Nancy Nye

Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection (Lonely Planet Pictorial) A Neat and Concise Work – schiff – Tel-Aviv Israel
Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection by Bill Wassman (Photographer), et al, offers a sweeping and broad overview of the epitome of Asian Buddhist architecture. The photographs are good and the succinct commentary is informative enough. This is not a book for hardcore history buffs though, as the very short accompanying analysis would not suffice; nevertheless, in most cases the photographs more than compensate by offering quality glimpses of a divine form of architecture. One drawback: some of the photographs are too small for the subject to be really appreciated (some are as small as approx. 3cm x 3cm!). All in all: an enjoyable mind-trip through the very essence of Buddhist architecture.
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Transcending architecture and archaeology, the stupa is the living embodiment of Buddhist teachings – a harmonising of the physical with the spiritual. It remains one of the oldest and most persistent religious symbols still in everyday use. This beautifully illustrated, full-colour hardback explores the spread of stupa building across India and Asia, encapsulating the lasting appeal and allure of stupas to travellers, scholars and those interested in architecture and religion. Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection is a lavish exploration of this religious and architectural icon of Asia and India.

• more than 250 beautiful photographs
• ten pages of transparent architectural overlays depicting plans and elevations of major stupas
• exhaustive coverage of 13 countries: India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Java, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam
• learned and authoritative narration to explain the symbolism, rituals and mystic power associated with these monuments, great and small
• detailed investigations of the world’s most significant Buddhist sites, from Angkor in Cambodia to Borobudur in Java, the largest Buddhist monument in the world

When the Buddha was dying, he instructed his followers to cremate his body and enclose his remains inside four separate monuments or “stupa-mounds.” These manmade “axial mountains” became the prototype for the monuments that are so beautifully presented in Joe Cummings’s Buddhist Stupas in Asia. Each spread features full-color illustrations or photographs, depicting the varying shapes, designs, and scale of this holy architecture. “People in all the different cultures that have discovered Buddhism seem to have gone crazy with joy, building stupas by the millions,” writes Cummings, whose other Lonely Planet titles cover Thailand and Bangkok. “[They are] more than funeral reliquaries. They are memorials, rather, to the immanent possibility of freedom from suffering for all beings.” Ten pages of transparent architectural overlays explain how the sacred meets function. This is entertaining learning at its best–a book that’s loaded with knowledge, yet packaged with visual appeal. - -Gail Hudson
Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection (Lonely Planet Pictorial)

• Psycho-Cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa