Dagoba
(Sk.)
Lit: a sacred mound or tower for Buddhist holy relics. These are pyramidal‐looking mounds scattered all over India and Buddhist countries, such as Ceylon, Burmah, Central Asia, etc. They are of various sizes, and generally contain some small relics of Saints or those claimed to have belonged to Gautama, the Buddha. As the human body is supposed to consist of 84,000 dhâtus (organic cells with definite vital functions in them), Asoka is said for this reason to have built 84,000 dhâtu‐gopas or Dâgobas in honour of every cell of the Buddha’s body, each of which has now become a dhârmadhâtu or holy relic. There is in Ceylon a Dhâtu‐ gopa at Anurâdhapura said to date from160 years B.C. They are now built pyramid‐like, but the primitive Dâgobas were all shaped like towers with a cupola and several tchhatra (umbrellas) over them. Eitel states that the Chinese Dâgobas have all from 7 to 14 tchhatras over them, a number which is symbolical of the human body (TG).
See also: Stûpa
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Shortly: Lit: a sacred mound or tower for Buddhist holy relics. These are pyramidal‐looking mounds scattered ...
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