Pagoda (Ta)

     

  Pagoda (Ta) is a common oriental traditional building with specific form and style,  Pagoda is

always used as a place collecting sarira, Buddha, Buddhist Scriptures, etc. it’s a kind of building

having ties to Buddhism. Buddhism came to China during the Eastern or Later Han period.

The oldest monastery (siyuan) on Chinese ground is the White Horse Monastery (Baimasi) in

Luoyang. A pagoda can also be seen as a symbolfor a monastery. By the way, the word "pagoda"

derives from the Sanskrit word bhagavat (cf. the book Bhagavad-Gita) "holy".

        The typical Chinese pagoda like we know it has nothing in common with the old Indian

stupa and seems to be very different from the buildings of southern Theravada Buddhism in

Sri Lanka (former Ceylon; chedi), Myanmar (former Burma), Thailand, Laos and Cambodia

(all three countries adopting the Khmer style prang pagoda). But if we have a closer look at

the shapes and appearances of the Chinese pagodas in earlier ages, we can find traces that

can lead back to the Indian origin also of the typical octagonal and straight Chinese pagoda w

ith the curved roofs. It reflects a pagoda of Bodhgaya, an important location of Buddhist worship

in India, by which we can see some typical features of a pagoda or stupa: the tower is multi-storied

and more or less decorated on the surface and tapers from bottom to top. The top is crowned with

something that looks like a flower bud, in Buddhism an expression for the lotus flowe r.

        In other cases, the construction at the top is an honorific umbrella with up to ten layers.

Around the main tower we find small miniature pagodas, ranging from four to eight, depending

on the shape of the whole pagoda complex. Most pagodas contain relics of the Buddha or at

least a statue of the Enlightened. The inside of a pagoda may be a dome-like room or can be

climbed by stairs to take care for the decorations or the jewels that are fixed atop of the lotus

flower bud.

        The oldest pagoda still intact on Chinese soil is the pagoda of Songyue Monastery of

Dengfeng / Henan at the foothills of the sacred mountain Songshan. It stands near the famous

Shaolin Monastery where monks of the Chan School developed Kungfu fighting for mental training.

The brick pagoda is 41m high and was erected in 523 under the patronage of the Northern Wei rulers.

While the lower parts of the round pagoda are built of twelve flat surfaces symbolizing the twelve causes

of sin, the upper part is octagonal and constructed in the shape of 15 steps. The top is crowned by a

bud that once was adorned with jewels.