa. It is the Horizontverchmelzung, the place of fusion of all horizons, where the four dimensions converge into no-place.

The stupa is the embodiment of the Absolute in this world : it is the primordial egg, the eye of God, paradise, the mandala-world. The pradaksina is therefore a transition towards, and return from, the unchangeable : " It is a progress through the six directions back to the seventh 'direction', the dimensionless and spaceless point of Unity [...] it is a descent from the point-summit of the universe into the world of spatial and temporal differentiation " (Snodgrass, 1985 : 287).

Time and space have no existence inside the eternal archetype of the stupa, which is an attempt to find a tangible form for the Void. When naming the absolute, the words 'full' and 'empty' are the same. This idea is present in the Upanishads, with the frequent repetition that the atman-brahman is 'not this' and 'not that', " Pour parler du plein, on recourt à une évacuation de la parole, obtenu, cette fois, non par le silence, mais par l'affirmation répétée de la nullité des mots. Du reste, ce plein n'est qu'un nom pour le vide ( çunyata ) " (Malamoud, NRP, 1975 : 219). Malamoud tells us that the absolute is " l'ami des interstices", and that brahman, the supreme non-dual reality, is synonymous with space (op.cit. : 221). In the case of the stupa, emptiness is symbolised by its opposite- an enormous mass. It is for this reason that the Kubyaukki stupa in Myanmar is called the 'Great Hollow Temple' (Shorto, in Watson 1971 : 76).

C.2 The optical effects experienced during the pradaksina

In occidental philosophy, a similar view of space has been arrived at independently by phenomenologists. Essentially a practice, the transcendental phenomenological method has been described as : " an open, transcendental consciousness " (Moustakas, 1994 : 87) ; " the overthrow of common sense " (B. Smith, CCH, 1995 : 429) ; " screened off " (Kersten, 1989 : 47). Once achieved, " I stand above the world, which has now become for me, in a quite peculiar sense, a phenomenon " (Husserl, 1938 : 152). The phenomenologist can apply his method to the things of fiction or mythology as well as to the things of physics, to the things of imagination as well as to the things of perception and memory, the devil as well as the deep blue sea. Through the épochè all objects become reduced to their experiencable properties, and all objects are in this respect equal in the eyes of consciousness ( B. Smith, D. W. Smith, CCH, 1995 : 12).

A recent article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology documents the dangers of staring straight ahead at the horizon while driving . The effects of 'motion adaptation' cause subjects to continue seeing motion after it has ceased, a sort of hypnotic response that dissolves the reality of the visual field. Researchers Bob Grey and David Regan of York University, Toronto apply their research to the specific conditions of highway driving and road fatigue, but there is no doubt that the phenomenon they are describing is the same as the visual fatigue I have experienced while performing the pradaksina for extended periods of time. While walking or driving, the eyes naturally seek out the horizon, stabilising the perceptive field and maintaining blanace. While performing the ritual three-time circumambulation around a stupa, a secondary horizon is created, a vertical oculation of the visual field behind the stupa's dome. Without practice or instruction human eyes, naturally, seek out the point of junction between these two horizons, the point of maximum visual stability. It is found where the landscape's horizon intersects the stupa's dome. This fusion of horizons (horizontvershmeltzung ) is located at one specific point in space upon which the mendicant concentrates as he walks, reciting mantras or hymns, performing walking meditation, singing or playing an instrument, in puja, taking pictures, or simply in concentration upon the experience. The atmosphere generated by the sacred monument, combined with the profound psychological acuity of the spacial environment of a stupa, creates the hypnotic effect of visual oversaturation identical to the one described by Grey and Regan.

The monument of the stupa is in the landscape until it is approached. Access paths are carefully planned at every major stupa, as an appropriate atmosphere of solemnity is desired at this place of veneration and ceremony. The 'theatre' of the stupa's environment begins as we approach it, usually slowly, circumambulating the forest of smaller stupikas that inevitably crowd the principal monument. Once engaged, the main stupa erases the landscape, its dome oculating the view. At this moment we loose our orientation, our ' place ', the monument supersedes the point of view.

The living Buddhist traditions provide explicit protocols and techniques for meditational practice . Phenomenologists, unfortunely, do not explain their techniques so clearly. Edmund Husserl, in Ideas I and II, describes the stages which constitute the transcendental phenomenological procedure, but his descriptions of constitutive analysis, although concrete, are sometimes cryptic . Fred Kersten has provided the only clear guide for putting into practice the phenomenological épochè that I have discovered . In respect to visual apprehension, Kersten provides a concrete example of observing a round earthenware jar using the transcendental phenomenological method : If I look at it close up, my line of vision begins to break up and, as it were, glide around the sides of the object as though it were taking possession of the rotundity of the jar. Reducing the theme now to visual prespace, what I objectivate as visually sensed is a rotating patch or colored segment of the visual spread successively appearing and diminishing, a " curved " segment of color-patch is replaced by another - for instance, there is sensing of the qualitative change of ' dark ' becoming ' light ', of ' light ' becoming ' dark '. In other words, what I objectivate are sensings of bulky, filled voluminosity of a segment of the visual spread replaced by sensings of lesser bulkiness, lesser voluminosity and, correlatively, of more surface, greater superficiality ; a spectrum of qualitative change from ' bodiedness' to ' disembodiedness ' ( F. Kersten, 1989 : 144) .

