Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Politecnico di Torino

Archaeoastronomy The Zenith Passage of the Sun The tropics are the regions of the Earth that lie between the latitude lines of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. In this zone of the Earth, we have the opportunity to see the zenith passage of the sun, that is, we can see the sun passing at noon directly overhead. The zenith passage happens on two days in the year. These days depend upon the latitude of the place of observation. Let us note that, at the Tropic of Cancer, the zenith passage happens on the day of the June solstice and at the Tropic of Capricorn on that of the December solstice; at the equator, the zenithal sun is observed on the two equinoxes. When the sun passes overhead, the shadows disappear and the days when this happens assume a sacred significance for the people that live and lived within the tropics. Being the zenith passage so important, it is not surprising that we can find it evidenced by the local architectures too. We have, for instance, that some monuments possess a "zenith tube" at their apex, such as at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. It is a vertical sighting tube inserted in the vault of the structure, which produces in a dark chamber a perfectly perpendicular beam of light when the sun is at the local zenith. As we will see, alignments of monuments are also possible: we observed them in Sanchi, India, at the Lion Rock in Sri Lanka, inAngkor Wat and at the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur Temples in Java. We can observe alignments at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza. Here we also show alignments to the sunrise of the zenithal sun at the Shwedagon Pagoda and in the plan of Brasilia.

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Torino, 31 December 2020

Cover image: Indonesia, Borobudur Temple, Courtesy Rbrudolph https://pixabay.com/photos/indonesia-borobudur-temple-asia-531839/

1Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Abstract This paper discusses the solar orientation of the archaeological complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka. We can see that the axis of this complex is oriented with the sunset of the zenithal sun.

Keywords: Satellite Mas, Solar orientation, Archaeoastronomy

1. Introduction sunset azimuths on solstices, we can have in the Several ancient ceremonial structures are designed to tropical zone, an alignment with the zenithal sun, that align with the repeating patterns of sun or moon or is a design of the site with the sunrise or sunset even stars. We have the Stonehenge megalithic azimuths of the day during which the sun reaches the monument for instance, which has alignments with zenith. An example of this alignment is the Lion summer and winter solstices, and the Karnak temple Rock complex in Sri Lanka. in Egypt, aligned again with the sun on solstices [1,2]. Even the gothic cathedrals have a solar 2. The Lion Rock complex orientation [3]. These huge buildings have their axis The ruins of a huge palace built by King Kassapa I aligned with the azimuth of the sunrise on a given (477–495 CE) are on the top of a granite rock, known day of the year, probably the day of their foundation. as Sigiriya, the Lion Rock [4-8]. This site is in the heart of Sri Lanka, dominating the neighboring At latitudes above the tropical zone, the sun reaches plateau, inhabited since the 3rd century BC, and the highest noon altitude on the summer solstice and hosting some shelters for Buddhist monks [4]. A the lowest one on the winter solstice. In any case, this series of galleries and staircases, having their origin angle is below 90 degrees. But, when we are in the from the mouth of a gigantic lion made of bricks and tropical zone the sun reaches the zenith, that is an plaster, provide access to the ruins on the rock. In the altitude of 90 degrees. In this paper, we will show Figure 1, it is possible to see the site surrounded by a that, besides the alignment with the sunrise and wall and the rock inside.

Figure 1 – The Sigiriya complex as we can see in the satellite maps. On the right the Lion Rock

Sigiriya is a unique witness to the civilization of Sri I established his capital there in a fortified palace. Lanka during the years of the reign of Kassapa [5]. After the death of Kassapa, the site of Sigiriya The site is rich of frescoes, which originated a returned to the monks, and then was progressively pictorial style used for many centuries. However, the abandoned. fame of the site is mainly due to the fact that Kassapa

 Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (Correspondence)  [email protected], [email protected]

DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335

The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka

At the summit of the rock, there is the fortified palace The water gardens are connected with the outer moat with its ruined buildings, cisterns and rock sculptures. on the west and the large artificial lake to the south of At the foot of the rock we find the lower city the Sigiriya rock. All the pools are also interlinked by surrounded by walls. The eastern part of it has not yet an underground conduit network fed by the lake, and been totally excavated. The western aristocratic part connected to the moats. of the capital of Kassapa I was embellished by terraced gardens, canals and fountains. 3. Solar orientation The Gardens of the Sigiriya city are an important In the Ref.4 it is told that the water gardens are built characteristic of the site. They are divided into three symmetrically on an east-west axis. In fact, the distinct forms: the water gardens, the cave and design of the gardens is symmetrical, however the boulder gardens, and the terraced gardens [4]. The axis is not oriented on the cardinal east- west line: the water gardens are in the central section of the western site is inclined of 9 degrees, as we can measure from precinct. They were built according to an ancient satellite maps (Figure 2). garden form, of which they are the oldest surviving examples.

Figure 2 – Measurement of the angle using the GIMP compass.

Since this angle is not negligible, it can correspond to We have that the azimuth is of 8 degrees with respect a specific azimuth of the sun. the cardinal east-west direction. There is then the difference of one degree with the measured angle of Let us remember that the azimuths are formed by the the axis of the gardens. vector from the observer to the sun rising or setting on the horizontal plane and a reference vector on this We can also obtain the data on azimuth and noon plane. There are several web sites that allow knowing altitude form a web site that we have already used in the azimuth and the noon altitude of the sun and some papers (see for instance Ref.10 and references moon at a specific location on a given day of the therein): it is that of Sollumis.com [11]. This site year. For instance, one is the site in Ref.9. Using it, allows drawing on the Google satellite maps some we can obtain at Sigiriya, the following data for the lines which show the direction and height of the sun noon altitude and sunset azimuths given in the throughout the day. Thicker and shorter lines mean following table. We see that we have the zenithal sun the sun is higher in the sky. Longer and thinner lines on April 9 and on the First of September. mean the sun is closer to the horizon. Using Sollumis.com for instance, we can easily find solar Date Noon Altitude Sunset Azimuth orientations in the layout of some Chinese Pyramids April 8 89.4° 277.6° burial complexes [10]. April 9 89.6° 278.0° April 10 89.5° 278.4° Let us use Sollumis.com on the site of the Lion Rock. August 30 88.9° 278.9° The results obtained are shown in the Figure 3. Here September 1 89.2° 278.2° we find a sunset azimuthal angle of 9 degrees with September 2 89.1° 278.0° respect the cardinal east-west axis, in agreement with the measured angle (see the Figure 2).

http://www.ijSciences.com Volume 2 - November 2013 (11) 61

The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka

Figure 3 – The direction of the sun during September 1 and April 11, given by Sollumis.com at Sigiriya. This site provides a polar diagram, overlaying a satellite map, showing the directions of the sun for any day of the year. The lines on the drawing show the direction and altitude of the sun. In the image it is given the sunset azimuth of 279 degrees, which corresponds to an angle of 9 degrees with respect the cardinal east-west direction. The highest value of the noon altitude, all over the year, given by the software is 89°. We can then suppose a truncation of the true value.

4. Conclusion [3] A.C. Sparavigna, Ad Orientem: the Orientation of Gothic After this analysis on satellite images and azimuths, Cathedrals of France, arXiv:1209.2338 [physics.hist-ph] [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya we can conclude that the Sigiriya complex was [5] UNESCO, Ancient City of Sigiriya, planned with respect of an axis oriented with the http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/202/ sunset of the zenithal sun, that is, oriented with the [6] Senake Bandaranayake and Madhyama Saṃ sunset of a day when the sun reaches the zenith. This Sigiriya: City, Palace, Gardens, Monasteries, Painting (Sri Lanka), Central Cultural Fund, 2005 fact seems to indicate that, besides the solstices, in [7] R. H. De Silva, Sigiriya, Department of Archaeology, 1976 the tropical zone the zenithal sun had a ritual [8] Benille Priyanka, Meaning of the Sigiriya Paintings: Based on importance too. Recent Archaeological Evidence, Godage International Publishers, Jan 1, 2005 [9] Sun or Moon Altitude/Azimuth Table by the Astronomical References Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory, [1] D. Alberge, Stonehenge was Built on Solstice Axis, Dig http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.php Confirms, The Guardian, Sunday 8 September 2013 [10] A.C. Sparavigna, The Chinese Pyramids and the Sun, [2] A.C. Sparavigna, The Sunrise Amplitude Equation Applied to arXiv:1211.0915 [physics.hist-ph] an Egyptian Temple, arXiv:1207.6942 [physics.pop-ph] [11] www.sollumis.com

http://www.ijSciences.com Volume 2 - November 2013 (11) 62 Sigiriya (Lion Rock), Sri Lanka Courtesy: Poswiecie https://pixabay.com/photos/sigiriya-sri-lanka-dambulla-459197/

On the alignment of Sanchi monuments

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Abstract Sanchi is a Buddhist religious c enter and a monumental archaeological site in India. The Sanchi monuments have interesting astronomical orientations, as shown by N. Kameswara Rao in [1]. Here, we will discuss in particular an alignment of stupas with the sunset direction on the summer so lstice. Since Sanchi latitude is close to the Tropic of Cancer, we have also that, on this day, the noon altitude is about 90 degrees. Therefore, the alignment of stupas is also giving the sunset direction of the day of the zenithal sun. Such an alignment is also observed in the planning of Sigiriya complex in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Solar Orientation, Solstices, Architectural Planning, Satellite Images, Google Earth.

