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Just for fun! In order to calm the jittery nerves of the post-911 age, Larry Neilson constructed a stupa for display on his Art Car. Made of fine-grain sculptor's styrofoam with a thin shell of Bondo, the stupa contains a Buddha shrine, a reliquary (that's the box with the eyes on it), and two nylon boat speakers to broadcast the good news. The car has often been seen about the streets and freeways of Seattle, its speakers pumping out "Yellow Submarine," "Here, There and Everywhere," vintage jazz, rants against the Bush Administration, or chants of the Gyuto Monks, as the mood takes it. The vehicle was retired in early 2008 after nearly 20 years on the road. In 2006 statistics, it was still getting 37 mpg around town, 52 mpg highway -- and up to 500 smiles per gallon at the many Art Car shows and events it attended.
It is claimed that stupas -- towers erected all over Asia -- exert a calming influence on the uneasy energies of the Earth, quieting volcanoes, earthquakes, storms and tsunamis and thus alleviating the sufferings of all sentient beings. The first stupas were simple burial mounds of important personages in India. Gradually they were elaborated with the addition of boxes containing relics of the person(s) entombed. Stupa construction took a great step forward with the passing of the historic Buddha, who codified the erection of stupas for sacred purposes. The great complex at Sanchi, India still stands as a pure embodiment of this concept: A great dome, topped with a square reliquary covered in lattice designs, the whole surmounted by an umbrella to radiate the sacred energy generated by the structure and its contents.
Gradually stupas were elaborated into many different forms as the Dharma -- the teachings of the Buddha -- traveled to the farthest reaches of Asia. In China, Japan, and Korea, they became the many-storeyed pagoda, a familiar symbol of the East. The form chosen for the roof of the Buddha Buggy was a Nepalese stupa of modest size. The harmika (reliquary) has the Eyes of the Buddha painted on it; between them the number One in the Nepali script, symbolizing the Unity of All Things. In Nepali and Tibetan architecture, the simple umbrella had morphed into an elaborate spire surrounded by 13 gilt rings -- a tradition elaborated still further in the finials of the great pagodas of China and Japan. The magical rôle of the rings is as a karmic broadcast tower: to send out the peaceful vibrations generated by the structure far and wide, and thus pacify the world. The Tibetan chorten is a close cousin of the Nepali style stypa, with similar parts, but with a more angular design than the rounded Nepali domes.
All photos and design by Larry Neilson except as noted.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All work shown in this website is copyright © 2008 by Larry S. Neilson. Reproduction, sale, or any use of images shown herein without prior written permission of the artist is expressly prohibited To negotiate terms for usage or to commission a piece, call (206) 579-4243 or e-mail at larryneilson@yahoo.com.