Tibetan Temple Architecture

In ancient times, the cosmism of Buddhism considered the center of the world is the Sumeru Mountain. Taking the Sumeru Mountain as center and 50,000 yojjana as radius, drawing a circle with 25,000 yojjana, then the four great continents and eight small continents of universe were formed. Taking the living realm of human and animals as the center region and the Sumeru Mountains as the center axis, the world extended up to the realm of Buddha and down to the dark and suffering earth realm.

The architectural style of Samyey Monastery, which is the first temple of Tibetan, fully expresses the above consciousness: the main palace represents the Sumeru Mountain and other palaces inside the bounding wall represent the four great continents, eight small continents, the sun, the moon and so on.

The Stupa

It has been more than 1230 years after the stupa entered in to Tibet. In ancient times, when the Indian King died, people should construct a hemicycle grave, which is the embryonic from of stupa. The chinese word (Fota), or called (Futu), (Tapo), is the transliteration of (stupa) and means square grave and great accumulation.

Originally, stupa, a kind of funeral  grave, symbolized the spirits of the eminent monk and enshrined the monk's relics, sutra and Dharma instruments. Now these stupas still memorize the eight merits of Shakymuni  Stupa commemorates Sakyamuni originally turned the four truths wheel of Dharma.

The Miracle Stupa commemorates the miracle that Sakyamuni subdued the external religions. The God Relam Stupa commemorates that Sakyamuni returned to the human world from heaven. The Reconciliation Stupa commemorates Sakyamuni reconciled a split in the Sangha. The Victory Stupa Commemorates Sakyamuni defeated all the evil demons. The Nirvana Stupa commemorates Sakamuni entered into nirvana, a realm of non-production and non-extinction.