The stupa is a symbolic form that pullulates throughout South, Southeast, and East Asia. In the Indian manifestations it is an extreme case in terms of architectural function; it has no usable interior space and its construction has a basic simplicity. In this "State of the art" study Adrian Snodgrass reads the stupa as a cultural artifact. The monument concretizes metaphysical principles and generates multivalent meanings in ways that can be articulated with literary texts others architectural forms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adrian Snodgrass
Dr. Adrian Snodgrass is an Australian architect with a lifetime interest in Asian culture. At the age of twenty-five he went to Sri Lanka and India, where he lived and studied aspects of Buddhism and Indian thought, art and religion for more than six years. He then spent seven years in Japan where he studied forms of Far Eastern Buddhism. This was followed by several years each in Hong Kong and Indonesia. In 1976 he returned to Australia and to Sydney University, where he was appointed Japan Foundation Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies. He now lectures on Design, and Asian Art and Architecture in the Department of Architecture at that university. He is the author of several books, including The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism and Architecture, Time and Eternity. He is married and has one son.
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