Presence

Dagoba is the Sinhala word for a stupa, although one could easily believe there is something extra-terrestrial about these mindbogglingly huge, semicircular, snow-white monuments that invite circumbulation like nothing else. At the heart of the dagoba is a relic of the Buddha, and it is my theory that they were meant to recreate the feel of his presence, leading to this typology that is minimal but awesome through sheer size. One has to stand at the foot of a dagoba and be filled with that awe to really see it; this picture shows nothing of the scale.