Buddhist Stupa

The stupa is the most ancient form of Buddhist art, symbolizing the monumental funerary mounds of ancient India that were appropriated into Buddhism as depositories for Buddha relics. The stupa is usually designed in the non-enterable circular burial mound topped by the honorific multi-tiered parasols. In later periods, the simple form of the early Stupas became more elaborated with mouldings.

Borobudur is one of the great monuments of Southeast Asia. It is a colossal Buddhist stupa that rises out of the rice paddies and palm trees with the nearby volcano Gunung Merapi in the distance. This mysterious and beautifully constructed monument has survived volcanic eruptions, a 2006 earthquake, and even terrorist bombs.

Stupa is a hemispherical structure containing Buddhist relics and place of meditation used by Buddhists monks. In the period between the Mauryas and the Guptas the older stupas were greatly enlarged and beautified. Of these three are noteworthy—those at Bharhut and Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, and at Amaravati in the lower Krishna valley.

Rising high out of the earth from where the dying Buddha donated his begging bowl, the enormous Kesaria Stupa is an enthralling example of how nature can reclaim a deserted monument.

One of the most important places to visit in Varanasi, the Chaukhandi Stupa at Sarnath is believed to have been constructed in somewhere between the 4th and 6th century, during the Gupta era.