Stupa · Pāli: thūpa; Skt: stūpa

A stupa is a relic monument. Access to Insight’s glossary of Pali and Buddhist terms, entering the word under its Pāli form thūpa, calls it “a tumulus or burial mound enshrining relics of a holy person” such as the Buddha, or of “objects associated with his life”. The custom is described at its source in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), the account of the Buddha’s last days. There the dying Buddha tells Ānanda that his body should be treated as a universal monarch’s body is treated, and that “at a crossroads also a stupa should be raised for the Tathagata”, so that whoever brings garlands or incense or sandalpaste to that place, or pays reverence, and whose mind becomes calm there, gains “well being and happiness for a long time”.

The same discourse limits the honour rather than spreading it: “There are four persons, Ananda, who are worthy of a stupa”, namely a Tathāgata, a Paccekabuddha, a disciple of a Tathāgata, and a righteous universal monarch. After the cremation the relics were divided among rival claimants, and the text closes the story with a count: “So it came about that there were eight stupas for the relics, a ninth for the urn, and a tenth for the ashes.”

The form then travelled and changed shape. The same glossary notes that over the centuries the mound “has developed into the tall, spired monuments familiar in temples in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Burma; and into the pagodas of China, Korea, and Japan”. The East Asian pagoda, in other words, is not a different kind of building but the same relic shrine in local dress, as our guide to stupas and pagodas sets out.