BREATHING LIFE INTO NORTH AMERICAN BUDDHADHARMA
Building The Great Stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center
There are three basic reasons for building stupas. One is the burial type that holds relics from the funeral pyre. Another type popular in Asia is commemorative; it marks the place of an event or occasion in the Buddha's life. A third type is small, erected to make a dedication of good will, or to accumulate merit. In this case, it is a perfect outlet for lay people to connect with buddhadharma, and in the past it was primarily the laity who were involved in the construction of stupas. A fundamental significance of stupas for us in the West lies in the contrast between modern and ancient world views, specifically in how matter is viewed. Ancient peoples, living close to nature, viewed matter as living and fecund, a living reality and accumulator of spirit. Modern people, cut off from nature and ourselves, often view matter as dead, something mechanical to be used or manipulated. The stupa is monumental architecture, emphasizing our connection to the spiritual by its mass and symbolic shapes.
The two most fundamental and enduring shapes seen in all stupas are the hemisphere (mound) and the cone, or spire. The hemisphere symbolizes an egg or womb or the fertile earth. This traces back to lunar religions, where the creative force of the earth (soil) as mother of all life was worshipped in caves and subterranean sanctuaries, and where the mysteries of life and creation were the center of religious attention. In this lunar type of worship, the mounds were placed away from the village.
The cone shape is symbolic of a solar type of worship, wherein altars were placed inside the village as an important reference point for daily life. It seems natural to erect a vertical post, such as a May pole or flag pole, to mark the Sun's zenith. It ties together earth with heaven and represents a unifying element—a center, the life force, an axis-mundi, the lingam, a gathering place.
The combining of the lunar and solar elements into the Buddhist stupa appears to be the meaning of the Buddha’s instructions to place his burial stupas at four corners. It was a unique combining of opposites: night and day, matter and mind, earth and sky, unconscious and conscious, inner and outer, mysterious and obvious, female and male.
A square box called a harmika (Skt.) is placed on top of the hemisphere and below the cone. It is said to be the "dwelling place of the gods" and symbolizes a transcendent aspect of mind or aspiration—a transformation potential. In the earliest stupas, relics were found there. The harmika reflects the idea that stupas are a place where offerings can be made, blessings received, and devotion practiced, such as by walking around the stupa in a clockwise direction. Circumambulating stupas is a very ancient practice that reflects the movement of the Sun, of ever-revolving seasons and the rotation of planets.
During the Mahayana period of Buddhist development, stupas began to be embellished with various themes of enrichment: the cosmic embrace, opulence, generosity, super-rich, gold, big gates, ornamentation.
If you look down on a stupa from the sky, it always reveals a directional orientation such as South, West, North, and East, a mandalic square shape. It has a central axis, the center of the universe, the axis-mundi. Two basic shapes, the circle and the square, are apparent, representing water and earth respectively, while the vertical shape, a triangle, represents fire.
The vertical shape of a Tibetan stupa evolved into a representation of the body of a Buddha seated upon a square throne. The pole inside some stupas represents the spine, an obelisk-shaped pillar made from a special tree that is inserted when construction is nearly complete.
From the very earliest days of stupas, Buddhists placed both scripts of dharani (prayers which energize the speech element, creeds, or mantra) and numerous miniature images of the stupa (tsa-tsas) inside these monuments. Vessels containing hair, fingernails, relics, and ashes of enlightened teachers were buried there along with jewels, seeds, herbs, and other earth-symbolic items.
Present-
IN LATE SPRING 1987, SHORTLY AFTER THE VIDYADHARA CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE'S DEATH, A SERIOUS INTENTION TO BUILD STUPAS IN NORTH AMERICA TOOK SHAPE AMONG HIS STUDENTS.
The immediate impetus flowed from traditional instructions left by the Vidyadhara in a will/letter to enshrine his relics in a stupa at one or more dharma centers. Relics are bones and ashes gathered from a cremation fire. In this case, a small cremation stupa had been built at Karmê Chöling in Vermont in May 1987, where the Vidyadhara's body was cremated and his relics gathered.
Much earlier statements by the Vidyadhara also contributed to the intention to build stupas in North America. Comments from a 1975 talk he gave at Vashon Island, Washington, may be summarized like this: "In order to transplant Buddhism to North America, in the style of Padmasambhava, we have decided to engage in the building of stupas. The first monumental building of a stupa will be at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center." (Now Shambhala Mountain Center, or SMC) Then, at the cremation in Vermont, a meeting called by a few of the Vidyadhara's students with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche set the direction for building a large stupa at SMC, a reliquary for the remains of the Vidyadhara.
The stupa at SMC in northern Colorado reaches 108 feet in height. Construction began in 1988 and the structural elements, completed during the next 10 years, were constructed with a special concrete formulated to last 1,000 years. This stupa is called a Lha Bab choten; it specifically commemorates the Buddha’s descent from Tushita heaven where he taught his mother. The steep stairway just below the big portal opening (gau) high up in the round vase chamber (bumpa) symbolizes this descent. At the top of the stairway in the portal is placed a large sculpture of a standing Buddha, a unique feature of this stupa not found elsewhere. It suggests the Vidyadhara’s distinct ambulatory style of teaching in the West.
"The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing" is an added name given to this stupa by H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. The interior of this stupa is spacious and features extensive artwork, design, and statuary styled to reflect the Vidyadhara’s lineage as well as his interest in Japanese aesthetics and his teachings on the ancient but somewhat secret Shambhala kingdom.
The Great Stupa holds the whole skull relic of the Vidyadhara. This is placed in the heart center of the large (20 ft. high) seated Buddha on the ground floor. In this way, the Great Stupa retains its earliest symbolic function: a chamber or motherly womb which can transform the seeds of the past into the life forms of the future.
This stupa has two upper stories: on the second level, a three-dimensional sculptural mandala of Chakrasamvara, and at the top-story level, a Vajrasattva shrine in the round-vase chamber. In 1997 the top spire sections and the tababs (the four large gates) were completed. The final phase of exterior ornamentation, and extensive interior sacred art and sculpture is now largely completed. The Stupa was consecrated in a ceremony lasting several days in the summer of 2001.
This stupa was constructed employing the generosity of several hundred sangha volunteer laborers and craftspeople, with money donated in annual fundraising events from sangha folk, and with contributions of expertise from many technical sectors of industry.
Future-
Any work done on a stupa is traditionally considered to be of the highest purity and merit, whether done by artist, high teacher, or common laborer. The work on this stupa, performed mostly by volunteer workers who have some affiliation with Buddhist teachings and meditation practice, and any donation of money made by people, is viewed as having durable and continuing benefit, far into the future.
All are invited to view The Great Stupa, circumambulate it, and connect with the power, devotion, and beauty radiating from such a monumental work. Combining present devotion and ancient tradition, this stupa represents a major footprint of buddhadharma in North America serving far into the future.
Written by Paul Shippee.
Paul Shippee was involved in The Great Stupa planning from the beginning. He assembled a team of industry experts to design the concrete mix used in the construction to last 1,000 years. He lives in Crestone, Colorado.
Valuable contributions to this article came from Paul Kloppenburg, Joshua Mulder, Dale Asrael, the work of Lama Govinda, and other sources.