Origin and Development of Pagodas
7 min readPagodas refer to a kind of high-story steeple-tipped architecture in which relics, Buddha statues, Buddhist sutras and relics of monks are kept. Originated in Indian, pagodas are also known as “fotu”or “futu”in China,a transliteration from a Sanskrit word”stupa”, which means”pagoda”.
It is said that after Buddha Sakyamuni’s death, his remains after cremation was condensed into several colorful and non-shattering crystals. These relics are knownas sarira. Having heard this wonderful news, eight kings of different countries wereamazed and send troops to fight for the relics. With common consent, the relics werethen divided into eight portions to the satisfaction of all. Stupas were built overthese relics in accordance with Indian traditions. Sarira are regarded by Buddhists as holy things above everything else. Therefore, stupas became not only the symbol of Buddha Sakyamuni, but also the holy place Buddhists pay homage to. As Buddhismdeveloped and its teaching spread into different countries, more and more people became convinced of Buddhism.
At the same time,a great number of stupas arose all over the world, with sarirakeeping in the underground palaces. By far, stupas have left their footprints inmost countries and regions of Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia and South-east Asia. Merely in China, the number of pagodas left today is up to over 2,000. Due to the limited amount of sarira, many pagodas choose other valuable things as substitutes to store, for instance, gold, silver and other precious gems such as agate, pearl and colored glaze. If these things are not available either, clear sand from the beach, bamboo knots and roots of herbs can be used as replacement. In addition, since Sakyamuni’s thoughts are distillated in sutras, people also prostrate them to pay homage to. The sutras are known as visional sarira. No matter it is real sarira or visional sarira, as long as the followers have great piety towards Buddhism, even the simplest substitute can be a lighthouse guiding them to the spiritual destination.
Two hundred years after Sakyamuni’s death, Asoka, king of Indian Maurya, opened seven underground palaces of the eight stupas where sarira were originally kept. He divided them into several portions and restored them in a lot more stupas in the regions where Buddhism had already spread to. During this process, Buddhists in all parts of the world combined their regional and ethnic culture into the construction of stupas on the basis of Indian architecture style, creating a great number of novel ones which are full of local color and cultural ethos. Stupas’ forms and styles are greatly enriched.
Pagodas came into China from ancient India in the Eastern Han dynasty. It is said that two famous Madhyada monks-Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksa traveled to Luoyang with a white horse carrying sutras. Emperor Mingdi built up for them a temple and a pagoda to do self-cultivation. Since the sutras they used were carried by a white horse, this temple was named White Horse Temple while the pagoda Qiyun Pagoda or Sakyamuni’s Sarira Pagoda. Pitifully, this pagoda was decadent during the great changes in the course of time. At first, pagodas were usually made of wood.
Wooden structure gained great popularity at that time because it was earthquake-proof and convenient to climb up and stare into space at the top. However, wooden pagodas had a fatal weakness-it caught fires easily. We can see in the history records many stories about majestic pagodas burning to ashes due to natural and man-made calamities. Because of this, the constructors afterwards chose to use bricks and stones so as to make pagodas more endurable and magnificent.
It is a remarkable step in the history of Chinese architecture. In the Tang dynasty, the skills of brick construction marked a high standard. All kinds of pagodas, such as tower-and multieave-style brick ones in imitation of the previous wooden ones were created. Pagodas made of bricks emerged in great numbers after the Tang dynasty. Today, most ancient pagodas in China fall into this category. After the Song dynasty, especially in the Liao and Jin dynasties, high-storied brick pagodas reached the zenith. The tower body changed from quadrate to hexagon or octagon, greatly improving its ability to resist earthquake. The technique of building pagodas at that time was first class all over the world. In the Yuan dynasty, the form of pagodas made certain modifications. Because rulers of the Yuan dynasty believed in Tibetan Buddhism-namely Lamaism-the upturned alms bowl-like pagodas became the main stream. There also existed a unique form of pagodas -pylon, which was built on the door openings of estrades. The most representative one of this form is the Juyongguan Pass.
