Chorten/Stupa

Chorten and stupa are interchangeable words. Chorten is in area dominated by Tibetan culture while stupa is preferred lower down. The hemispherical mound that makes a stupa was originally used to hold the remains of an especially accomplished Buddhist monk. Today, while this function still persists, the stupa is also used to give form to Buddha's accomplishments or symbolize aspects of Buddhist doctrine. There are various shapes that represents different functions and art schools. However the one thing that is uniform across all stupas is the square base representing land, the dome representing water, the conical/pyramidal steps representing fire, the parasol representing air and the pointed vanishing top representing space.