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Buddhist Temples – What Is A Peace Pagoda?
Most everyone who has ever heard of Buddhism is familiar with Buddhist temples and also the monasteries that help young faithful become novices in the faith. Yet did you know that amongst the many buildings that are built in honor of the Buddha and his ideals are also peace pagodas? A peace pagoda is typically considered to be a building in the form of a stupa. A stupa – traditionally - used to be a small shrine made from mud, rocks, or clay. It was made to house the relics of Buddha. Originally, it is said that ten such stupas were created when the Buddha died, yet over the centuries their locations have become lost in myth, and many other stupas have been set up.
Of course, considering the advances in architecture as well as technology, stupas are no longer simple hills made from mud, but instead became buildings made from marble, stone, and also wood. A peace pagoda is one of these Buddhist temples that are also considered a stupa, yet with the express purpose of uniting the faithful that may hail from different nations, races, and even creeds in order to advance the call for world peace.
As with most Buddhist temples, peace pagodas became popular under the tutelage of one monk who took on the call to unite the world in an effort to further peace. From the late 1890s to the mid 1980s, a monk by the name of Nichidatsu Fujii took it upon himself to build peace pagodas in various countries in Europe, Asia as well as the United States. The latest count states that about 80 peace pagodas may currently be found worldwide!
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