{"id":4096,"date":"2017-05-21T02:24:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T02:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benbansal.me\/?p=4096"},"modified":"2017-09-09T01:25:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T01:25:30","slug":"tripitaka-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/?p=4096","title":{"rendered":"Tripitaka Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on uncube<\/em> magazine<\/a>:\u00a0More than 50 years after it was built, this Buddhist library building in Yangon in Myanmar continues to exude the modern aspirations of its early days, while fulfilling its role as a site for traditional, spiritual learning. For Ben Bansal, one of the authors of a new guide to the architecture of Yangon, it is a building that like its American architect, Benjamin Polk, deserves more recognition.<\/p>\n

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The front of Tripitaka Library, shortly after its opening in the early 1960s. The landscaped garden, centred around the artificial lake, give the building a more stately impression than today. (Archival photos \u00a9 Abhinav Publications)<\/em><\/p>\n

Tucked away off Kaba Aye Pagoda Road, Tripitaka Library is set within an overgrown park, several miles to the north of Yangon\u2019s bustling downtown. \u00a0If it weren\u2019t for several red-robed monks entering and leaving the compound, one would hardly notice the place. Potted plants line the driveway to the main entrance stairs.\u00a0Inside the library (the guard may take some convincing before he lets you enter), a few archivists work in a sleepy, tranquil atmosphere in the bright central atrium. Rows of yellowing Buddhist texts,\u00a0kept under glass,\u00a0line the walls.<\/p>\n

The area around the library was very different fifty years ago, when landscaped gardens and an artificial lake must have given the place a more ceremonial aura. Today trees and bushes hide the library\u2019s three wings. However, the central building \u2013 with its light and radial design \u2013 still stands out, as does the surprising use of reinforced concrete as the chosen construction material.\u00a0It is a favourite of local architects, U Sun Oo, Principal of Yangon-based firm Design 2000 describes it as a \u201csuccessful, modern expression of Buddhist religious architecture\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is a magical building with its spiritual associations writ large \u2013 witness the two huge cast stone lotus flowers at the main entrance.\u201cTripitaka\u201d derives from the ancient Pali language and translates as \u201cthree baskets\u201d, denoting the canons of Buddhist scriptures. Burma\u2019s first post-independence prime minister, U Nu, was a devout Buddhist and commissioned the library during his time in office. It was to hold the texts of the Sixth Great Buddhist Synod, convened between 1954 and 1956 in Rangoon (as Yangon was known until 1989). This council brought together 2,500 monastics from countries practising the Theravada branch of Buddhism, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Together they reviewed and recited the ancient scriptures. This Synod was a major project for the young nation, which gained independence only a few years earlier and was struggling with a brutal civil war and a chronic shortage of funds. 40 hectares of land were allocated to the project, and a million pounds sterling set aside for the construction of a pagoda, the Kaba Aye (or World Peace) Pagoda, as well as a vast manmade cave where the Synod\u2019s lengthy proceedings took place. The authorities also built several adjacent hostels for the monks and a library: the Tripitaka Library \u2013 although the latter only opened several years after the Synod concluded. Not only was the Synod U Nu\u2019s pet project \u2013 his legacy \u2013 it was also a spiritual anchor and source of pride for the Burmese population, the majority of which is Buddhist. Thousands of people came to offer their help during construction, and many more observed t<\/p>\n

For the library\u2019s design, U Nu commissioned the American architect Benjamin Polk (1916\u20132001), who had relocated to India in 1952 after practising in San Francisco for several years. He and U Nu were introduced and in 1953, Polk travelled to Bagan to study traditional Burmese architecture. He returned inspired by the pyramidal silhouettes and the pointed arches used throughout the ancient capital. Polk chose reinforced concrete for the Tripitaka Library becuase of the scarce availability of alternative building materials and limited construction skills. It also allowed Polk to use cantilevers extensively and to recess the pointed arches in the library\u2019s interior, which come together in the centre of the building \u201clike the stamen and pistil forms of a flower\u201d, as the architect notes in his autobiography.<\/p>\n

Polk incorporated a number of symbolic elements and numbers into the library: the radial design followed traditional stupa architecture, above all that of the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh, India. Echoing the four noble truths (which comprise the essence of the Buddha\u2019s teaching), the number four guided the ground plans and found expression in the four connected parts that together make up the library. Vertically, Polk expressed the number three \u2013 for example in the three storeys \u2013 following the three principles of existence in Buddhism: impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality. In other words, the building\u2019s spiritual dimension was designed to take physical form. As Polk put it, \u201cthe one essential of the design can be taken to be that in the Buddhist sense, weight and mass became a living reality and a latent energy \u2013 a magic substance full of hidden activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, Polk was a pioneer in reconciling post-war modern architecture and its construction materials with his deep insights into Buddhism. He designed a modern yet traditional place of study and meditation. It still conveys the bygone optimism of the young country\u2019s national building project, which, as we now know, ultimately led to decades of woe, violence and broken dreams. It also symbolises U Nu\u2019s embrace of Buddhism as the state religion, a decision that alienated religious minorities and stoked political tensions.<\/p>\n

Just a year after the library\u2019s opening, General Ne Win grabbed power in a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, heralding the start of military rule and plunging Burma into international isolation. The generals continued to sponsor the building of new Buddhist pagodas and authorised the hasty renovation of ancient Bagan\u2019s many temples, yet amid these projects, the Tripitaka Library remains a striking exception in its modernity of form.\u00a0The building\u2019s aesthetic doesn\u2019t sit easily with the more authoritarian and rigid vision of state-led Buddhism which Myanmar later adopted. It dates from a time when the country dreamed of international leadership, brought together Theravada Buddhists from around the world, and invited a forward-thinking American architect to build a traditional building in its capital. Myanmar is a complex place, but as it re-opens to the world, perhaps the Tripitaka Library will now find a deserving place in the country\u2019s collective memory.<\/p>\n

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Design Model. The library\u2019s three wings contain a public library, auditorium and religious museum. The central core is reserved for scholars and monks, a sanctuary for study and meditation.<\/p>\n

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A cross section of the core building.<\/p>\n

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Benjamin Polk and U Nu standing in the main library rotunda. Burma\u2019s first post-independence prime minister was a devout Buddhist, using religion as an expedient tool for nation building.<\/p>\n

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Originally published on uncube magazine:\u00a0More than 50 years after it was built, this Buddhist library building in Yangon in Myanmar continues to exude the modern aspirations of its early days, while fulfilling its role as a site for traditional, spiritual … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-burma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4243,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions\/4243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}