Publisher's Synopsis
The Stupa is a symbolic form that pullulates throughout South, Southeast and East Asia. In its Indian manifestations it is an extreme case in terms of architectural function: it has no usable interior space and its construction has a basic simplicity. In the 'state of the art' study Adrian Snograss reads the stupa as a cultural artifact. The monument concretizes metaphysical principles and generates multivalent meanings in ways that can be articulated with literary texts and other architectural forms.