Introduction

Sanchi, in Raisen District of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, is famous for its remarkable Buddhist art and architecture, made of stupas, temples, monasteries and sculptures. The religious centre at Sanchi was founded by Emperor Asoka, in the 3rd century BCE, locating it on a hill. He erected the Great Stupa that served as the first nucleus of the Buddhist religious center. Originally, the stupa was a simple hemispherical brick structure built over the relics of the Buddha. The Sanchi site might be also considered as one of the oldest astronomical monuments in India, as discussed in [1]. The location of Sanchi itself, as stressed in [1], has an astronomical significance too. The latitude of Sanchi is 23°28' N, as we can see in a Google Earth map (see Figure 1). This place is then near the Tropic of Cancer; its latitude is close to the declination of the sun on the summer solstice day: then, in Sanchi, the noon sun reaches the zenithal position on the longest day of the year. In this paper, we will discuss the peculiar alignment of two stupas with the sunset direction on th e summer solstice [1]. This alignment of stupas is also giving the sunset azimuth on the day which has the zenithal sun. Such “zenithal” alignment is also observed in the planning of another Buddhist monument, the Sigiriya complex in Sri Lanka [2].

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2761841

Figure 1 - The location of Sanchi hill has an astronomical significance [1]. This latitude is close to the declination of the sun on the day of summer solstice: then, in Sanchi, the noon sun is at the zenith on the longest day of the year [1]. Note the alignment of the small stupa with respect to the Great Stupa: the yellow line corresponds to the sunset direction on summer solstice.

Orientation and alignment of Sanchi stupas

Kameswara Rao, author of Ref.1, had investigated the orientation of Sanchi stupas, showing t hat they could had been planned to be oriented towards the moonrise and sunset on the day of Buddha purnima (purnima means "full moon"), the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama. The Figure 2 shows the Great Stupa and other stupas and monuments. Usually, accordi ng to a geometric image of the related cosmology, the Buddhist monuments are oriented as precisely as possible towards the four cardinal points [1,3]. From the Figure 2, we can see clearly what explained in [1], a specific orientation of the axes of monume nts, different from the cardinal one. Moreover, as observed in [1], there is another remarkable alignment: it is that of Stupa 2 with respect to the Great Stupa. It appears to be in the direction of sunset on the summer solstice, as we can easily appreciate from Figure 3.

Figure 2 – N. Kameswara Rao had investigated the orientation of Sanchi stupas [1], showing that they

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2761841 could had been planned to be oriented towards moonrise and sunset on the day of Buddha purnima (purnima means "full moon"), the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama.

To prepare Figure 3, we used software from the web site sollumis.com. In fact, we can view solar azimuths for any location in the world, on the satellite maps of Google Earth by means of sites such as sollumis.com or SunCalc.net. We used them for analyses proposed in [2,4-8] (the use of SunCalc was proposed in [9,10]). Sollumis.com is providing, besides the solar sunrise and sunset azimuth, also the noon altitude of the sun. We can select the location and, using the form of the si te, day and month on which we want direction and height of the sun. As explained at sollumis.com, the lines on the drawing show the direction and height (altitude) of the sun throughout the day. Thicker and shorter lines mean the sun is higher in the sky. Longer and thinner lines mean the sun is closer to the horizon.

Figure 3 – The image shows the direction of the sun on summer solstice as given by sollumis.com. We find the alignment of two stupas with sunset direction.

The role of sun and light in the planning of monuments is well known. In Reference 4, for instance, we discussed and analysed orientations of Gothic cathedrals of France. These buildings have the apse facing the rising sun, according to a practic e adopted during the Middle Ages, to align them with the sunrise azimuth on the day of their foundation. Other alignments had been investigated in [5-8]. In particular, in [6], we have discussed the orientation of the Mughal gardens of Taj Mahal. These gar dens can be imagined as local horizons, symbolically embracing the motion of the sun throughout the year. In Ref.2, however, we have observed another alignment, along the direction of the sunset on the day when the sun reaches the zenith, that is, it has a noon altitude of 90 degrees. This alignment is shown by the planning of Sigiriya.

Comparing to Sigiriya

Sigiriya (the Lion Rock) is a historical and archaeological site located near the town of Dambulla, Sri Lanka. The site is dominated by a massive rock nearly 200 metres high (Figure 4). On this granite rock, a huge palace was built by King Kassapa I (477–495 CE). A series of galleries and staircases, having their origin from the mouth of a gigantic lion made of bricks and plaster, provide access to the ruins on the rock. At the foot of the rock we find the lower city surrounded by walls and embellished by terraced gardens, canals and fountains. The Sigiriya site is interesting for our discussion on the Sanchi monumental complex, because it had a planning of the gardens at the foot of the rock, connected to the path of the sun too. As we can see in the Figure 5, the axis of gardens is not cardinally oriented. It is oriented with the sunset on the day when the sun at noon has an altitude of 90 degrees. The refore, it seems that also the zenithal sun can be represented by specific alignments, in the planning of a site, according to its latitude. Of course, such an alignment can be observed only in the tropical zone. In tropical regions, we have two days of ze nithal sun, but just one on the lines of Tropics, such as at Sanchi. Further researches are planned to find other zenithal alignments, that is alignments of monuments with sunrise or sunset on the day of zenithal sun.

Figure 4 - Sigiriya complex in Sri Lanka.

Figure 5 - The axis of the gardens is oriented according to the sunset azimuth on the day when the noon sun is at the zenith. At Sigiriya, the zenithal sun happens twice the year. Here we see one of this days, the first of September.

References [1] N. Kameswara Rao (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Buddhist stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India 20:87-98. [2] A.C. Sparavigna (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka, International Journal of Sciences 2(11): 60-62, DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [3] A. Volwashen (1969). Living Architecture: Indian, Grosset & Dunlap, new York. [4] A.C. Sparavigna (2014). The Solar Orientation of the Gothic Cathedrals of France, International Journal of Sciences, vol. 3 n.4, pp. 6-11. DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.484. The preprint of this paper is available from arXiv, arXiv:1209.2338, Ad Orientem: the Orientation of Gothic Cathedrals of France, published on 11 September 2012. [5] A.C. Sparavigna (2015). Light and Shadows in Bernini’s Oval of Sa int Peter’s Square. PHILICA.COM Article number 540. [6] A.C. Sparavigna (2013). The Gardens of Taj Mahal and the Sun, International Journal of Sciences, vol. 2 n. 11, pp. 104-107. DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.346 [7] A.C. Sparavigna (2015). Observations on the Orie ntation of Some Mughal Gardens. PHILICA.COM, Article number 455. [8] A.C. Sparavigna (2013). Sunrise and Sunset Azimuths in the Planning of Ancient Chinese Towns, International Journal of Sciences, vol.2 n.11, pp. 52-59. DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.334 [9] V. Pank ovic, M. Mrdjen and M. Krmar (2015). Was Lepenski Vir an Ancient Sun or Pleiades Observatory?, arXiv:1501.01108 [physics.hist-ph] [10] V. Pankovic, M. Mrdjen and M. Krmar (2015). Giza Pyramids and Taurus constellation, arXiv:1502.00972 [physics.pop-ph] Information about this Article

This Article has not yet been peer-reviewed

Published on Sunday 22nd November, 2015 at 09:22:26.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments. PHILICA Article number 543 .

Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex. Philica, Philica, 2016, pp.591. ￿hal-01312473￿

HAL Id: hal-01312473 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01312473 Submitted on 9 May 2016

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés.

Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

Abstract: This paper is discussing some solar alignments that can be observed in the planning of the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia. This complex was originally constructed in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple for the Khmer Empire and gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple. To illustrate the solar alignments we use SunCalc.net software and Photographer’s Ephemeris on Google Earth satellite images.

Keywords: Solar Orientation, Solstices, Azimuth and Zenith, Architectural Planning, Archaeoastronomy.

Angkor Wat is a large temple complex in Cambodia, originally constructed as a Hindu temple for the Khmer Empire, that became a Buddhist temple in the last part of 12th century. Khmer King Suryavarman II built the temple complex in the early 12th century [1-3], dedicating it to Vishnu. Angkor Wat shows the two basic Khmer temple architectures, that is, the temple-mountain and the galleried temple. In fact, it is planned to represent the Mount Meru with its five peaks, but there are also three rectangular galleries, which are each raising above the other (see Figure 1 on the left) [3]. As remarked in [1], the building of Angkor Wat complex was an “enormous undertaking that involved quarrying, careful artistic work and lots of digging”; this undertaking required to solve several engineering problems for the stability of the structures. To support the temples, a tough material, the laterite, was used “which in turn was encased with softer sandstone that was used for carving the reliefs” [1]. Angkor Wat itself is surrounded by a moat that encompasses a perimeter of more than 3 miles; this moat was used for helping stabilize the temple’s foundation, “preventing groundwater from rising too high or falling too low” [1] (Figure 1 on the right).

Figure 1: On the left, aerial view of the central structure. Courtesy Shyam tnj, Wikipedia. On the right, the Angkor Wat surrounded by a moat used for helping stabilize the temple’s foundation [1]. Courtesy: Google Earth.

From the Figure 1 on the right we see an evident alignment to cardinal E-W directions, coincident to equinoctial sunrise and sunset directions. However, as observed in [4], unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat has its gate oriented to the west. In 1976, researchers of the Michigan University carried a comprehensive analysis of the role of astronomy and cosmology in the planning of the temple [5]. The Michigan researchers suggested in their paper that the architects of Angkor Wat had encoded calendrical, historical and cosmological themes into the architectural layout. As shown by [5], the researches demonstrated how Angkor Wat's architects had established solar alignments between the temple and a nearby mountaintop shrine that took place during the summer solstice (see Figure 2) [5]. In fact, twenty-two possible alignments had been identified and their relationship to bas relief and Hindu time cycles examined.

Figure 2: Alignment to sunrise on Summer Solstice of Angkor Wat and the Phnom Bok hill. Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth. In SunCalc, a yellow straight line (here prolonged by the white line) gives the sunrise direction, a orange line the sunset. The curved yellow line is rendering the altitude of the sun.

