Myanmar Stupas (the Religious Monuments)

There are two kinds of building, stupa and temple which formed the largest number of religious monuments in Myanmar. Stupa is a typical example of the Myanmar version of an Indian original. The style of the stupa in India and Sri Lanka was essentially built in the form of a dome, suggestive of a sacred burial mound.

The stupas are massive buildings with no interior space. Their layout is generally circular, in exceptional cases polygonal with curved profile: the general form is that of an immense bell, a combination of cylindrical and conical volumes.

The term ‘Zedi’ which is derived from Pali ‘Cetiya’ is applied to such structures. They were erected either to enshrine some relic of Buddha or a Buddhist saint or else to commemorate some sacred spot. Each has, therefore, a seal-up chamber often in the basement and sometimes in the dhatugabbha which lies between the bell-shaped section and final.

Prototypes of solid stupas are still extant at Srikshetra and Thaton. The Shwezigon of Bagan is virtually the prototype of later Myanmar stupas.

In a typical Myanmar stupas the proportion of the bell is attenuated to the Myanmar sense of proportion and beauty. The result is the harmony of form.

The Myanmar stupa achieved a perfect balance between convex shape of an Indian stupa and concave shape of Chinese Pagoda.

There are two general types of stupas in Myanmar. The type of lower Myanmar has a flat base terrace and bell-shaped top which varies in size and structure. The type of Upper Myanmar usually has three high square terraces at the base, with four stairways, leading to a heavy bell-shaped top and comparatively short crowing part, which is pyramidal in shape.