Product Code Database
in Thailand]]The ordination hall (Pali: sīmā) is a Buddhist building specifically consecrated and designated for the performance of the Buddhist ordination ritual ( upasampadā) and other ritual ceremonies, such as the recitation of the Pāṭimokkha. The ordination hall is located within a boundary () that defines "the space within which all members of a single local community have to assemble as a complete Sangha () at a place appointed for ecclesiastical acts ()." The constitution of the sīmā is regulated and defined by the Vinaya and its commentaries and sub-commentaries.
The central importance of the ordination hall in the pre-colonial era is exemplified by the inclusion of an ordination hall, the Maha Pahtan Haw Shwe Ordination Hall (မဟာပဋ္ဌာန်းဟောရွှေသိမ်တော်ကြီး), as one of seven requisite edifices (နန်းတည်သတ္တဌာန) in the founding of Mandalay as a Burmese royal capital.The seven requisite edifices in founding Mandalay include the city walls (နန်းမြို့ရိုး), the city moat (ကျုံးတော်), Atumashi Monastery (အတုမရှိကျောင်းတော်ကြီး), the Pitakataik (Mandalay) (ပိဋကတ်တိုက်တော်ကြီး), the Thudhamma Zayat (သုဓမ္မာဇရပ်တော်ကြီး), Kuthodaw Pagoda (ကုသိုလ်တော်ဘုရား), and the Maha Pahtan Ordination Hall (မဟာပဋ္ဌာန်းဟောရွှေသိမ်တော်ကြီး).
In the Thai tradition, the boundary of the ubosot is marked by eight boundary stones known as bai sema, which denote the . The oldest bai sema date to the Dvaravati period. The sema stones stand above and mark the luk nimit (ลูกนิมิต), stone spheres buried at the cardinal points of the compass delineating the sacred area. A ninth stone sphere, usually bigger, is buried below the main Buddha image of the ubosot. The entrance sides of most ubosot face east. While wihan buildings also similarly house Gautama Buddha images, they differ from ubosot in that wihan are not marked by sema stones. Across from the entrance door at the end of the interior is the ubosot largest Buddha statue which is usually depicted in either the meditation attitude or the Maravijaya attitude.
|
|