The authors in [5] concluded that: 1. The rising sun appears aligned on equinox and solstice days with the western entrance of Angkor Wat; 2. The movements of the moon can be observed from a variety of positions within the temple, and lunar cycles may have been recorded in the three sets of libraries; 3. The bas reliefs of the third gallery can be understood in relation to the movements of the sun; 4. The measurements of the temple appear proportional to calendric and cosmological time cycles. Moreover, in [5], it was observed that, in the central tower, the topmost elevation has external axial dimensions of 189.00 Cambodian cubits east-west, and 176.37 Cambodian cubits north-south, with the sum of 365.37 [5,6]. This last figure is “perhaps the most outstanding number (in the Angkow Wat complex), almost the exact length of the solar year” [5,6]. However, as shown by Subhash Kak in his very interesting work [6], also the other two figures are remarkable: they are evidence of Vedic roots for the division of the solar year in Angkor Wat into two unequal parts. Kak tells that the inequality of the two dimensions with figures corresponding to the two parts of the year, a fact that the Michigan researchers were not able to explain, was not a mere accident but based on the ancient Indian astronomical knowledge [7]. Angkor Wat is also displaying a connection to the zenith passage of the sun, because the temple complex is located in the tropical zone [8]. A very interesting paper is in fact discussing the importance of zenith passage at Angkor Wat [9]; the authors, Edwin Barnhart and Christopher Powell, University of Texas, Austin, in August of 2010 and 2011 investigated this astronomical event on the site discovering, besides specific alignments,

that Angkor temples had vertical zenith sighting tubes to observed the zenith passage of the sun or of other bodies of the celestial vault. As we have observed for the planning of some architectures (Mughal gardens, ancient Chinese towns and Buddhist complexes [10-16]), the architects had created in the orientations and alignments of the layout of their works a reminder of the macrocosmic order, representing on a local symbolic horizon the passage of time and the changing of azimuth and altitude of the Sun at specific moments of the year. To investigate the passage of the sun, in the abovementioned cases and in some others too, we used Sollumis.com or SunCalc.net. The use of this last software (SunCalc) was first proposed in [17,18]. Here we can repeat what we did on the Mughal gardens of Taj Mahal for Angkor Wat too, to find specific alignments. Let us start from conclusion (1) in [5], that is: The rising sun appears aligned on equinox and solstice days with the western entrance of Angkor Wat. The alignment on equinox is evident from the Figure 1. The alignments of the gate to the towers at the corners of the complex on summer and winter solstices are shown in the Figures 3 and 4, where we used SunCalc.net software.

Figure 3: Alignment to sunrise on Summer Solstice. Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth.

Figure 4: Alignment to sunrise on Winter Solstice. Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth.

However, it is possible to observe also an alignment connected to the zenith passage of the sun. The alignment exists if we consider as locus of reference the central tower of the complex, the axis of which is in fact representing the axis Zenith-Nadir of the world. The alignment is given in the Figure 5. If we observe the Figure 6, which is obtained using the Photographer's Ephemeris, at the web page http://app.photoephemeris.com, we can see that it is also connected to corners in the pathway of the garden.

Figure 5: Alignments on a day of zenith passage of the sun (25 April). Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth. The azimuth is about 76.2 degrees.

Figure 6: Alignments on a day of zenith passage of the sun (25 April). Courtesy: the Photographer's Ephemeris at http://app.photoephemeris.com and Google Earth. The azimuth is about 76.2 degrees.

As we have shown in [8,15,16], the zenith passage of the sun was quite important for people of Asia living in the tropical zone. We have discussed in [15], that the

archaeological complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock in Sri Lanka, has its axis oriented to the sunset of day of a zenith passage of the sun. Also the very important Buddhist religious center of Sanchi, has an alignment of stupas to the sunset direction of the day of the zenithal sun. In fact this alignment is to the sunset direction on the summer solstice [16,19], but because Sanchi latitude is close to the Tropic of Cancer, this is also the day of the zenith passage of the sun. Here we have seen that, also in the case of Angkor Wat, the zenith passage of the sun is marked by alignments and by the presence of specific structures for observations [9]. Let us note that, in the case of Angkor Wat, we observe alignments both for sunrise and sunset.

References [1] Jarus, O. (2014). Angkor Wat: History of Ancient Temple, Live Science, October 08, 2014. Available at http://www.livescience.com/23841-angkor-wat.html [2] Richter, A.M. (2009). Recycling Monuments: The Hinduism/Buddhism Switch at Angkor, CyArk. Available at http://www.cyark.org/news/recycling-monuments-the- hinduismbuddhism-switch-at-angkor [3] Higham, C. (2014). Early Mainland Southeast Asia. River Books Co. ISBN 978-616- 7339-44-3. [4] Vv. Aa. (2016). Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat [5] Stencel, R., Gifford, F., & Moron, E. (1976). Astronomy and cosmology at Angkor Wat, Science, 193, 281-287. DOI: 10.1126/science.193.4250.281 [6] Kak, S. (1998). The Solar Numbers in Angkor Wat. arXiv preprint physics/9811040; Indian Journal of History of Science, 34, 117–26. [7] Kak, S. (2003). Indian Physics: Outline of Early History. arXiv preprint physics/0310001. [8] Sparavigna, A.C. (2016). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its Role in the Planning of Architectures. PHILICA Article number 584. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2767664 [9] Barnhart, E. & Powell, C. The Importance of Zenith Passage at Angkor, Cambodia. Available at http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/angkorzenithpassage.pdf [10] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Gardens of Taj Mahal and the Sun, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 104-107. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.346 [11] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). Solar Azimuths in the Planning of a Nur Jahan’s Charbagh, International Journal of Sciences, 2(12), 8-10. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.353 [12] Sparavigna, A.C. (2015). Observations on the Orientation of Some Mughal Gardens. PHILICA Article number 455. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745160 [13] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). Sunrise and Sunset Azimuths in the Planning of Ancient Chinese Towns, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 52-59. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.334 [14] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). A Solar Orientation in the Town-Planning of Xanadu, Archaeogate, published on 07-06-2013. [15] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka, International Journal of Sciences 2(11): 60-62, DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [16] Sparavigna, A.C. (2015). On the Alignment of Sanchi Monuments. PHILICA article number 543. [17] Pankovic, V., Mrdjen, M. & Krmar, M. (2015). Was Lepenski Vir an Ancient Sun or Pleiades Observatory?, arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.01108 [18] Pankovic, V., Mrdjen, M. & Krmar, M. (2015). Giza Pyramids and Taurus constellation, arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.00972 [19] Kameswara Rao, N. (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Buddhist Stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India, 20, 87-98.

Cambodia, Siem Reap Courtasy: Engin_Akyurt https://pixabay.com/photos/cambodia-siem-reap-on-old-sunrise-2238000/

The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its role in the Planning of Architectures

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Abstract: Summer and winter solstices and equinoxes had great importance in the cultures of peoples all over the world, and these astronomical events had been widely considered i n the planning of monuments and other architectures. But in the tropical zone of the Earth, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, we can see another relevant event, the zenith passage of the sun. In this paper we will see that several examples are e xisting too, of the role of this astronomic event in the architectures of tropical zone.

Keywords: Solar Orientation, Solstices, Azimuth Passage, Architectural Planning, Archaeoastronomy.

Introduction

Zenith is the point of the celestial sphere which is v ertically above the observer. Only in the tropical zone of the Earth, which is located in between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, we can see the sun reaching the zenith. Anywhere outside tropics, this is impossible. Inside the tropical zo ne then, the sun has, besides the astronomical events of solstices and equinoxes, also two zenith passages. On the Tropical lines, only one passage is observed, coincident to one of the solstices. On the Tropic of Cancer for instance, it happens on the sum mer solstice. At the equator, the zenith passage is on the equinoxes.

The zenith passage of the sun, being the moment when it passes through the top point of the sky, is easily observed using a gnomon, that is a straight vertical pole, because at that moment it casts no shadow on the ground. Or, if we have a deep water well, we can see the sun reflected at noon by th e water at its bottom. Both these facts were well known to ancient people living in the tropical zone. And in fact, Eratosthenes (c.276 BC – c.195/194 BC) used them to calculate the circumference of the Earth [1]. Eratosthenes knew that at local noon on the summer solstice in Syene (the modern Aswan), the sun was reflected by the water of a deep well. By the shadow of a gnomon in Alexandria, he measured the angle of sun elevation at the noon on the same day and found it being 1/50th of a circle. Assuming that the Earth was a sphere and that Alexandria was due north of Syene, he concluded that the meridian arc distance from Alexandria to Sye ne was 1/50th of the Earth's circumference. From this distance, he evaluated the circumference of the Earth.

Peoples all over the world recognized as very important astronomical events the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes and celebrated them c onsequently. It is not surprising then that these

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2767664 astronomical events had been also considered in planning of monuments and other architectures, which are consequently displaying alignments with the direction of sunrise or sunset on these days. As evidenced by several examples [211], the planning of the architectonic structure becomes a symbolic local horizon, a microcosm representing the apparent motion of the macrocosm that, thorough the year, is revolving about its “axis mundi”, that is, the axis of the universe. In this paper we will discuss that several examples of the role of the zenith passage of the sun are also existing, displayed by the architectures of the tropical zone.

The Zenithal Sun in America

In the tropical zone, to solstices and equinox es we have also to add, as relevant astronomic events, the zenith passage of the sun. And in fact, we can find that pillars and wells exist, used by people to observe what happens to light and shadows at the zenith passage of the sun. The people of pre Co lumbian Mexico had a specific “astronomical instrument" to observed this passage: a vertical zenith sighting tube inserted in the vault of an underground structure. One of these instruments is at observatory of Xochicalco, in the Mexican state of Morelos. The image in the Figure 1 illustrates how it looks like the beam of light passing through the ceiling of the artificial cave of Xochicalco. A vertical opening produces in a dark chamber a perfectly perpendicular beam of light when the sun is at the local zenith. Besides the cave, at Xochicalco there is a white stone pillar in the ceremonial area that could had been used to observe the shadow disappearing at the zenith passage of the sun (Figure 2).

Figure 1: This image illustrates how it looks the beam of light in a cave passing through a tube in its ceiling.

