On The Beijing Area Covered Bowl-style Pagoda

Chinese stupa is a unique exotic Chinese traditional architectural pattern, which is introduced from ancient India. The stupa was used to keep the cadres, relics and things left by deceased of the Buddha and hierarchs in ancient India. While, through the infiltration of Chinese culture, the former stupa developed into various types, such as pavilion style, gloriette style, multi-eaves style, multi-storyed style with an earthen bowl shape, and etc, of which the multi-storyed style is a comparatively specific one. It possesses not only a unique form, but also deep cultural connotation. That is, it is a product of the mix up of the foreign culture-Indian culture and Nepalese culture-and the Chinese native culture-Tibetan culture, Mongolian culture and Manchu culture in Qing dynasty. In addition, it is the carrier of Tibetan Buddhism.Based on the forefathers' research fruits, this paper-An Tentative Analysis of the Multi-storyed Stupa with an Earthen Bowl Shape in Beijing Area, applies comprehensively the historical literature, archaeological materials and fieldwork studies, deeply and systematically elaborates its pattern features, historical headstream, and distribution areas. As well, this paper includes concrete inspection of its historical remains. Then it hackles out the construction history, and find out that it has a close relationship with the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing area. The author tries to give a further explanation of its cultural connotation, through the theory of anthropological symbolism.The author thinks that multi-storyed stupa with an earthen bowl shape in Beijing area is a unique architectural pattern, which cannot be separated from the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing area. It cannot only satisfy the religious adoration function of the believers, but also possesses the function of environment construction and culture carrier. And stupa of this kind also has a great influence on the humanistic atmosphere in Beijing. As a crystal of cultural exchange, it carries abundant religious, racial, and architectural culture information. Thus we can also say that it is the centralized carrier of the multi-nationalities and multi-culture. It is an important component of Chinese nationality' symbolism culture which contains various and many symbol meanings.