Cetiya, "reminders" or "memorials" (Sanskrit caitya), are objects and places used by Buddhists to remember Gautama Buddha.[1] According to Damrong Rajanubhab, four kinds are distinguished in the Pāli Canon: "Relic [Dhatu], Memorial [Paribhoga], Teaching [Dhamma], and votive [Udesaka]."[2] Griswold, in contrast, states that three are traditional and the fourth, the Buddha Dhamma, was added later to remind monks that the true memory of Gautama Buddha can be found in his teachings.[3] While these can be broadly called Buddhist symbolism, the emphasis tends to be on a historical connection to the Buddha and not a metaphysical one.
In pre-Buddhist India caitya was a term for a shrine or holy place in the landscape, generally outdoors, inhabited by, or sacred to, a particular deity. In the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, near the end of his life the Buddha remarks to Ananda how beautiful are the various caitya round Vaishali.[4]
- ^ Kalingabodhi jātaka, as quoted in John Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 19
- ^ Damrongrāchānuphāp (1962). A History of Buddhist Monuments in Siam. Siam Society. pp. 10, 21.
- ^ Griswold, Alexander B. (1990). What is a Buddha Image?. Promotion and Public Relations Sub-Division, Fine Arts Department. pp. 14–15.
- ^ Skilling, Peter, in Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context, Edited by Akira Shimada and Michael Willis, p. 25, British Museum, 2016, PDF