Dwelling Minds Forever

 

While climbing to Sheh Palace I saw those stupas on my left facing the Himalayan hills of Ladakh.

The Tibetan word for Stupa is Chorten (མཆོད་རྟེན༏), which means “the basis of offering”.
A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, once thought to be places of Buddhist worship, typically the remains of a Buddha or saint.
Fundamentally, a stupa is essentially made up of the following five constituent parts: a square base, a hemispherical dome, a conical spire, a crescent moon, a circular disc
Each component is rich in metaphoric content. 
For example, “the shape of the stupa represents the Buddha, crowned and sitting in meditation posture on a lion throne. 
The components of the stupa are also identified with the five elements – earth, water, fire, air, and space – held to constitute the fabric of manifest existence.

“When a great teacher passes away, his body is no more, but to indicate that his mind is dwelling forever in an unchanging way in the dharmakaya, one will erect a stupa as a symbol of the mind of the buddhas”
( HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche)