BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHIES
  • Teaches individuals how to cope in the world full or misery.
  • Buddha, Siddhartha, when he was a prince first, rejected worldly concerns and courtly life and decided to live in the country.
  • Believes in reincarnation, a cycle of birth and rebirth.
  • Enlightenment, or reaching Nirvana, ends the cycle, through good deeds and living a devotional life to charities, religious fervor, and love of all.
 
COMMON THEMES OF BUDDISM
  • The Lion = Buddha's initial royalty
  • The Wheel (chakra) = Buddha's law
  • The Lotus = Buddha's pure nature
  • Columns surrounds by a wheel = Buddha's teachings
  • Empty throne, umbrella, footsteps, lone wheel, Bodhi tree = Buddha
HINDU PHILOSOPHIES
  • Many different sects of Hinduism
  • Belief in the infinite variety of the divine: nature, gods, humans
  • Orthodox Hindus accept the Vedic (ancient Sanskrit)  texts as divine (sacred scriptures)
  • Vedic texts assign Brahmins (a caste of ritual specialists)
  • Enlightenment, or reaching Nirvana, ends the cycle, through good deeds and living a devotional life to charities, religious fervor, and love of all.
 
MAJOR HINDU GODS
  • Shiva, principal deity, dances to the destruction and rebirth of the world.
  • Brahma, creator god
  • Vishnu, preserver god
  • Laksmi and Parvati, peaceful consorts
Questions architects must address when designing sacred structures: 
1. Is there a communal ritual?
2. Is there movement from point to point by ritual participants? 
3. Is there a focal point participants must be able to see from? 
4. How are the transitions from less into more sacred space provided? 
5. How do the plan and the decoration reflect the beliefs of the participant?