Today I thought I would explain the meaning of stupas used in Buddhism, and especially in Tibetan Buddhism. A stupa, most simply, can be described as a spiritual monument. They are usually built outside and can range in height from a few feet tall - to ones that are one to two stories tall or even taller. A stupa is intended to “stop you in your tracks.” It is a representation of the entire Buddhist path. Contained within are the body, speech and mind of the enlightened teacher. It is to serve as a reminder of our own innate Buddha nature or potential for enlightenment.

The origin of stupas is clouded in mystery because they pre-date the life the life and death of the Buddha.

Starting in the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE, kings and other important people were buried and a stupa consisting of cairns (pile of rocks) was used to mark the location. These were typically located on the outskirts of the village.

The stones may have been thought to deter grave robbers and scavengers. A more sinister explanation is that they were to stop the dead from rising.

It is noteworthy that there is a still a Jewish tradition of placing small stones on a person’s grave whenever you visit, as a token of respect. (Flowers are not usually placed on graves in the Orthodox Jewish tradition.) Stupas in India and Tibet etc. probably started out in a similar fashion, although they now generally contain the ashes of a Buddhist saint or lama.

The stupa is the earliest Buddhist religious monument and was originally only a simple mound made up of mud or clay, or a cairn in barren areas, to cover supposed relics of the Buddha. After the ‘passing away’ of the Buddha his remains were cremated and the ashes divided and buried under eight stupas with two further stupas encasing the urn and the embers from his cremation. Little is known about these early stupas, particularly since it has not been possible to identify the original ten monuments. However, some later stupas, such as at Sarnath (the site of the Buddha’s first teaching) seem to be embellishments of earlier mounds.

In the third century BCE, after his conversion to Buddhism, the emperor Ashoka had the original stupas opened and the remains distributed among the several thousand stupas he had built throughout India.

Nevertheless, the stupas at the four places associated with the life of the Buddha (birth, first teaching, enlightenment and death) continued to be of particular importance. Accordingly, the importance of a stupa changed from being a funeral monument to being an object of veneration. As a consequence their appearance changed also.

In Buddhism a stupa is a symbol for the Buddha’s enlightened mind. In Tibetan the word for stupa is “chorten”, which means a receptacle for offerings. Stupas built today typically contain, the remains of a great teacher, or possibly relics from the Buddha, or other great teachers of the past. They may also contain thousands of mantras or dharanis, tsa tsas (small molded images of bodhisattvas) and other important religious objects. Stupas are usually sealed (you don’t go inside). And it is considered meritorious to circumambulate a stupa in a clockwise direction. This is the main practice of lay Tibetan practitioners. Typically this is done early in the morning as they spin their prayer wheels or recite “manis” as they count with their malas. This is repeated again in the evening. The stupa then serves as a place for lay people to express their devotion and connection to the Buddha.

In 1999 Mary and I visited Tibet and had the opportunity to visit and tour the Potala Palace the Tibetan home of HH Dalai Lama, which he was, forced to leave in 1959. Much to our surprise contained inside the Potala Palace are twelve incredibly beautiful stupas approximately two stories tall. Each about the size of this shrine room - only taller. There is one stupa containing the remains for every previous Dalai Lama going all the way back to the first Dalai Lama. As I recall there was one missing because one of the early Dalai Lamas was killed on the road and therefore they didn’t have his remains.

Each of these stupas is incredibly beautiful made of metal that looked liked gold - and completely encrusted with precious and semi-precious stones. Each was a work of art in themselves.

It is traditional to have a model or representation of a stupa on a Buddhist shrine. A Buddhist shrine should always have a minimum of three representations of the Buddha. 1. A representation of the Buddha’s body, usually represented by either a statue or picture. 2. A representation of the Buddha’s speech, usually represented by a text or a sutra and, 3. a representation of the Buddha’s enlightened mind, usually represented by a small stupa.

There are number of beautiful stupas in the U.S. Perhaps the most well known is the “Great Stupa” at Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center just outside of Ft. Collins, Colorado. If you are ever in the area it is really worth seeing. It is very large (108 ft tall) and very beautiful - and actually has a small shrine room at the base where you can go inside and meditate.

There are number of stupas found in the southwest of the U.S. From 1983 to 1996, six Tibetan-style stupas were built in a line roughly following the Rio Grande river from Albuquerque, New Mexico, north to Crestone, Colorado.

Until 1999 the largest stupa in the world was the Bodnath stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. Mary and I visited this beautiful stupa in 2001. Then one of our root teachers, Kusum Lingpa built an even larger stupa in Golok, Tibet. It is 50 meters tall (164 feet) and in the style of the Bodnath stupa in Nepal. It was completed in 1999. Mary and I attended the dedication ceremony of this magnificent stupa, built for world peace. Inside the stupa are more than 1,000 sets of the Kanjur, the sacred scriptures of the Buddha. Each set of Kanjur contains 108 volumes, so there are a total of over 108,000 volumes of the words of the Buddha. In addition many other sacred texts, collections of the treasure teachings or termas, were also placed inside. In addition there are many ancient and holy relics dating back to the time of the Buddha.

Every part of a stupa or chorten has symbolic meaning. The shape of the stupa represents the Buddha, crowned and sitting in meditation posture on a lion throne. His crown is the top of the spire; the sun and moon represent wisdom and compassion respectively; his head is the square at the spire’s base; his body is the vase shape; his legs are the four steps of the lower terrace; and the base is his throne.

So, to conclude, a stupa is a representation of the Buddha’s enlightened mind. The well-known and wonderful teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche said about stupas,

“When a great teacher passes away, his body is no more, but to indicate that his mind is dwelling forever in an unchanging way in the dharmakaya, one will erect a stupa as a symbol of the mind of the buddhas.”

As the Buddhist teachings point out, every element of a buddha’s physical body is pervaded with enlightenment. Thus, even after cremation, the teacher’s remains are considered sacred, because they are the distilled essence of his or her physical form and are therefore themselves the embodiment of enlightenment. Because it enshrines these relics, the stupa is powerful and it therefore serves to remind us of our own Buddha-nature or potential for enlightenment.