Temple II: India and Southeast Asia
A. Early Buddhist Architecture in India
1. Great Sanchi Stupa and Monastery, 100 AD, Madhya Pradesh, India
The solid brick hemisphere of 40 m diameter monument, surrounded by stone railing, four great gates, and circumambulatory path, was originally built by Mauryan emperor Asoka to worship the remain of Buddha, also symbolizing the sacred mountain of Meru.
Ashokan Pillar, Sarnath, c. 270 BC
Surrounded by railing and circumambulatory path, the typical Mauyan pillar has a shaft rising from the ground with a tassel like cap below an abacus embellished with lotus and carrying an animal device symbolizing royalty, and chariot wheel.
Ruwanveliseya Dageba, 137 BC, Sri Lanka
Brick Buddhist stupa of 90 meters in diameter, covered with cement, sheets of copper and silver.
The relic chamber has a Bo tree made of jewels, gold, silver and coral.
2. Ajanta Rock Shrine, 200 BC to 600 AD, Western India
Buddhist cave temple with total 29 Shrines carved into the rock, including 24 Vihara and 5 Chaitya Halls, each representing the spatial practice and signification of Hinayana and Mahayana thought.
Karle Rock Shrine, 70 AD, Western India
Chaitya Hall in Buddhist cave temple with an enlarged space and the stupa dominating the shrine, representing the architecture of Mahayana practice and their pilgrim experience.
3. Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Ganya, 500 AD, Northern India
Four replicas of the main structure occupies each corners of the terrace, implyinging the descendent of the bodhi tree under which Buddha, Shakyamuni achieved enlightenment in the recognition of “four noble truths”, delivered his first sermon. Recorded by Chinese monk Xuanzang in Tang during is pilgrim, it became probably the prototype of Chinese Jingangzuo Pagoda.
Vishnu Temple, Deogarh, 500 AD, Central India
The earliest surviving example of Hindu temple which manifests a Mandala nine square plan and corner projections developed during the Gupta Period.
B. Hindu Temple in India
1. Lingaraja Temple, Bhuvaneshavar, 1020 AD, Orissa, east coast of Northern India
Hindu Temple of Nagara Style with a trapezoidal roof for the main temple and a square plan which gradually transforms into a cruciform when a series of extensions increase in number. It also illustrating the typical spatial experiences in later Hindu Temple: a front porch and the square hall of Mandapa leading to the secret Cella.
2. Kandariya Mahadeo Temple, Khajuraho, 916-1203 AD, Madhya Pradesh, Central India
Hindu Temples of Nagara style in Central India with a complex cruciform plan and the elevation of platform plinth, wall and tower, as well as rich sculptures of erotic iconography.
3. Brihadeshvara Temple (Great Temple), Tanjore, 1010 AD, Southern India
Hindu Temple of Chalukyan style, or early Dravida style, dedicated to Shiva, with rectangular plan of colonnade and the main temple of double walled enclosure, also with strict axial and symmetrical geometry governing the planning.
4. Jain Temple Complex, Mount Abu, Rajputana,11th to 13th C, North-western India
Complex of five temples built of marble carving, Temple of Vimala with domed main hall sit in an open courtyard surrounded by corridor punctured by many miniature temples.
5. Minakshi Complex, The temple city of Mandurai, 12th C to 16th C, Southern India
An ancient temple city renovated in mid-12th C dedicated to god Shiva, with two main shrines, temple pond, and a tall gate of South Gopura.
C. Buddhist Temple in Southeast Asia
1. Bourobudur, Jogyakarta, 842 AD, Jeva
A nine-level lava rock stupa representing Buddhist cosmology circumnutating around the axis of sacred Mount Meru. While visitors ascending gradually from secular and human world up toward the heavenly top, one finally understand the layout of its double spatial relationship for a two-dimensional design of Mandala: the plan seen from above and the figures from front.
2. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, 1150 AD, Cambodia
A large scaled Hindu mountain- temple complex built by the King of Khmer empire representing image of Mount Meru and the Mandala layout, with a terraced five-tower square plan, surrounded by a four Kilometers circumference square shaped moat and wall enclosure.
3. Bagan Shrines, Temple of Ananda, 1100 AD, Burma
Among over 4000 shrines built in Bagan, the typical plan has a solid brick core, four cellas and double ambulatories, with four porches facing cardinal axis, also with massive wall enclosure graded in height, stepping up toward the gently curved profiles of stupa.
Wat Phra Sri Sarapet, Ayudhya,1500 AD, Thailand
A cluster of bell-like stupas capped with conical spires was the royal shrine in the historic city of Ayudhya.
Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon, 1700 AD, Burma
The most important shrine in Myanmar with its main stupa of golden glow
Wat Phra Keo, Chapel of Emerald Buddha, Palace, Bangkok, 1782 AD, Thailand
Typical layout of Thai temple of a rectangular plan and concave roof, surrounded by a cloister with a chedi stupa to the north, and the Buddha image is placed at the end of nave.
Reference:
Nelson I Wu ( Wu No-sun) Chinese and Indian Architecture-The city of Man, the Mountain of God, and the Realm of the Immortals. New York: George Brasiller, 1963.
Christopher Tadgell A History of Architecture- India and South East Asia: The Buddhist and Hindu Tradition. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1998.
Bindia Thapar. Introduction to India Architecture, Singapore: Perilus, 2004
G.H.R. Tillotson(ed) Paradigms of Indian Architecture: Space and Time in Representation and Design. London: Curzon, 1998.
Clarence Aasen Architecture of Siam. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Ma Thanegi Myanmar Architecture: City of God. Times Editions. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2006
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