The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2349 page)

pa as a sanctified area. From this basic form eight theoretical types were developed of which only two were commonly built. These were the Enlightenment St
pa, which follows the above description, and the Descending Divinity St
pa, commemorating the descent of the Buddha to teach his mother (after a
J
taka
tale), which has steps leading to a raised walkway around the dome.
Mah
y
na
variations of these types could have five or seven ‘umbrellas’ to represent stages on the path to Buddhahood, and a multiple base to represent the five elements, thus greatly aligning the st
pa with the
ma
ala
as a cosmogrammatic representation. The st
pa continued to evolve outside India, producing the
pagoda
in E. Asia, and reaching the height of its symbolic richness in the Tibetan
chorten
.

 
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(Gk.,
stulos
, ‘pillar’). An early Christian
ascetic
living on top of a pillar. They were mainly located in the Middle East. These pillars varied in height and size—some of them having a small shelter. Their main preoccupation was prayer, but they also gave instruction, and participated in theological controversy. The first stylite,
Simeon
, was regarded as their founder. There were many stylites from the 5th to the 10th cents., after which they have become infrequent.

 
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