Figure 2: A pyramid and the ceremonial pillar at Xochicalco, Mexico. Courtesy Maxtreiber,

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2767664 Wikipedia.

For Meso and South America, several researchers have recogn ized and evidenced the importance of the zenith passage [1218]. In [19,20], it is stressed that, among the ancient civilizations that recognized the zenith passage, we have also those of the Andean people of Peru, that incorporated it into their cosmology . The Andean people used pillars, such as the Chankillo Towers [18,21], as solar observations and for their calendars.

Let us add to the pillar shown in the Figure 2, another monument that we can easily imagine the ancient architects had built to observe t he zenithal sun and for related ceremonial purposes too: it is the Gate of the Sun of Tiwanaku (Figure 3). Being under the linter of this gate when the sun is at the local zenith , an observed could see the shadow of it coincident to the base. Tiwanaku is a PreColumbian archaeological site i n western Bolivia. The site was first described by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León. He came to the ruins of Tiwanaku in 1549, while searching for the Inca capital Qullasuyu [22]. During the time period between 300 BC and AD 300, Tiwanaku is th ought to have been a ceremonial center for the Tiwanaku empire to which people made pilgrimages.

Figure 3: The Gate of the Sun at Tiwanaku.

In Asia

The zenith passage was important also for people of Asia. And in fact, in [24], we have shown that the archaeo logical complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka has its axis oriented to the sunset of day of a zenith passage of the sun. Let us also consider the very important Buddhist religious center of Sanchi, which has interesting astronomical orientations as discussed by N. Kameswara Rao [25]; it possesses a particular alignment of stupas with the sunset direction on the summer solstice. Since Sanchi latitude is close to the Tropic of Cancer, we have also that, on this day, the noon altitude is about 90 de grees. Therefore, the alignment of stupas is also giving the sunset direction of the day of the zenithal sun [26].

The first written mention of zenith passage in Indian literature comes from Varahamihira in the 6th century [27,28], who noted that in the kingdom of Avanti the day of summer solstice and zenith passage were the same (the Avanti Kingdom of ancient India was described in the Mahabharata epic). He further discussed that north of Avanti, no zenith passage occurs. Varahamihira wrote these observations when he was in the ancient city of Ujjain, located at latitude of 23° 10′ 12″ N [27]. In fact, as observed in [27], the ancient India had a “prime meridian” and a northsouth “zero” line of latitude crossing at Ujjain and running straight down to the island of Lanka.

The southern part of India is in the tropical zone such as another part of Southeast Asia, like the Indochina. A very interesting paper is discussing the importance of zenith passage of the sun in the architecture of the temples at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The authors of this paper [27], Edwin Barnhart and Christopher Powell, University of Texas, Austin, in August of 2010 and 2011 investigated the importance of the zenith passage of the Sun for the ancient Khmer culture . They concluded the research with a positive answer. "From architectural features and orientations to art panels and monuments, the evidence that zenith passage was recognized permeates the entire city" [27]. According to the authors, their idea "to searc h for evidence of zenith passage at Angkor” was inspired by prior research in Mesoamerica. In [27], besides discussing the discoveries at Angkor, the authors are proposing that the Hindu culture was also including some references to the zenith passage of the sun.

Barnhart and Powell have discovered that Angkor temples had vertical zenith sighting tubes too. “Though it is not apparent from the outside, each one of the beehive shaped temples of Angkor are hollow on the inside. Walking in and looking straig ht up, the roof is open all the way up to the top and that top has a hole where the sun shines in. We were told by the temple attendants that the holes on top of the roofs were there because the capstones had all been knocked off by erosion or more common ly by looters searching for jewels. Finding these fallen capstones among the rubble around the temples was our first surprising clue. Most capstones were beautifully carved as lotus flowers and all had a hollow tube running down their axes. Each had a very straight, long tube that would have let only true zenith passage sun light down into the temples. Whether or not this was their intention, functionally this makes every single temple of this kind at Angkor a zenith tube” [27]. Besides the temples which are beautiful artificial caves for the zenithal sun, the authors have observed that this architectural complex possesses also alignments to mark the zenith passage at Angkor Wat.

Conclusion

Let us conclude observing that, besides in Meso and South America, the zenithal sun was important also in the architecture of the tropical Asia as shown by the researches of Barnhart and Powell. Let us add to these fundamental researches a quite recent paper [29] that had evidenced an alignment t o the sunrise of the day of the zenith passage of a temple, the Koh Ker temple, in an archaeological site in northern Cambodia, about 120 kilometers from the ancient site of Angkor. In fact, the observations of Barnhart and Powell and the alignment of this temple, are reinforcing the observation I made about the Sigiriya complex, that is was a complex aligned to the sunset of the day of the zenithal sun.

References [1] Roller, D.W. (2010). Eratosthenes’ Geography. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. [2] Hawkes, J. (1967). God in the Machine. Antiquity, 41(163), 174180. [3] Ray, T.P. (1989). The Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange, Ireland: Accident or Design? Nature, 337(6205), 343345. [4] Richards, J. C. (2007). Stonehenge: The Story So Far. English Heritage. [5] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Gardens of Taj Mahal and the Sun, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 104107. [6] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). Solar Azimuths in the Planning of a Nur Jahan’s Charbagh, International Journal of Sciences, 2(12), 810. [7] Sparavigna, A.C. (2015). Observations on the Orientation of Some Mughal Gardens. Philica Article number 455. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745160 [8] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). Sunrise and Su nset Azimuths in the Planning of Ancient Chinese Towns, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 5259. [9] Sparavigna, A.C. (2014). Solstices at the Hardknott Roman Fort, Philica Article Number 442. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745184 [10] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). On the Solar Orientation of Ales Stenar Site. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/doc/141191230/OnthesolarorientationofAlesStenarsite [11] Sparavigna, A.C (2015). Light and Shadows in Bernini’s Oval of Saint Peter’s Square. PHI LICA Article number 540. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2742281 [12] Aveni, A. (2001). Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, 2nd Edition. University of Texas Press. [13] Aveni, F., & Hartung, H. (1981). The Observation of the Sun at the Times of Pas sage through the Aenith in Mesoamerica. Archaeoastronomy (Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy 12) 3:S51S70. [14] Broda, J. (2006). Zenith Observations and the Conceptualization of Geographical Latitude in Ancient Mesoamerica: A Historic al and Interdisciplinary Approach. Proceedings of the Oxford Seven Conference in Archaeoastronomy, edited by Todd Bostwick and Bryan Bates. [15] Freidel, D., Schele, L. & Parker, J. (1993). Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow Paperbacks. [16] Mendez, A., & Karasik, C. (2014). Centering the world: zenith and nadir passages at Palenque. Archaeoastronomy and the Maya, 97. Draft available at http://www.academia.edu/2368146/Centering_the_World [17] Mendez, A., Barnhart, E.L. , Powell, C., & Karasik, C. (2005). Astronomical Observations from the Temple of the Sun. Archaeoastronomy, Vol. XIX, pp. 4473. University of Texas Press. [18] Ghezzi, I., & Ruggles, C. (2007). Chankillo: a 2300yearold solar observatory in coastal Peru. Science, 315(5816), 12391243. [19] Bauer, B., & Dearborn, D. (1995). Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes, University of Texas Press. [20] Urton, G. (1981). At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky, University of Texas Press. [21] Sparavigna, A.C. (2012). The solar towers of Chankillo. arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.3580. [22] Kolata, A.L. (1993). The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization. WileyBlackwell. [23] Vv. Aa. (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku [24] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka. arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.2853. Published in International Journal of Sciences, 2013, 2(11):6062 DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [25] Kameswara Rao, N. (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Budd hist stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India 20:8798. [26] Sparavigna, A.C. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments. Philica article number 543. Available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2761841 [27] Barnhart, E. & Powell, C. The Importance of Zenith Passage at Angkor, Cambodia, http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/angkorzenithpassage.pdf [28] Sastry, T.S., & Kuppanna (1993) Pancasiddhantika of Varahamihira, with Translations and Notes, P.P.S.T. Foundation, Adyar, Madars. [29] Magli, G. (2016). The Role of Astronomy in the Anomalous Orientations of two Khmer State temples. arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.01473.

Information about this Article

Published on Wednesday 13th April, 2016 at 18:55:37.

. The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. (2016). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its role in the Planning of Architectures. PHILICA Article number 584 .

The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone . Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering MMSE Journal. Open Access, 2017, 10 (May), pp.1-12. ￿10.2412/mmse.20.89.933￿. ￿hal-01519183￿

HAL Id: hal-01519183 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519183 Submitted on 6 May 2017

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone 1 Amelia Carolina Sparavigna1, a

1 – Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy a – [email protected]

DOI 10.2412/mmse.20.89.933 provided by Seo4U.link

Keywords: architecture planning, history of architecture and engineering, satellite images, solar energy software.

ABSTRACT. In ancient cultures all over the world, summer and winter solstices and equinoxes had a great importance. These astronomical events had been widely considered in the planning of monuments and other architectures. But in the zone of the Earth delimited by the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, we can see another relevant event, the zenith passage of the sun. In this paper we will show that several examples are existing too, of the role of this astronomic event in the architectures of tropical zone. To evidence this role, we will use a software developed for the best solar energy management, which is showing azimuth and altitude of the sun on satellite maps.

