Monday 12 July 2021

The Paia Peace Stupa

Recently, Mitchell of Moving With Mitchell blogged about a beautiful large stupa (Tibetan Buddhist shrine) that he visited near his home in Spain (click here to read). This jogged my memory about a much smaller, but also beautiful, stupa that I have visited in Maui a couple of times. I scrolled through my photo archives and sure enough! I have some photos of it from ten years ago -- pretty crappy photos but still, better than nothing. So here they are!

The Paia Peace Stupa is located on the grounds of the Maui Dharma Center in the upcountry market town of Paia (good shopping and restaurants). The stupa was built to honour the Dalai Lama's 2007 visit to Maui, at which time he consecrated the stupa.

All stupas are painted white and gold and have the same basic shape, meant to evoke the seated Buddha in meditative prayer with his hands clasped over his head. There's usually a string or two of prayer flags around every stupa as well, releasing their prayers as they flutter in the wind.


A statue of the meditating Buddha is also prominently featured in a special portal above the door.


Judging from the size of the people about to enter, you can see just how comparatively small this stupa is.


Inside the stupa, there is a huge, ornate metal prayer wheel taking up about 75% of the interior. Visitors can walk around the prayer wheel, turning it with their hands as they go, releasing its prayers (presumably prayers for peace) into the universe as it rotates. Circumambulation -- the act of walking around a sacred object or idol -- is an integral part of Buddhist devotional practice and is usually incorporated in some way into every stupa. Circumambulation also occurs in other religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam.


It's a charming spot and always worth a little visit when in the area. Not to mention that you'll be doing your bit for world peace!

[Photos © Debra She Who Seeks, November 2011]

34 comments:

  1. how very cool. i haven't been to maui since before that was built.

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  2. I love these kinds of places. So peaceful.

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  3. It looks beautiful. And memorable.

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  4. Interesting. I didn't know about the walking around tradition.

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  5. So beautiful and intimate. I’d love to experience that. Thanks for sharing the photos. When you wrote about the prayer wheel, I had no idea what it would look like and never imagined that.

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  6. That's so cool, I would love to visit in person!

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  7. What a wonderful place to visit. I love the concept of the prayer wheel. Beautiful!

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  8. Oh, this is so beautiful!
    And I totally like the idea of the metal prayer wheel and the idea of 'releasing its prayers'. So cool.
    I find the rituals and symbolisms of religions (and philosophies) really interesting. I don't LIKE the people who are swallowed by dogma, but some rituals are cool.

    XOXO

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  9. Stupas are some of my favorite structures to teach. Come to think of it, I really enjoy teaching how the religious building or structure relates to the practices and philosophies associated with that religion at the time the structure was built. Religious thought and practice change and often the structures reflect those changes.

    Anyway, lovely post and beautiful photos.

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  10. I've never been to one in person

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  11. Beautiful.I learn a lot from you..Thanks

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  12. Very nice. I'm glad to know Maui has this. I don't remember much but beach from my family's visit to Maui decades ago.

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  13. If I thought it would do any good I would stand there and spin that wheel all day.

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  14. How beautiful! I love that it's so small. The prayer wheel is enormous in the space! I wish I had known that this was here last time I visited Maui. We were upcountry looking for my grandfather's former house and wandered all over. This would have made a lovely, calm break.
    Thank you for sharing your photos!

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  15. Hello Debra, That is quite a remarkable prayer wheel, but I think it would be a little claustrophobic inside the building.
    --Jim

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  16. Cool, and quite amazing.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  17. That's a lovely place. I wouldn't have realized it's so small without your photo that includes people entering.

    Love,
    Janie

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  18. Nice. Saw a pile of Buddhist temples in Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. Very peaceful. I do like prayer flags and bells.

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  19. It reminds me of the Chinese and Japanese gardens at the Jardin botanique de Montreal.

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  20. Interesting. I didn't know about Stupas. Seems like we should have some around here. I'm going to research.

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  21. That's got to be the most whimsical-looking Buddha temple I've ever seen, almost like something you'd see in an amusement park. I mean that as a compliment and would love to visit it.

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  22. I too have a special memory of visiting a beautiful stupa in Sri Lanka.
    Dusk was rapidly descending as we arrived, the sky behind the stupa was rose pink which magically showed off the milky white dagoba of the Kiri Vihara to perfection sitting in its ancient landscape of Polonnaruwa.

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  23. I was unfamiliar with stupas before. Thanks for sharing!

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  24. learn something new every day...thanks

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  25. I saw some beautiful Stupas in Nepal.

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  26. This is beautiful, Debra. I've never visited one in real life. Thanks for the scale shot with humans.

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  27. Oh, how beautiful! I've never visited one. I'd really enjoy that.

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  28. oh thank you for this lovely post dear Debra !

    loved the virtual trip
    found stupa really intriguing and elegant ,stair is colorful
    yes circular movements are part of religious ritual in many religions.and if we ponder the whole universe is doing the same physically and spiritually

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  29. So beautiful Deb! Thanks for sharing! Big Hugs!

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  30. What a beautiful place!

    ~*~

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