The popular type in the Ming and Qing dynasties is the special and extricate tower-style colored glaze pagoda. This type of pagodas was made of brick and stuck with colored glazes in the outer body. Besides tower-style, pavilion-style, multieave and upturned alms-bowl styles,a new form was introduced from Turkistan-diamond throne-like. The pagoda of Zhenjue Temple in Beijing is the first and mostdelicate diamond throne-like one built in the Ming dynasty while the one in Biyun Temple is the biggest all over China. In the Qing dynasty, people also use gold tobuild upturned alms bowl-like pagodas, on the surface of which precious gems were inlayed. These pagodas were usually used for homage. These gold, brilliant, expensive pagodas, together with fine, extricate enamel ones, are considered as the most valuable art treasures in the art of pagodas’ construction. Generally speaking, the forms and structures of Chinese ancient pagodas fall into the following types:
1. Tower-style Pagoda: This form develops from one kind of Chinese ancient architecture-towers. It is oldest in time, biggest in size and largest in number.
It gets its name because the space between adjacent stories is relatively wide and that it looks like a tower from a distance away. The number of stories inside the pagoda is the same as that of the layers seen from the outside. There are doors, windows and pillars in imitation of wooden structure outside the pagoda and stepsmade of wood, brick or stone inside it. So it is convenient for tourists to climb ufor a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding country. This form of pagoda is practical in usage and elegant in appearance.
2. Multieave-style Pagoda: Its first story is very large while the upper ones become smaller and smaller from bottom to top. The eaves of each story overlap densely, which gives this form of pagoda its name. The inner part of it is either cylindraceous or solid, so people are not able to climb it. Even some pagodas have set up steps for climbing, the inside stories are actually far less than the layers seen from outside. Therefore, the art and aesthetic value of this type of pagoda iscentralized on the first story, where brilliant and extricate wooden ornaments are decorated.
3. Pavilion-style Pagoda: This form is a perfect combination of Indian upturned alms bowl-like form and Chinese traditional tower-style one. It enjoys a history as long as the above two. The most characteristic feature which distinguishes it from others is that all the pagodas of this form are single-storied, some of which have a pavilion at the top. There are always niches for Buddha setting up inside to put Buddha statues. Most eminent monks choose this simple form of pagodas as their tombs because they are easy to build and cost only a little.
4. Flowery Pagoda: Although this form represents only a small percentage in number, its molding is in a class by itself. Pagodas of this form are often single-storied ones. The chief feature of this form is that its upper half is decorated with complicated floriation so that it looks like a large flowery. This form is acombination of the upper half of pavilion-style pagodas and the body part of the tower-style and multieave-style ones, aiming at showing lotus world of each Buddha for his reward body (that means a spiritual world people can achieve only after har efforts).
5. Upturned Alms Bowl-like Pagoda: This is the traditional Indian form. Chinese people began to build this form in large numbers in the Yuan dynasty and then in a smaller scale in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The main part of the body is in the shape of an upturned alms-bowl, with a pinnacle at the top and a throne of Mt.
Sumeru stand at the bottom as the support. It is widely adapted by Tibetan Buddhism, and therefore got its name as Lama Pagoda.
6. Diamond throne-like Pagoda: This form is built to store five Dhyani-Buddhas sarira in the diamond realm in Esoteric Buddhism. It gets the name because of its structure: there is generally a tall and solid base at the bottom and five pagodas standing on it. The large one in the middle is called main pagoda while the rest four are relatively smaller. Gathering together, these five pagodas form a shape of a diamond throne. There is no fixed form of the five pagodas. They can be multieave-style or upturned bowl-like or any other ones.
7. Overhead Pagoda: This form is built over a street, with a door opening for horses, carriages and pedestrians walking through.