Introduction. Zenith is the point of the celestial sphere which is vertically above an observer. Only in the area of the Earth, which is delimited by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, we can see the sun passing through the zenith. Anywhere outside the tropics, this is impossible. Therefore, in the tropical zone the sun has, besides the astronomical events of solstices and equinoxes, also two zenith passages. On the Tropical lines, only one passage is observed, coincident to one of the solstices. On the Tropic of Cancer for instance, it happens on the summer solstice. At the equator, the zenith passage is on the equinoxes. The zenith passage of the sun, being the moment when it passes through the top point of the sky, is easily observed using a gnomon, that is, by a straight vertical pole, because at that moment it casts no shadow on the ground. Or, if we have a deep water well, we can see the sun reflected at noon by the water at its bottom. Both these facts were well known to ancient people living in the tropical zone. And in fact, Eratosthenes (c.276 BC – c.195/194 BC) used them to calculate the circumference of the Earth [1]. Eratosthenes knew that at local noon on the summer solstice in Syene (the modern Aswan), the sun was reflected by the water of a deep well. By the shadow of a gnomon in Alexandria, he measured the angle of sun elevation at the noon on the same day and found it being 1/50th of a circle. Assuming that the Earth was a sphere and that Alexandria was due north of Syene, he concluded that the meridian arc distance from Alexandria to Syene was 1/50th of the Earth's circumference. From this distance, he evaluated the circumference of the Earth. Peoples all over the world recognized in the past as very important astronomical events the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes and celebrated them consequently. It is not surprising then that these astronomical events had been also considered in planning of monuments and other architectures, which are consequently displaying alignments with the direction of sunrise or sunset on these days. As evidenced by several examples [2-11], the planning of the architectonic structure becomes a symbolic local horizon, a microcosm representing the apparent motion of the macrocosm that, thorough the year, is revolving about its “axis mundi”, that is, the axis of the world.

1 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Magnolithe GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

In this paper we will discuss that several examples of the role of the zenith passage of the sun are also existing, displayed by some architectures of the tropical zone. To evidence the role of the zenith passage in the proposed examples, we will use a software developed for the best solar energy management, which is showing azimuth and altitude of the sun on satellite maps. The Zenithal Sun in America. As previously told, in the tropical zone, to solstices and equinoxes we have also to add, as relevant astronomic events, the zenith passage of the sun. And in fact, we can find that pillars and wells exist, used by people to observe what happens to light and shadows at the zenith passage of the sun. The people of pre-Columbian Mexico had a specific “astronomical instrument" to observe this passage: a vertical zenith sighting tube inserted in the vault of an underground structure. One of these instruments is at the observatory of Xochicalco, in the Mexican state of Morelos. The image in the Figure 1 (left) illustrates how it looks like the shaft of light passing through the ceiling of the artificial cave of Xochicalco. A vertical opening produces in a dark chamber a perfectly perpendicular beam of light, when the sun is passing through the local zenith. Besides the cave, at Xochicalco there is a white stone pillar in the ceremonial area that could had been used to observe the shadow disappearing when the sun reaches an altitude of 90 degrees (Figure 1, right).

Fig. 1. On the left: the image illustrates how it looks the shaft of light in a cave passing through a tube in its ceiling, when the sun has its zenith passage in the sky. On the right: a pyramid and the ceremonial pillar at Xochicalco, Mexico. Courtesy Maxtreiber, Wikipedia.

For Meso- and South America, several researchers have recognized and evidenced the importance of the zenithal sun [12-18]. In [19,20], it is stressed that among the ancient civilizations that recognized the zenith passage, we have also those of the Andean people of Peru, that incorporated it into their cosmology. The Andean people used pillars, such as the Chankillo Towers [18,21], for solar observations and for their calendars. Let us add to the pillar shown in the Figure 1, another monument that we can easily imagine the ancient architects had built to observe the zenithal sun and for related ceremonial purposes too: it is the Gate of the Sun at Tiwanaku (Figure 2). Being under the linter of this gate, an observer could see the shadow of it coincident to the base [22]. Tiwanaku is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia. The site was first described by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León. He came to the ruins of Tiwanaku in 1549, while searching for the Inca capital Qullasuyu [23]. During the time period between 300 BC and AD 300, Tiwanaku is thought to have been a ceremonial center for the Tiwanaku Empire to which people made pilgrimages.

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

Fig. 2. The Gate of the Sun at Tiwanaku.

The Zenithal Sun in Sri Lanka. The zenith passage was important also for people of Asia. And in fact, in [24], we have shown that the archaeological complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka has its axis oriented to the sunset of day of a zenith passage of the sun. Sigiriya is a huge palace built by King Kassapa I (477–495 CE) on the top of a granite rock, the Lion Rock [25,26]. This site is in the heart of Sri Lanka, dominating the neighboring plateau, inhabited since the 3rd century BC, and hosting some shelters for Buddhist monks. A series of galleries and staircases, having their origin from the mouth of a gigantic lion made of bricks and plaster, provide access to the ruins on the rock. From the satellite images, it is possible to see the site surrounded by a wall and the rock inside. At the summit of the rock, there is the fortified palace with its ruined buildings, cisterns and rock sculptures. At the foot of the rock we find the lower city surrounded by walls. The eastern part of it has not yet been totally excavated.

Fig. 3. The Sigiriya archaeological site in Sri Lanka. On the right, the Lion Rock. (Courtesy: Google Earth).

The Gardens of Sigiriya are an important characteristic of the site. They are divided into three distinct forms: the water gardens, the cave and boulder gardens, and the terraced gardens. The water gardens are in the central section of the western precinct. They were built according to an ancient garden form, of which they are the oldest surviving examples.

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

The design of these gardens is symmetrical, however the axis is not oriented along the cardinal east- west line: the site is inclined of 9 degrees, as we can easily measure from satellite maps (Figures 3 and 4). Since this angle is not negligible, it can correspond to a specific azimuth of the sunset, different from the direction it has on equinoxes.

Fig. 4. The direction of the sun on April 9, given by SunCalc.net, at Sigiriya. This site provides a diagram, overlaying a satellite map, showing the sunrise (yellow line) and sunset (red line) of the sun for any day of the year. As explained in SunCalc.net, the thin orange curve is the sun trajectory, and the yellow area describes the variation of sun trajectories during the year. “The closer a point is to the center, the higher is the sun above the horizon”. Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth.

Let us remember that the azimuth angle is formed by the vector from the observer to the sun rising or setting on the horizontal plane and a reference vector on this plane. There are several web sites that allow to know the azimuth and the noon altitude of the sun and moon at a specific location on a given day of the year. One is the site Sollumis.com. Using it, we can obtain at Sigiriya, the data for the noon altitude and sunset azimuths. We find that we have the zenithal sun on April 9 and on the First of September, and that the sunset azimuth on these day is coincident with the axis of the western gardens. In [24], we have shown this coincidence, also giving the satellite maps and the polar diagrams of the solar azimuths from Sollumis.com. Here we show in the Figure 4 the same by using SunCalc.net software. On the Tropic of Cancer. Let us consider the very important Buddhist religious center of Sanchi, India, because it has interesting astronomical orientations as discussed by N. Kameswara Rao [27]; the site possesses a particular alignment of stupas with the sunset direction on the summer solstice. Since Sanchi latitude is very close to the Tropic of Cancer, we have also that, on this day, the noon altitude of the sun is about 90 degrees. Therefore, the alignment of stupas is also giving the sunset direction of the day of the zenithal sun [28]. In the Figures 5 and 6, we see the Sanchi religious complex and the directions of sunrise and sunset on solstice. The first written mention of the passage through the zenith of the sun in Indian literature comes from Varahamihira in the 6th century [29,30], who noted that in the kingdom of Avanti the day of summer solstice and zenith passage were the same (the Avanti Kingdom of ancient India was described in the Mahabharata epic). He further discussed that north of Avanti, no zenith passage occurs. Varahamihira wrote these observations when he was in the ancient city of Ujjain, located at latitude of 23° 10′ 12″ N [29]. In fact, as observed in [29], the ancient India had a “prime meridian” and a north-south “zero” line of latitude crossing at Ujjain and running straight down to the island of Lanka.

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

Fig. 5. N. Kameswara Rao had investigated the orientation of Sanchi stupas [27], showing that they could had been planned to be oriented towards the moonrise and the sunset on the day of Buddha purnima (purnima means "full moon"), the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama. (Courtesy: Google Earth).

Fig. 6. The image shows the direction of the sunset on summer solstice as given by SunCalc.net. We find the alignment of two stupas along the sunset. Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth.

Angkor Wat. A very interesting paper is discussing the importance of the zenith passage of the sun in the architecture of the temples at Angkor Wat, Cambodia (Figure 7). The authors of this paper [29], Edwin Barnhart and Christopher Powell, University of Texas, Austin, in August of 2010 and 2011 investigated the importance of the zenith passage of the sun for the ancient Khmer culture. They concluded the research with a positive answer. "From architectural features and orientations to art panels and monuments, the evidence that zenith passage was recognized permeates the entire city" [29]. According to the authors, their idea "to search for evidence of zenith passage at Angkor” was inspired by prior research in Mesoamerica. In [29], besides discussing the discoveries at Angkor, the authors are proposing that the Hindu culture was also including some references to the zenith passage of the sun.

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

Fig. 7. On the left, aerial view of the central structure. Courtesy Shyam tnj, Wikipedia. On the right, the Angkor Wat surrounded by a moat used for helping stabilize the temple’s foundation [31]. Courtesy: Google Earth.

Fig. 8. Alignments on day of the summer solstice (upper panel) and on the day of one of the zenith passage of the sun (25 April). Courtesy: SuncCalc.net and Google Earth. The azimuth of the sunrise on the day of the zenithal sun is about 76.2 degrees.

Barnhart and Powell have discovered that Angkor temples had vertical zenith sighting tubes too. “Though it is not apparent from the outside, each one of the beehive shaped temples of Angkor are hollow on the inside. Walking in and looking straight up, the roof is open all the way up to the top and that top has a hole where the sun shines in. We were told by the temple attendants that the holes on top of the roofs were there because the capstones had all been knocked off by erosion or more commonly by looters searching for jewels. Finding these fallen capstones among the rubble around the temples was our first surprising clue. Most capstones were beautifully carved as lotus flowers and all had a hollow tube running down their axes. Each had a very straight, long tube that would have let only true zenith passage sun light down into the temples. Whether or not this was their intention, functionally this makes every single temple of this kind at Angkor a zenith tube” [29]. Besides the temples which are beautiful artificial caves for the zenithal sun, the authors have observed that this

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954 architectural possesses also alignments to mark the zenith passage at Angkor Wat. In the Figure 8, we can see two possible alignments. In the upper panel, it is given an alignment according to the sunrise on the solstice, the lower panel is according to the sunrise on a day of zenithal sun. The temples of Java. The temples we are considering for our discussion about the connection of the zenith passage of the sun and architecture are the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java. The Sewu temple, an eighth century Buddhist temple complex, is predating the nearby Rara Jonggrang, simply known as Prambanan, by over 70 years and the Borobudur by about 37 years. Prior to the construction of these temples, probably the Sewu temple served as the main temple of the kingdom [32]. Since Candi Sewu was built before the other two temples, we can suppose that it was a model for them, in particular for what concerns the number of ancillary temples and stupas (in Java, “candi” means “temple”).