C.3 The Sacred Circuit

My first experience of a stupa was at Sanchi, India in 1977. Thirty-three years later I read Carl Jung's autobiography, engendering one of those remarkable moments when another's writing precisely verbalises an experience of deep personal significance :

The Sanchi stupas remain in my memory as unforgettable : they impressed me with unexpected force, an awe that usually accompanies the discovery of a thing, a person or an idea that contains unconscious significance. The stupas rise up on a rocky hill, the summit reached by a pleasant path made of stone slabs slicing through the green plain. The stupas are half-sphere funeral monuments or relic chambers, according to the Buddha's instructions found in the Mahaparinibbanasutta. They have been faithfully restored by the English. The largest of these monuments is surrounded by a wall with four sculpted doorways. The moment we enter one of these portals, our path turns left on an ambulatory path turning clockwise. At the four cardinal directions there are statues of the Buddha. When we finish a circumambulation we reach a second level turning in the same sense but on a second level. The vast panorama of the plain, the stupas themselves, the ruins of the temple and the silence of this sacred place created an indescribable impression which immediately seized me. Never before had I been so moved by a place! I distanced myself from my companions, abandoning myself to the atmosphere of the place.

In the distance I heard the rhythm of approaching gongs. It was a group of Japanese pilgrims walking one behind the other, striking a small gong. They chanted an antique prayer :" Om mani padme houm", the beat falling on the houm. They bowed deeply before the stupas, and entered through the gateway. Then they prostrated themselves once again in front of the Buddha statues and intoned a chorus. After this they completed the double circumambulation, during which they sang a hymn before each Buddha statue. As I watched, my spirit accompanied them, and something inside me thanked them silently with all my heart, because they had expressed the feelings for which I could not find the words. My experience showed me that the Sanchi Hill represented for me something central. Here, Buddhism awoke in me a new reality. I understood the life of the Buddha as the reality of the self which penetrates daily life, and claims it (C. G. Jung, 1961 : 319-320).

I wrote in my own Journal of Tuesday May 8, 1978 :

We parked our bikes below the Svaya-bhunath stupa and walked up the 500 steps past countless caityas to the stupa. The gardens swarm with monkeys. The stupa is 2,000 years old, self-created from a lotus, with 211 prayer wheels around it. I went just below it and performed my dance in the park. J.P. had a flat tire, so we walked back down...

Sanchi and Svaya-bhunath stupa were the sites if my first performances at the sites of stupas. I had begun doing dance interpretations of the ground-plans of various architectural structures earlier that same year, wishing to create souvenirs of special places without the burden of carrying art materials . These performances were documented in a notebook and by photographs. Returning home, I created my first performance work 'The Sacred Circuit'. Vancouver dance critic Max Wyman described this performance as embodying " an art of economy, simplicity and minimalist theatricality that illuminates Carl Jung's theory of archetypes " , and Ottawa visual art critic Rosalie Smith McCrea categorised the piece as an "overwhelming success [...] a creation of rare and sustained beauty " . The performance and installation was toured in six cities in Canada between 1980 and 1987 .

The second phase of my research into the stupa began in 1980 in the libraries of the SOAS and British Museum in London, England, through the agency of Dr. George Michell and Jean-Pierre Perreault. My growing interest motivated me to apply to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a research grant that permitted me to study the anthropological and ritual dimensions of stupas in India and Sri Lanka. An eight month period as a upasaka in the Island Hermitage at Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka deepened my understanding of Buddhist meditational practice. Adopting the stupa as my doctoral project was an obvious choice, as all that was needed was a context, and the appropriate motivation, to pull these years of research and reflection into a final creative form.

C.4 Ritual acts at the stupa : my performance interventions

Ritual symbolically marks the body in particular ways that reflect a hierarchy of value. The various versions of the Vinaya-pitaka, the authority on Buddhist discipline, specifies the actions that are permitted at a stupa. As a lay upasaka, my relationship with the structure is clear and ritually unequivocal ; the stupa is a form traditionally constructed, worshipped and maintained by the laity. According to Charles Malamoud, rites have a distinct advantage over doctrines in that they permit us to see persistent motifs and obsessions connected to the sites of worship : " tels qu'ils apparaissent dans les mots, certes, mais plus encore dans les gestes " (NRP, 1975:205). My interactions must respect certain rules which are outlined in the texts concerning the cult of stupas .

