| medium: | a circle of sacred trees. In the east side of the circle a flat stone as seat under a boddhi tree (ficus religiosa), other tress in a circle: ficus bengalensis, aegle marmelos, butea frondosa, melia azadirachta, prosopis spicigera, thevetia neriifolia, saraka indica, mangifera indica, shorea robusta, phyllanthus emblica, elaeocarpus ganitrus, santalum album, madhuca indica, mesua ferrea, tamarindus indica, erythrina strictica, sesbania grandiflora, eugenia jambos or a choice from these, being all of them sacred trees in indian religions. The stone is a seat for the buddha (in the first buddhist century there were no sculptures of the buddha. A flat stone or a low seat indicated his presence).
The idea is a grove, a cultic place under trees, not a building. The place at bodhgaya is the place where after the tradition, buddha had his enlightment under a boddhi tree. Here are several temples, representing buddhist' cults from different countries.
[source: Unbuilt Roads. 107 Unrealized Projects / ed. Hans Ulrich Obrist (Hatje Cantz Publishers : [Ostfildern] 1998) 99.] |
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