Fig. 9. The zenith passage of the sun on 12 October 2016 at the Sewu temple complex. Courtesy SunCalc and Google Earth.

Fig. 10. The solstice and the other zenith passage on 28 February (or first of March, the Photographer’s Ephemeris software is giving for these days the same altitude of the sun) at the Sewu temple complex. Courtesy SunCalc.net and Google Earth.

The Sewu temple complex occupies a large rectangular area with the sides oriented along the cardinal directions (Figures 9 and 10). The complex has an entrance at each of the four cardinal points. The main entrance is located on the east side. The temple is composed of 249 buildings, arranged in a Mandala around the main central temple. Along the cardinal north-south and east-west axes of the complex, between the second and third rows of smaller buildings, we find the apit (flank) temples. The complex had a couple of apit for each cardinal direction; only the eastern couple is visible today. In the Sewu temple complex, the alignment marking the passage through the zenith of the sun is given by the central temple and one of the eastern apit temples [33]. The passage happens on 12 October

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

2016, and it is displayed by the SunCalc.net software as in the Figure 9. After the zenith passage of October, the sun reaches the solstice of December and then it has the other zenith passage at the end of February (or the first of March), as we can see in the Figure 10. Counting the days between 12 October 2016 and 21 December 2016, inclusive of both these dates, we have 71 days. From December 21 to the first of March 2017, we have a total of 71 days again. From the first of March to June 21, 2017, inclusive of these days, we have 113 days. Let us try to connect these numbers to the number of the temples in the complex. Actually, the first and the second rows of the Sewu temple, those inside the couples of the apit temples, are composed by 72 small ancillary temples (Perwara) (see Figure 11). It seems therefore that a connection of the even number of Perwara to the number of the days from the zenith passage of October to the solstice of December is possible.

Fig. 11. The central part of the temple contains the main temple and 72 ancillary temples.

Probably, the people who built the temple determined the zenith passage of the sun according to the observation of the stars. For instance, “one can see that a particular star would always rise at a certain point a few days before such or such a zenithal sun, hence it would be possible to know beforehand the exact date of any given sun.” [34,35] It means that 71 days are 72 nights (inclusive counting), and this legitimates the use of the corresponding even number, equal to the number of Perwara.

Fig. 12. The Prambanan temple as given by Google Earth.

A link between the number of ancillary temples and the number of the days from the zenith passage of the sun to the June solstice had been proposed for the Prambanan temple [36] (see the temple complex in the Figure 12). In [36], it is told that the temple complex of Prambanan had 224 ancillary

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954 temples, connected to the number of 112 days after or before the June solstice. In the case of the Sewu temple, it is the December solstice which is involved. It is not simple to determine the number of ancillary temples of Prambanan from the satellite images, because many of the smaller temples have been not yet restored. Let us follow the reconstruction suggested by the symmetry that the temple probably had and by the image we find in [37]. We have the Figure 13, in which we can see the 224 ancillary temples.

Fig. 13. Simulation of a satellite view of the reconstruction of the Prambanan temple, as proposed in [37].

Fig. 14. Borobudur in Google Earth.

It seems therefore that the Sewu temple and the Prambanan are linked to astronomy; the Sewu temple is connected to the sun moving about the December solstice, whereas the Prambanan is linked to the sun moving between the zenith passages about the June solstice. Let us consider the Borobudur temple too (Figure 14). Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. “The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa” [38]. Again, we have the number 72; as we have previously told, it is equal to the even number of the days passing from the zenith passage of October to the December solstice, and also from the December solstice to the zenith passage on the end of February or the first of March. It seems therefore that, for the people who built the temples, the astronomical year was based on periods of even numbers of days with an inclusive counting: 72 days from the zenith passage of the sun to the December solstice, and from this solstice to the zenith passage of the first of March. Then,

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954 there was another set of 112 days, from the zenith passage to the June solstice, and the same from this solstice to the zenith passage of October. Adding these periods we have a total of 368 days. However, the counting was inclusive, and then we have to remove some days. For instance, if we start the count from the zenith passage of the first of March, we have to remove one day for the other zenith passage and two days for the two solstices. We obtain 365 days. However, let us note that a religious interpretation of the seventy-two temples of the Sewu central structure exists, as for those of Borobudur. “Within the Buddhist Abhidharma philosophical schools, the Sarvāstivādins identified three unconditioned Dharmas whose nature is free from the laws of causation (asaṁskṛta) as well as 72 conditioned Dharmas (see Wayman 1997:269) which are subject to the laws of causation (saṁskṛta). So one might conjecture that these 72 auxiliary shrines had pertained to what Vilāsavajra had called the second circle of Mahāvairocana containing the divinities belonging to the perfectly pure Dharmadhātu of Vairocana” [39]. Let us just add a comment: it is possible that people observed a coincidence between religion and astronomy, and that the conditioned Dharmas were the days conditioned by the zenithal sun. Summary. The examples discussed above, provide evidence of the importance of the zenith passage of the sun. Many other sites had been discussed in literature and on web sites [40-50]. However, many others require further investigations for what concerns the astronomical alignment. References [1] Roller, D.W. (2010). Eratosthenes’ Geography, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691142678 [2] Hawkes, J. (1967). God in the Machine, Antiquity, 41(163), 174-180. DOI: 10.1017/s0003598x00033202 [3] Ray, T.P. (1989). The Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange, Ireland: Accident or Design? Nature, 337(6205), 343-345. DOI: 10.1038/342958c0 [4] Richards, J. C. (2007). Stonehenge: The Story So Far, English Heritage. ISBN: 9781905624003 [5] Sparavigna A.C. (2013). The Gardens of Taj Mahal and the Sun, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 104-107. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.346 [6] Sparavigna A.C. (2013). Solar Azimuths in the Planning of a Nur Jahan’s Charbagh, International Journal of Sciences, 2(12), 8-10. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.353 [7] Sparavigna A.C. (2015). Observations on the Orientation of Some Mughal Gardens. Philica Article number 455. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745160 [8] Sparavigna A.C. (2013). Sunrise and Sunset Azimuths in the Planning of Ancient Chinese Towns, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 52-59. DOI: 10.18483/ijsci.334 [9] Sparavigna A.C. (2014). Solstices at the Hardknott Roman Fort, Philica Article Number 442. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745184 [10] Sparavigna A.C. (2013). Astronomical Alignments of Ales Stenar Along Sunset and Moonset Directions, Philica Article Number 663. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2818991 [11] Sparavigna A.C (2015). Light and Shadows in Bernini’s Oval of Saint Peter’s Square, Philica Article number 540. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2742281 [12] Aveni A. (2001). Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, 2nd Edition. University of Texas Press. ISBN: 9780292775787 [13] Aveni, F., & Hartung, H. (1981). The Observation of the Sun at the Times of Passage through the Zenith in Mesoamerica, Archaeoastronomy (Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy), 12(3), S51-S70. Available at SAO/NASA (ADS) http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ full/1981JHAS...12...51A

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

[14] Broda, J. (2006). Zenith Observations and the Conceptualization of Geographical Latitude in Ancient Mesoamerica: A Historical and Interdisciplinary Approach. Proceedings of the Oxford Seven Conference in Archaeoastronomy, edited by Todd Bostwick and Bryan Bates. Pages 183-212. ISBN: 1882572386 [15] Freidel, D., Schele, L., & Parker, J. (1993). Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow Paperbacks. ISBN: 9780688140694 [16] Mendez, A., & Karasik, C. (2014). Centering the world: zenith and nadir passages at Palenque. Archaeoastronomy and the Maya, 97. Draft available at http://www.academia.edu/2368146/ Centering_the_World [17] Mendez, A., Barnhart, E.L., Powell, C., & Karasik, C. (2005). Astronomical Observations from the Temple of the Sun. Archaeoastronomy, Vol. XIX, pp. 44-73. University of Texas Press. [18] Ghezzi, I., & Ruggles, C. (2007). Chankillo: a 2300-year-old solar observatory in coastal Peru. Science, 315(5816), 1239-1243. DOI: 10.1126/science.1136415 [19] Bauer, B., & Dearborn, D. (1995). Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes, University of Texas Press. ISBN: 9780292708372 [20] Urton, G. (1981). At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky, University of Texas Press. ISBN: 9780292704046 [21] Sparavigna, A. C. (2012). The solar towers of Chankillo. arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.3580. [22] Kolata, A.L. (1993). The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 9781557861832 [23] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its role in the Planning of Architectures. Philica, Article number 584. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2767664 [24] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka. arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.2853. Published in International Journal of Sciences, 2013, 2(11), 60-62 DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [25] Senake Bandaranayake, & Madhyama Saṃskr̥ tika Aramudala (2005). Sigiriya: City, Palace, Gardens, Monasteries, Painting (Sri Lanka), Central Cultural Fund. University of Michigan. [26] Benille Priyanka (2005. Meaning of the Sigiriya Paintings: Based on Recent Archaeological Evidence, Godage International Publishers. ISBN: 9552086051 [27] Kameswara Rao, N. (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Buddhist stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India, 20, 87-98. Available at SAO/NASA (ADS) http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1992BASI...20..243R [28] Sparavigna, A. C. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments, Philica article number 543. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2761841 [29] Barnhart, E., & Powell, C. The Importance of Zenith Passage at Angkor, Cambodia. Available at web site www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/angkorzenithpassage.pdf [30] Kuppanna Sastry, T. S. (1993). Pancasiddhantika of Varahamihira, Critically Edited, with Introduction and Appendices by K.V. Sarma. Foundation, Adyar, Madars. Available at https://archive.org/details/ PanchaSiddhantika [31] Jarus, O. (2014). Angkor Wat: History of Ancient Temple, Live Science, October 8, 2014. Available at the site www.livescience.com/23841-angkor-wat.html [32] Dumarçay, J. (2007). Candi Sewu and Buddhist architecture of Central Java, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. ISBN: 9789799100887