Upon entering the pradaksina-patha the devotee is instructed to show respect by prostrating 'les cinq roues', on both knees, both elbows and forehead touching the ground, making five points of contact with the earth. While in the act of bowing the hands should be pressed together, fingers pointing upwards, exactly as is represented in reliefs at Sanchi and elsewhere. From this position the person immediately begins turning to the left, right shoulder towards the stupa (Bareau, BEFEO, 1962 : 251).

C.5 The performance

My performance is based upon the most important ritual act performed at the stupa, the ritual circumambulation pradaksina. The essential ritual associated with the stupa, the circumambulation ( pradaksina ) in a clockwise direction, keeping the centre to the right, repeats the solar symbolism. The ritual is a mimesis of the movements of the sun, passing through the 4 directions and the 4 seasons of the year. The performer of the ritual follows the ascending progress of the sun from the south to the north, where liberation is attained, and then its descending course back into the world, repeating the redescent of the Bodhisattvas who return to aid all suffering beings ( Snodgrass, 1985 : 33 ).

Paul Mus refers to the stupa as " A great bow into which an arrow has been set " (1935 : 118), evoking the Mundaka Upanishad of the Atharvaveda, where symbolic archery aims towards the goal which lies beyond the sun (Coomaraswamy, 1938 : 49). The image of the yupa as an arrow, about to be launched from the body of the stupa towards its' goal, is a powerful one. The Sarvastivadin, P'i-ni-mou king and Dharmaguptaka versions of the vinaya-pitaka describe the left turning circumambulation ritual that is performed at a stupa, the Mulasarvastivadin mentions it on three occasions. In 'dancing' the pradaksina I am attempting to fuse, heuristically, with the floor-plan of the monument.

The mandala, like the stupa, is a psycocosmogram. It represents a scheme of the world in the liturgical drama, indeed it is the universe itself led back from its natural multiplicity to its quintessential unity ; while the stupa represents in an architectural manner the cosmos and the persons who perform the ritual circumambulation around it go back from the expanded and displayed world to the source of all things, thus becoming unified with it, the mandala is the linear and pictorial scheme of that identification and of the same process : it gives us, horizontally, the plan of the stupa, it is the stupa seen from above, with the doors of the pradaksina and its centre ; the mandala to is ' entered into ', the ceremony of initiation is a pravesa, an entry ( Tucci, 1949 : 318 ).

My body actions, controlled by the constraints of making the correct floor pattern and informed by ritual acts performed at the stupa site, evoke a virtual stupa, the physical mass of the monument as evoked through the use of my own body.

Raking the site

According to the texts, the stupa should be cleaned and the pradaksina-patha should be swept with the leaves of the tala Tree ( Borassus flabelliformis ), or the malu Tree ( Aegle marmelos ) (Bareau, BEFEO, 1962 : 251).

Perfuming the site

In the Sarvastivadin, Anathapindika, a lay sponsor, asks the Buddha if " it is good to bring perfume-lamps in his presence ". The Buddha replies that it is permitted. (op. cit. : 251).

Dancing at the site

The Mahasanghika and the Dharmaguptaka stipulate that dance is considered a proper offering to be made at a stupa, but that this offering is prohibited to ordained monks. (Ibid. : 246).

Playing music at the site

The Sarvastivadin recounts a Brahman Master encountering music at the worship of a stupa with the comment : " it is like a funeral cortege ". Music usually accompanied Indian funerals. Anathapindika requested permission from the Buddha to have music played before his image, and it was granted.

Who may construct a stupa

" The right to construct and maintain stupas should only be accorded to capable men who do not neglect their task " (Ibid. : 257) .

Interdictions

These are numerous and precise. It is forbidden to cover the head, wear leather sandals or shoes, sit with legs straight out, or pass the entire night in the presence of a stupa. The stupa should be respected, enjoins the Mulasarvastivadin, not broken or disturbed. To destroy a stupa is a grave error. Even the image of the stupa should be treated with respect : " one should not make stupas with food ". Certain interdictions are motivated by the showing of proper respect ( not covering the head ), by moral interdiction ( not to make use of the offerings present in the enclosure to decorate oneself or others ) or with concerns for purity ( not to wash, tint or dry clothing in the stupa enclosure ). The stupa is homologous with the Buddha, so must be treated with the respect and difference shown to him .

The pile demarks itself from the sameness of the horizon, its vertical axis marking a 'place'. How resonant that the stupas establish 'places' while the Buddha himself dissolves them. Pali texts state: " How the ground levels at the feet of the Buddha, how hollows fill up and the humps subside " (Shorto 1971 : 77).

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