Burmese pagodas are enclosed in a compound known as the aran (အာရာမ်, from Pali ārāma), with gateways called mok (မုခ်, from Pali mukha) at the four
cardinal directions. The platform surrounding a Burmese pagoda is called a yinbyin (ရင်ပြင်).
Terms
In the
Burmese language, pagodas are known by a number of various terms. The umbrella term phaya (ဘုရား, pronounced [pʰəjá]), which derives from
Sanskritvara,[5] refers to pagodas, images of the Buddha, as well as royal and religious personages, including the Buddha, kings, and monks.[6]Zedi or jedi[7] (စေတီ), which derives from
Palicetiya, specifically refers to typically solid, bell-shaped stupas that may house relics.[8]Pahto (ပုထိုး) refers to hollow square or rectangular buildings built to resemble caves, with chambers that house images of the Buddha.[1][8] Burmese pagodas are distinguished from
kyaungs in that the latter are monasteries that house Buddhist monks.
Types
Burmese zedis are classified into four prevalent types:
Datu zedi (ဓာတုစေတီ, from Pali dhātucetiya) or datdaw zedi (ဓာတ်တော်စေတီ) - zedis enshrining relics of the Buddha or
arhats[9]
Paribawga zedi (ပရိဘောဂစေတီ, from Pali paribhogacetiya) - zedis enshrining garments and other items (alms bowls, robes, etc.) that belonged to the Buddha or sacred personages[9]
Dhamma zedi (ဓမ္မစေတီ, from Pali dhammacetiya) - zedis enshrining sacred texts and manuscripts, along with jewels and precious metals[9]
Odeiktha zedi (ဥဒ္ဒိဿစေတီ, from Pali uddissacetiya) - zedis built from motives of piety, containing statues of the Buddha, models of sacred images[9]
Of the four classes, dhammazedis and udeikthazedis are the most prevalent, since they are routinely erected by donors as a work of
merit.[9] Burmese zedis are typically constructed with bricks, covered with whitewashed stucco.[9] Prominent zedis are gilded with gold.[9] Burmese zedis are crowned with a spired final ornament known as the
hti, which is hoisted in a traditional ceremony (ထီးတော်တင်ပွဲ, htidaw tin pwe) that dates to the pre-colonial era.[10][11]