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017 – ISSN 2412-5954

[33] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Sewu Temple and the zenithal passage of the sun. Philica Article number 970. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920127 [34] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). A Short Note about the Zenithal Sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur Temples in Java. Philica Paper number 972. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920124 [35] The Zenithal Sun. Available at http://www.4-ahau.com/en/Zenithal_Sun.html [36] Levenda, P. (2011). Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java, Nicolas-Hays, Inc., page 104, and references therein. ISBN: 9780892541690 [37] Java Heritage Tour, Layout Candi Prambanan. Retrieved February 12, 2017, http://www.javaheritagetour.com/the-beautiful-of-prambanan-temple/layout-candi-prambanan/ [38] Vv. Aa. (2017). Borobudur, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur [39] Long, M. E. (2015). An Eighth-century Commentary on the Nāmasaṅgīti and the Cluster of Temples on the Prambanan Plain, in Central Java. NALANDA–SRIWIJAYA CENTRE, Working Paper Series, No.20 (Nov 2015). [40] Malmström, V. H. The Site of Izapa, Retrieved February 22, 2017, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/izapasite.html [41] Malmström, V. H. (1997). Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN: 978-0292751972 [42] Aveni, A. F., & Linsley, R. M. (1972). Mound J, Monte Alban: possible astronomical orientation. American antiquity, 528-531. DOI: 10.2307/278959 [43] Macoowan, K. (1945). The orientation of Middle American sites. American Antiquity, 11(2), 118-118. DOI: 10.2307/275663 [44] Apenes, O. (1936). Possible derivation of the 260 day period of the Maya calendar. Ethnos, 1(1), 5-8. DOI: 10.1080/00141844.1976.9980453 [45] Aveni, A. F., & Gibbs, S. L. (1976). On the orientation of precolumbian buildings in central Mexico. American Antiquity, 510-517. DOI: 10.2307/279020 [46] Dearborn, D. S., & Schrieber, K. J. (1986). Here comes the sun: the Cuzco-Machu Picchu connection. Archaeoastronomy, 9, 15. [47] Gullberg, S. R. (2010). Inca solar orientations in southeastern Peru. Journal of cosmology, 9, 2078-2091. [48] Aveni, A. F., Milbrath, S., & Lope, C. P. (2004). Chichén Itzá's legacy in the astronomically oriented architecture of Mayapán. Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 45(1), 123-143. DOI: 10.1086/resv45n1ms20167624 [49] Mendez, A., & Karasik, C. (2014). Centering the world: zenith and nadir passages at Palenque. Archaeoastronomy and the Maya, 97. [50] INAH (2008). Astronomical Value of Mexican World Heritage Sites, Analysed. Available at http://www.inah.gob.mx/en/4383-astronomical-value-of-mexican-world-heritage-sites-analyzed

MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz 18th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 970.

The Sewu Temple and the zenithal passage of the sun

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Politecnico di Torino

Abstract : The Sewu temple is an eighth century Buddhist temple complex in Java. The layout of the complex is a Mandala, oriented along the cardinal lines. Using ephemeris software, we discuss a connection of the architecture to the zenithal passage of the sun.

Keywords : Archaeoastronomy, Zenithal Passage of the Sun, SunCalc, Photographer’s Ephemeris, Satellite Images.

The Sewu temple is an eighth century Buddhist temple complex located 800 meters north of Prambanan in Java. The original name of this temple was probably Manjusrigrha, that is, the House of Manjusri, a Bodhisattva symbolizing the "gentle glory" of the transcendent wisdom [1]. Manjusrigrha was the largest Buddhist temple in the Prambanan region, predating the nearby Rara Jonggrang, simply known as Prambanan, by over 70 years and the Borobudur by about 37 years. Prior to the construction of these temples, probably the Sewu temple served as the main temple of the kingdom [1]. The Sewu temple is located on a plain, between the Merapi volcano and the Sewu mountain range, in central Java. This area possesses many archaeological sites, scattered only a few miles apart. As told in [1], this fact is suggesting that this land served as an important religious and urban center. For a very long time, the Sewu complex was buried by the volcanic debris of Mount Merapi. Nevertheless, the local people knew its existence, being the ruins of the temple the subject of tales and legends [1]. In 1908, Theodoor van Erp, a Dutch army engineer officer, initiated the clearing and reconstruction of the main temple [2]. Today, the temple complex is not yet completely restored [1].

Figure 1: The East entrance to the temple complex, guarded by the twin statues of Dvarapala (Courtesy Street View Google Earth).

The Sewu temple complex occupies a large rectangular area with the sides oriented along the cardinal directions. The complex has an entrance at the four cardinal points. The main entrance is located on the east side. Each of four entrances was guarded by twin statues of Dvarapala, armed guardians looking like fearsome

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920127 18th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 970. giants (Figure 1). In the Sewu temple complex there are 249 buildings, arranged in a Mandala around the main central temple. This layout is displaying the Mahayana Buddhist view of the universe [1]. Along the cardinal north-south and east-west axes of the complex, between the second and third rows of smaller buildings, we find the apit (flank) temples [1]. The complex had a couple of apit for each cardinal direction; only the eastern couple is visible today. The central main temple, which is the largest one, has the ground plan consisting in a cross-shaped 20-sided polygon [1]. The cross-like layout, aligned along the four cardinal directions is made of four structures projected outward the main temple; each structure has its own stairs and entrances, and is crowned with stupas [1].

Figure 2: Sewu temple seen by Google Earth.

The layout of the temple complex, based on the four cardinal lines, is evident from the Figure 2. In previous papers [3-6], we have shown that some structures, having a rectangular layout with the sides oriented along the cardinal directions, can have references to the motion of the sun too. That is, we can observe alignments along the sunrise and sunset on solstices. In their planning, the architectonic structures become a symbolic local horizon, a microcosm which is representing the apparent motion of the macrocosm that, thorough the year, is revolving about its “axis mundi”, the axis of the universe [3-6]. In the case of the Sewu temple, we do not see an evident alignment to solstices. However this temple has another remarkable alignment, an alignment along the sunrise on the days of the zenithal passage of the sun. Only in the tropical zone of the Earth, which is located in between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, we can see the sun reaching the zenith. Anywhere outside tropics, this is impossible. Inside the tropical zone then, the sun has, besides the astronomical events of solstices and equinoxes, also two zenithal passages. On the Tropical lines, only one passage is observed, coincident to one of the solstices. Like the alignments on solstices are relevant in architectures (see for instance [7-11]), we can find in the tropical zone some allusions to the zenithal passage of the sun (see for instance [12] and references therein). Examples of alignments along the sunrise on the days of the zenithal passage exist in the temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia [13] and in the archaeological complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock of Sri Lanka [14]. For Angkor Wat, “from architectural features and orientations to art panels and monuments, the evidence that zenith passage was recognized permeates the entire city" [15]. In the Sewu temple complex, the alignment is given by the central temple and one of the eastern apit temples. Here in the following two images, the passage through the zenith of the sun on 12 October 2016 is displayed by

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920127 18th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 970. the SunCalc.net software. We can determine the date of this passage using the Photographer’s Ephemeris for instance, a software used for planning outdoor photography.

Figure 3: The zenithal passage of the sun on 12 October 2016 (Courtesy SunCalc.net). The yellow straight line gives the direction of the sunrise, the red line of the sunset. As explained in SunCalc.net, the thin orange curve is the sun trajectory, and the yellow area describes the variation of sun trajectories during the year. “The closer a point is to the center, the higher is the sun above the horizon”.

Figure 4: The zenithal passage on 12 October 2016 (Courtesy SunCalc.net): a detail.

Figure 5: The solstice and the other zenithal passage on 28 February (or first of March, the Photographer’s Ephemeris is giving for these days the same altitude of the sun).

After the zenithal passage of October, the sun reaches the solstice of December and then it has the other zenithal passage at the end of February (Figure 5).

18th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 970.

Let us note that, counting the days between 12 October 2016 and 21 December 2016, inclusive of both these dates, we have 71 days. From December 21 to the first of March 2017, we have a total of 71 days again. From the first of March to June 21, 2017, inclusive of these days, we have 113 days. Let us try to connect these numbers to the number of the temples in the complex. Actually, the first and the second rows of the Sewu temple, those inside the couples of the apit temples, are composed by 72 small ancillary temples (Perwara) (see Figure 6). It seems therefore that a connection of the number of Perwara to the number of the days of the zenithal passage of the sun is possible.

Figure 6

The link between the number of ancillary temples and the number of the days from the zenithal passage of the sun to the June solstice had been proposed for Prambanan [16]. In [16], it is told that the temple complex of Prambanan has 224 ancillary temples, connected to the number of 112 days after or before the June solstice. In the case of the Sewu temple, it is the December solstice being involved. It seems therefore that, for the people who built the temples, the astronomical year was based on periods of even numbers of days with an inclusive counting: 72 days from the zenithal passage of the sun to the December solstice, and from this solstice to the zenithal passage of the first of March. Then, there was another set of 112 days, from the zenithal passage to the June solstice, and the same from this solstice to the zenithal passage of October. Adding these periods we have a total of 368 days. However, the counting was inclusive, and then we have to remove some days. For instance, if we start the count from the zenithal passage of the first of March, we have to remove one day for the other zenithal passage and two days for the two solstices. We obtain 365 days. It seems therefore that the Sewu temple and the Prambanan are linked to astronomy; the Sewu temple is connected to the sun moving about the December solstice, whereas the Prambanan is linked to the sun moving between the zenithal passages about the June solstice.

