The Stupas
The stupa (Tib. chorten), as symbolic architecture and wayside shrine is probably the best known and certainly the most distinctive Tibetan construction. Ranging from simple alter pieces to enormous structures housing large shrine halls, wherever one goes throughout the Himalayas one will encounter them. At places of pilgrimage, outside meditation caves, in hermitages, within the precincts of monasteries, standing solitary in remote places... everywhere one encounters the Buddhist stupa.

They originated as memorial mounds containing the relics of realised masters, sacred scriptures, and precious items were also placed in stupas. In Tibet they gained a deeper significance as they evolved into eight very precise structures becoming an architectural model reflecting everything from the five elements, to the path of beings from a state of ignorance to the highest stages of realisation... a reflection of relative and ultimate reality.

Stupas are the objects of sincere veneration, a blessing, an inspiration, a reminder that the potential for enlightenment lies within all beings.
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