Hindu and Buddhist architecture serves to give three-dimensionality
to the mandala, which is their blueprint. The four corners of the mandala
are the four doors or walls of the temple or king's palace. Within the outer
doors are inner doors, symbolizing the movement towards the center of the
mandala. At the heart of the temple is the garbha-geha, the "womb-chamber",
which is the power-seat of the enshrined deity and the place of the bindu
or seed from which creation arises. The temple is embodied divinity, revealing
the mysteries of cosmogony. As the Hindu and Buddhist universe is holographic,
so the temple is not just the macrocosm, but the human microcosm as well.
To enter a sacred structure-whether at Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Pasupatinath,
or Changu Narayana-is to move towards the center of the universe, which is
the center of one's own psychophysical complex. We can view images of
temples,
shrines, and
domestic architecture.