certain features can be found throughout the Thera-
vada Buddhist world. Most obvious are the roofs,
which are multitiered (especially for ordination halls
and image halls) with an odd number of tiers, three
being the most common. In addition, eaves brackets,
gables, pillars, and doors are often decorated with carv-
ings and paintings of mythical beings from Buddhist
COSMOLOGY, such as ascetics, heavenly musicians, naga
serpents, lions, geese and other mythical birds, as well
as plant motifs, particularly lotuses and vines. These
motifs were among the repertoire of elements that both
Buddhism and Hinduism inherited from the indige-
nous mythological landscape of India. Similarly, as
Buddhism spread from India to Sri Lanka and South-
east Asia, it adapted to local preexisting spiritual be-
liefs by incorporating them into its narratives, rituals,
and iconography. As examples, many Burmese monas-
teries contain statues of the thirty-seven nats(the in-
digenous deities representing natural phenomena and
the spirits of ancestors who have met a violent death)
and throughout the Theravada world people place of-
ferings at the foot of large banyan trees—both within
monastery compounds and outside—to revere the
spirits that dwell within.
Similarly, Hindu deities, such as Brahmaand INDRA,
are frequently depicted as guardians of the Buddha to
indicate the ascendancy of Buddhism over Hinduism,
as are demonic figures that represent local spirits tamed
by the Buddha’s teachings. All of these elements con-
tribute toward creating an elaborate, otherworldly at-
mosphere that calls to mind both local royal dwellings
and higher realms of the Buddhist cosmos.
A generally more austere, but no less important,
building in the monastery compound is the STUPAor
cetiya,a solid structure roughly resembling an inverted
cone. The stupa also varies greatly in shape, from broad
bulbous bowl-shaped monuments in Sri Lanka to
obelisk-shaped towers found at some sites in northeast
Thailand (such as Phra That Phanom), to elegant, at-
tenuated lotus-bud chedisof the SUKHOTHAIkingdom
in Thailand. While some stupas contain relics of
monks or monastery patrons, others are believed to
hold bone fragments of the Buddha and are highly
revered for their sacredness.
Laypeople’s activities
Laypeople visit the monasteries for numerous reasons:
to observe the lunar holy days (every full moon, wan-
ing moon, new moon, and waxing moon), to make
merit for deceased relatives or for family member who
are sick or in need, to consult with the monks about
problems or about astrological considerations, to
make merit for themselves in the hopes of fulfilling
wishes, to seek advice or blessings, to be ordained, and
to meditate.
Numerous monasteries are popular PILGRIMAGEsites
because they are believed to contain sacred objects, such
as an authentic bone fragment of the Buddha, a foot-
print left by the Buddha as delineated in a local chron-
icle, or historically significant images of the Buddha or
of deceased monks famous for their supernatural pow-
ers. Devout Buddhists often make a special effort to pay
reverence at these sites—sometimes in the hopes of ob-
taining a boon—with traditional offerings of flowers,
incense, and candles. They usually return home with
an amulet resembling the principal Buddha image com-
memorating the significance of the site.
At many monasteries pilgrims can purchase a small
bird in a bamboo cage, circumambulate the monastery
holding the birdcage, praying at various Buddha im-
ages along the way. Finally, they release the bird, ap-
pealing to the three JEWELS(Buddha, dharma, and
san ̇gha) to witness this act as sufficient merit.Jataka stories
Until modern times, the monastery’s functions in-
cluded the teachings of moral and religious teachings
as well as basic literacy skills. With a largely illiterate
population, monks relied on oral storytelling and the
visual lessons of murals to teach Buddhist principles
of ethics and morality through stories about the Bud-
dha Gautama’s life and previous lives. While key events
from the Buddha’s biography are frequently depicted
in mural painting as well as in the miniature paintings
of paper manuscripts, stories from his previous lives
(JATAKAS, or birth stories, found in varied collections
and totaling 500 to 547 stories) are equally, if not more,
prevalent.
In Myanmar (Burma) terra-cotta plaques represent-
ing each of the jatakascan be found on the outside walls
of some of the great monasteries of the ancient city of
Pagan. In the mural painting of Thailand, Cambodia,
and Laos, the last ten birth stories are found more fre-
quently than the entire set. Each story represents one
of the ten great virtues (renunciation, perseverance,
loving kindness, resolution, wisdom, moral practice,
forbearance, equanimity, truthfulness, and generosity)
that the future Buddha perfected in order to attain en-
lightenment, and each has a predictable iconographic
set of elements to identify it. For example, in the storyTHERAVADAART ANDARCHITECTURE