Tag Archives: Pyramids

Architecture of Mesoamerica, Maya Civilization, Maya Temples, Mesoamerica, Mexico & Guatemala

The Majesty of Tikal

Gallery October 10, 2015 Leave a comment

From the highlands of Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico the terrain gradually descends towards the Guatemalan region of the Peten, traversed by great rivers like the Usumacinta and covered by dense tropical jungle. Yet this region, which today appears so wild and inhospitable, was for over a thousand years the heartland of Maya culture which reached its apogee during the Classic period from 250 to 900 CE. The tops of the temples at Tikal soar high above the treetops seemingly floating over an endless ocean of green. Tikal is the largest known Maya center. This great city, which in its hey-day covered over 16 square kilometers, built the tallest and most impressive monuments of the Maya world.

TIKAL roofs over jungle close — Roofs Above the Jungle Canopy — (click photos to enlarge)

TIKAL temple short TREES — Approaching the Great Plaza

The architects of Tikal developed one of the most characteristic elements of the classic Maya temple, the ornamental projections called roof combs which are used to extend the height of buildings. Another important structural innovation was the corbel-vaulted ceiling. The Mayas combined these two elements to build impres-sively tall structures; but the massive walls needed to support the weight of the roofs resulted in very limited interior spaces.

TIKAL plaza temples — The Great Plaza of Tikal and Pyramids in the Distance

Two great pyramids face each other, as if in dialogue, across the great ceremonial plaza. The tallest is the temple of the Great Jaguar built in the early 8th century CE. Its slender silhouette is made up of nine levels, a number sacred to the Maya, crowned by a tall roof comb that extends the building’s height to an impressive 155 ft. The sculptures covering the roof comb represented a king seated on his throne. He has been identified as Jasaw Chan K’awill, one of the most powerful of Tikal’s rulers whose tomb this was. The pyramids of Tikal most clearly embody the concept of the Maya temple; a sacred space poised between heaven and earth, surrounded by clouds of incense atop a magic mountain where only priests and royalty could step.

TIKAL temple tall VERT — Temple of the Great Jaguar

TIKAL Pyramic Up — Ascending the Pyramid

The central plaza is bounded by the buildings of the north acropolis containing the tombs of the ruling families of Tikal. From the begin-ning of the Classic period the Maya erected dated commemorative stone altars and stelae, and a collection of these monuments adorns the plaza. In recent decades, great advances in deciphering Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions and their iconography have revealed that these sculptures represented a cult of the rulers. They memorial-ized their accession to the throne and recorded the alliances, wars and victories of the great dynasties that ruled the Maya city-states.

TIKAL plaza stele — Monuments of the Great Plaza

TIKAL two stele REV — Stelae Depict Tikal’s Rulers

Architecture of Mesoamerica, Maya Civilization, Maya Temples, Mesoamerica, Mexico & Guatemala

Blood of Heroes: Chichen-Itza

Gallery August 5, 2015 Leave a comment

During the Late Classic period Maya society was undergoing significant changes and becoming increasingly militaristic. In 918 CE the Itzas, a Maya-Toltec ethnic group, conquered northern Yucatan. These warriors introduced new elements from central Mexico into Maya culture. The circular shape of the observatory known as El Caracol derives from central Mexican temples dedicated to Ehecatl, god of the winds. This unusual structure consists of two concentric corridors and a spiral staircase which leads to a room with window slits oriented to various astronomical alignments. The Maya were superb astronomers and mathemati-cians who independently developed the concept of zero, performing advanced calculations and devising an accurate calendar spanning millennia. Maya priests observed celestial cycles of the sun, moon, planets and stars to predict future events and determine propitious times for ceremonies and important endeavors.

CHICHEN observatory close — The Observatory — (click photos to enlarge)

The layout of Chichen-Itza also breaks with old traditions. Buildings are no longer grouped together to form quadrangles or an acropolis, but instead stand isolated in the middle of great plazas. The pyramid of El Castillo commands the central plaza with its stepped profile of alternating “tablero” (flat planes) and “talud” (sloping sides). Its design is a representation in stone of the Maya calendar system.

CHICHEN top view to castillo — View of El Castillo

Four stairways ascend to the summit and the 91 steps on each side added to the top platform equal the 365 days of the year. The 9 levels of the pyramid are divided by the stairs into 18 sections, the number of months in the Maya year. The 52 sections of tablero correspond to the number of years in a full cycle of their Calendar Round. The Maya believed in the cyclical nature of time, and this 52 year cycle held special significance for them. The ending of a cycle was an ominous time which could herald the destruction of the world or its renewal, and the dawn of each new cycle was greeted with bonfires and festivities.

CHICHEN kukulcan columns vert — Kukulcan the Feathered Serpent

El Castillo was also designed to produce an astonishing light and shadow display during the spring and autumn equinoxes, as the light of the setting sun slithers down the main stairway, from the temple at the top to the serpent heads at the base, reenacting the descent of Kukulcan from heaven to earth. Kukulcan was the name given by the Maya of Yucatan to Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent. This bene-volent deity who brought mankind the arts of civilization was widely worshipped throughout Mesoamerica.

CHICHEN temple warriors pillars — Columns with Images of Warriors

The Temple of the Warriors has open pillared halls decorated with reliefs of warriors in Toltec-Mexican attire. Two massive columns in the shape of feathered serpents flank the entrance and the reclining figure of a Chac-mool lies before the sanctuary. This sculpture of Mexican origin is thought to have figured in the sacrificial rituals as a receptacle for human hearts. Although later carried to gory extremes by the Aztecs as a ruthless tool of conquest, the shedding of human blood, as the most precious gift which could be offered to propitiate the gods, was a deeply ingrained belief in ancient Mesoamerica.

