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Sramana, Vol 58, No. 4/October-December 2007
are made from a variety of materials such as stone in India and Sri Lanka, and from wood as can be seen at Kyoto and Nara, in Japan. Bricks were also used and some of the surviving temples of Pagan are made of bricks. Sandstone is the material used in the building of Malaysian temples.
The second type of Buddhist structure is the stūpa and is itself an object of worship as it was intended to serve as a relic chamber for the Buddha's remains. The earliest examples of the Buddhist stūpa were raised in India, as for example the dome shaped stūpa at Sanchi, the ancient Dhammekh Stūpa at Sarnath and those built inside the caves at Ellora and Ajantā. In time the basic Indian stūpa-design evolved into the Dagoba in Sri Lanka, the Chorten in Tibet and the Pagodas of China, Korea and Japan. One of the finest examples of all is the splendid Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. As with Buddhist Art, the materials used in the building of vihāras and temples and the various types of stūpa and pagoda varied and depended on the materials available in the places where they were built. So we find some stūpas are built of marble or other types of local stone or brick and even wood, as was the Goose Pagoda at Chagan in China. Happily in the west where Buddhism is becoming a very popular religion, the artists and architects who work on Buddhist building projects turn to the rich and varied legacy of Buddhist Art and Architecture for their inspiration.
All the Buddhist structures that were ever built by their very existence contributed something to the world and are holy places, places of learning and sanctuary for the people who were to use them and the repositories of some of the greatest treasures of Buddhist Ant. They were and those that have survived continue to be a source of personal inspiration for all who saw them either in person long ago or even see them depicted in a drawing or a photograph these days. As was said, earlier Buddhist Art and Architecture mirrors the beliefs, ideas and ideals of both the Mahāyāna and Theravāda traditions.
