Transcript Sanchi Stupa - Schools Online

By Cameron Taylor
Year 6
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Sanchi, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is
globally renowned for its many stupas,
monasteries, temples and pillars dating from
the 3rd century B.C. to the 12th century A.D.
The most famous amongst these, the Sanchi
Stupa 1, was built by the Mauryan Emperor
Ashoka, were sent to Sri Lanka where they
converted the king, queen and the local people
to Buddhism.
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The original stupa was built by the Mauryan emperor
Ashoka , but enlarged to its present form in the 1st
century CE. The stupa later fell into ruins and
disappeared, and when it was first discovered it was
severely damaged by treasure-hunters (who dug into the
main vault, looking for buried treasure). In the 1880s the
Archeological Survey of India began to restore it, with the
major restoration between 1912 and 1919 under the
leadership of Sir John Marshall.

Sanchi is a small
village of India,
located 46 km north
east of Bhopal, in the
central part of the
state of Madhya
Pradesh. It is the
location of several
Buddhist monuments,
dating from the third
century BCE to the
twelfth century CE.

A stupa is a dome shaped mound that mimics the
funerary mounds used to mark the graves of great
kings. The first Buddhist stupas enshrined the
Buddha's physical relics (bones and teeth). Another
sign of this claim is the three-layer stone umbrella
visible at the top of the stupa. Since the umbrella
was also a royal symbol.
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•Sanchi Stupa is located in Sanchi state of
Madhya Pradesh.
•The original structure of the Stupa was
commissioned by Emperor Ashoka.
The Sanchi stupa was built in 273-236 BC
•Most of the Buddha statues and carvings at
the Sanchi Stupa still possess the legendary
Mauryan polish.