CHICHEN chac mool frontal horiz — Chac-mool Statue

CHICHEN ball court Vert — The Great Ball Court

The impressive ball court at Chichen-Itza, measuring 550 ft. in length, is the largest in Mesoamerica. A sculptural relief on its walls depicts the sacrifice by decapitation of a player in the finale of the spectacle which played out there.

Players wearing padded suits could not use their hands or feet to hit the solid rubber ball. More than a mere sporting event, the ritual nature of the ball game can be symbolically interpreted as a match between the cosmic forces of light and darkness. The sun (represented by the ball) made a perilous journey through the dark underworld of night (represented by the court) to be reborn victorious with the dawn. The Maya believed that the blood of sacrificed players contributed to the regeneration of the world.

CHICHEN stair sculpt flowers — View of the Market Area

The Maya were a cultured people, but they were also fierce warriors whose bloody rituals seem horrifying to our modern mindset. Yet, the Maya created one of the most vibrant and long lasting cultures of the Americas. Their impressive architectural achievements are the embodiment in stone of a great civilization, offering insights into a vanished world.

CHICHEN stair sculpt vert — Lasting Image of Chichen-Itza

Architecture of Southeast Asia, Buddhism, Buddhist Temples, Java & Bali, Southeast Asia

Borobodur: Ascending Toward Enlightenment

Gallery July 22, 2015 Leave a comment

In the first centuries of the Common Era, Indian traders began expanding their sphere of influence throughout Southeast Asia, establishing outposts that eventually flourished into independent indianized kingdoms. Their trade routes also spread Indian culture and religious ideas in a syncretic mix of Hinduism and Buddhism (which still coexisted at that time) colored by mystical Tantric elements. This Indo-Javanese period spans from the 7th to the 10th centuries CE, when the Sailendra dynasty ruled Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.

Boro Corner View — View of the Galleries — (click photos to enlarge)

The Sailendras were Buddhists, and their greatest achievement was the construction around the year 800 CE of Borobodur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world. This unique structure, built atop a low natural hill in central Java, is a three-dimensional architectural mandala. It is not a building in the normal sense of the word, as it is completely open to the sky and has no interior spaces. Its design incorporates the symbolism of Mount Meru (the sacred mountain at the center of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology), the geometric patterns of a mandala diagram (used to focus psycho-spiritual energies), and bell-shaped stupas (Buddhist monuments housing holy relics).

The scale of Borobodur is impressive: the monument rises up nine levels as a series of receding terraces that form a truncated pyramid. The base platform, shaped as a square with indented corners, measures 370 ft. on each side. It is surmounted by five square terraces and three circular ones, linked by four stairways that rise to the summit, which is topped by a large bell-shaped stupa.

Pilgrims traditionally ascend the eastern stairway to begin their clockwise circumambulation of the monument; a complete circuit of the four square terraces covers a distance of 3/4 of a mile. The square terraces are surrounded by balustrades that create partially enclosed galleries which are open to the sky. The galleries are decorated with over 500 life-sized Buddha images and some 8,202 linear ft. of exquisitely carved relief panels.

Boro Market Relief — Scenes of Daily Life

The entire sculptural program is conceived in didactic progression. Reliefs on the base level offer lively depictions of contemporary life that illustrate the workings of karma, the spiritual law of cause and effect, in human affairs. Most of these carvings were later covered up by the wide platform built in order to stabilize the structure. The relief carvings on the first terrace feature scenes from the life of the historical Buddha and fantastic tales of his earlier incarnations called Jatakas. These panels contain some of the most famous images from Borobodur. The next four terraces depict the education of Sudhana a young man who serves as a model for the spiritual seeker of Buddhism. The imagery of the upper galleries becomes progressively more esoteric as it focuses on the bodhisattvas, transcendent saintly figures of the Mahayana pantheon and their philosophical teachings.

Boro Buddha Relief — Scenes of Buddha’s Life

Boro Buddha Image — One of 500 Buddha Statues

In the upper circular terraces we pass from the world of forms into formlessness; from the wealth of figurative detail which decorates the lower terraces into pure abstraction. Seventy-two hollow stupas are arranged in three concentric circles, each one pierced by small diamond or square shaped openings that allow only partial glimpses of the Buddha images inside, all seated in the pose of preaching the first sermon, called “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Law.”

Boro Ascent 2 SCAN — Buddhas and Stupas of the Upper Levels

The enclosed galleries of the lower terraces obscure the view so a person cannot see very far beyond their immediate surroundings; forcing one, as it were, to focus on the teachings being presented at whichever stage of the journey one is at. But once the topmost circular terraces are reached, suddenly the space opens up offering a magnificent 360-degree view of the light-filled surrounding plain. This exhilarating experience vividly illustrates a spiritual seeker’s progression from the darkness and limitations of ignorance to the clarity and boundless freedom of enlightenment.

Borobodur is a three-dimensional interactive exposition of Buddhist doctrine, capable of transforming consciousness through its very design. The pilgrim gradually ascends the sacred mountain while circumambulating in spiral fashion each level of the mandala, undergoing in the process a symbolic transformation; leading from the depths of ignorance, upward through successive stages of increasing self-awareness and knowledge of the dharma, to the final achievement of the heights of spiritual transcendence in nirvana.