References [1] Vv. Aa. (2017). Wikipedia, Sewu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewu [2] Dumarçay, J. (2007). Candi Sewu and Buddhist architecture of Central Java, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. [3] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). The Gardens of Taj Mahal and the Sun, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 104-107. [4] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). Solar Azimuths in the Planning of a Nur Jahan’s Charbagh, International Journal of Sciences, 2(12), 8-10. [5] Sparavigna, A. C. (2015). Observations on the Orientation of Some Mughal Gardens. Philica Article number 455. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745160

18th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 970.

[6] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). Sunrise and Sunset Azimuths in the Planning of Ancient Chinese Towns, International Journal of Sciences, 2(11), 52-59. [7] Ray, T.P. (1989). The Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange, Ireland: Accident or Design? Nature, 337(6205), 343-345. [8] Richards, J. C. (2007). Stonehenge: The Story So Far. English Heritage. [9] Sparavigna, A. C. (2014). Solstices at the Hardknott Roman Fort, Philica, Article Number 442. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2745184 [10] Sparavigna, A. C (2015). Light and Shadows in Bernini’s Oval of Saint Peter’s Square. Philica, Article number 540. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2742281 [11] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). Roman Towns Oriented to Sunrise and Sunset on Solstices. SSRN. DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2777118 [12] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its Role in the Planning of Architectures. Philica, Article number 584. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2767664 [13] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex. Philica, Article number 591. [14] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka. Int. J. Sciences, 2(11), 60-62. [15] Barnhart, E. & Powell, C. The Importance of Zenith Passage at Angkor, Cambodia, http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/angkorzenithpassage.pdf [16] Levenda, P. (2011). Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java, Nicolas-Hays, Inc., page 104, and references therein.

19th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 972.

A short note about the zenithal sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Politecnico di Torino

Abstract : The layouts of the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java are probably linked to the passage through the zenith of the sun, as we can see counting the number of ancillary temples and stupas we find in them.

Keywords : Archaeoastronomy, Zenithal Passage of the Sun, SunCalc, Photographer’s Ephemeris, Satellite Images.

In [1], we have discussed the Sewu temple, an eighth century Buddhist temple complex of Java. We have seen that the layout of the temple is a Mandala, oriented along the cardinal lines. Using ephemeris software, we can easily see that there is a connection of the architecture to the zenithal passage of the sun [2]. We found an alignment along the sunrise on the days of the zenithal passage. Moreover, the temple has in the first and second rows of the Mandala a number of ancillary temples, seventy-two, which is also the even number of the days passing from the zenithal passage of October to the December solstice (inclusive of the mentioned days), and also from the December solstice to the zenithal passage on the end of February (or first of March) [3]. In the Figure 1, we can see the temple and the seventy-two ancillary temples.

Figure 1: The Sewu temple and the 72 ancillary temples (Perwara).

As told in [4], the Sewu temple is predating the nearby Rara Jonggrang, simply known as Prambanan, by over 70 years and the Borobudur by about 37 years. Prior to the construction of these temples, probably the Sewu temple served as the main temple of the kingdom [5]. Since Candi Sewu was built before the other two temples, we can suppose that it was a model for them, in particular for what concerns the number of ancillary temples and stupas (in Java, “candi” means “temple”). In fact, a link between the number of ancillary temples and the number of the days from the zenithal passage of the sun to the June solstice had been proposed for the Prambanan temple [6]. In [6], it is told that the temple complex of Prambanan had 224 ancillary temples, connected to the number of 112 days after or before the June solstice. In the case of the Sewu temple, it is the December solstice being involved. It is not simple to determine the number of ancillary temples of Prambanan from the satellite images, because many of the smaller temples have been not yet restored. Let us follow the reconstruction suggested by the symmetry that the temple probably had and by the image we find in [7]. We have the Figure 2.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920124 19th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 972.

Figure 2: On the left we see the Prambanan temple as given by Google Earth. On the right, a reconstruction of it made by the author.

Let us consider the Borobudur temple (Figure 3). As told in [8], Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. “The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa” [8].

Figure 3: Borobudur in Google Earth.

Again, we have the number 72, that, as we have previously told, is equal to the even number of the days passing from the zenithal passage of October to the December solstice, and also from the December solstice to the zenithal passage on the end of February or the first of March. May be, for the people who built these temples (Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur), the astronomical year was based on periods of even numbers of days (or nights, see [3]) with an inclusive counting: 72 days from the zenithal passage of the sun to the December solstice, and from this solstice to the zenithal passage of the first of March. Then, there was another set of 112 days, from the zenithal passage to the June solstice, and the same from this solstice to the zenithal passage of October. Adding these periods we have a total of 368 days. However, the counting was inclusive, and then we have to remove some days. For instance, if we start the count from the zenithal passage of the first of March, we have to remove one day for the other zenithal passage and two days for the two solstices. We obtain 365 days.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920124 19th February, 2017, PHILICA Article number 972.

It seems therefore possible that the temples here mentioned are linked to astronomy, the Sewu and the Borobudur temples are connected to the sun moving about the December solstice, whereas the Prambanan is linked to the sun moving between the zenithal passages about the June solstice. However, let us note that there is a religious interpretation of the seventy-two temples of the Sewu central structure, as for those of Borobudur. “Within the Buddhist Abhidharma philosophical schools, the Sarvāstivādins identified three unconditioned Dharmas whose nature is free from the laws of causation (asaṁskṛta) as well as 72 conditioned Dharmas (see Wayman 1997:269) which are subject to the laws of causation (saṁskṛta). So one might conjecture that these 72 auxiliary shrines had pertained to what Vilāsavajra had called the second circle of Mahāvairocana containing the divinities belonging to the perfectly pure Dharmadhātu of Vairocana” [9]. In fact, it is possible that people observed a coincidence between religion and astronomy, and that the conditioned Dharmas were the days conditioned by the zenithal sun [10].

References [1] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Sewu Temple and the zenithal passage of the sun. PHILICA Article number 970. [2] Let us remember that only in the tropical zone of the Earth, which is located in between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, we can see the sun reaching the zenith. Anywhere outside tropics, this is impossible. Inside the tropical zone then, the sun has, besides the astronomical events of solstices and equinoxes, also two zenithal passages. On the Tropical lines, only one passage is observed, coincident to one of the solstices. [3] Actually, the number of the days determined using ephemeris software are 71. However, as told in http://www.4-ahau.com/en/Zenithal_Sun.html, for ancient people it was possible to determine the zenithal passage according the observation of the stars. “Through the constant observation of the sky, one can see that a particular star would always rise at a certain point a few days before such or such a zenithal sun, hence it would be possible to know beforehand the exact date of any given sun.” It means that 71 days are 72 nights (inclusive counting), and this legitimates the use of the corresponding even number. [4] Vv. Aa. (2017). Wikipedia, Sewu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewu [5] Dumarçay, J. (2007). Candi Sewu and Buddhist architecture of Central Java, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. [6] Levenda, P. (2011). Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java, Nicolas-Hays, Inc., page 104, and references therein. [7] Java Heritage Tour, Layout Candi Prambanan. Retrieved February 12, 2017, http://www.javaheritagetour.com/the-beautiful-of-prambanan-temple/layout-candi-prambanan/ [8] Vv. Aa. (2017). Borobudur, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur [9] Long, M. E. (2015). An Eighth-century Commentary on the Nāmasaṅgīti and the Cluster of Temples on the Prambanan Plain, in Central Java. NALANDA–SRIWIJAYA CENTRE, Working Paper Series, No.20 (Nov 2015). [10] In http://www.buddhadellamedicina.org/en/insegnamenti/borobudur, it is told (in Italian) that the Borobudur temple was built “nel luogo dove Buddha manifestò il Mandala di Kalachakra e insegnò il «Tantra della Ruota del Tempo» al Re indonesiano Suchandra. … Non si conosce esattamente la data di inizio dei lavori, ma si presume che sia avvenuta intorno al 750 d.C. Venne voluto da un sovrano della dinastia Sailendra, che chiamò a corte diversi yogi particolarmente ferrati nelle arti astrologiche e tantriche, quali l’architetto Guna Dharma, che stabilì il luogo, la congiunzione astrologica e la disposizione nelle quattro direzioni (anzi nelle 10 direzioni, considerando le 4 principali, le 4 intermedie e le 2 «zenit e nadir»).” That is, the site is telling that the temple was built where Buddha manifested the mandala of Kalachakra and taught the "Tantra of the Time Wheel" to the Indonesian King Suchandra. … We do not know exactly the date when its construction began, but it is presumed occurred around 750 A.D. It was built by a king of the Sailendra dynasty, who called to his court several yogis particularly versed in astrology and tantric arts, such as the architect Guna Dharma, who established the place, the astrological conjunction and the layout along the four cardinal directions (in fact, in the ten directions, considering the four main directions (cardinal), the four intermediate and the two "zenith and nadir" directions.

Borobudur Temple Courtesy Reggaelooper https://pixabay.com/photos/borobudur-temple-mini-macro-model-1593390/ The Ruins of the Buddhist Temples in the Progo Valley, Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Described by Isaac Groneman in his Book of 1912. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Ruins of the Buddhist Temples in the Progo Valley, Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Described by Isaac Groneman in his Book of 1912.. Philica, Philica, 2017. ￿hal-01674399￿

HAL Id: hal-01674399 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01674399 Submitted on 2 Jan 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés.

The Ruins of the Buddhist Temples in the Progo Valley, Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Described by Isaac Groneman in his Book of 1912.

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)

Published in enviro.philica.com

Abstract Here we discuss the book entitled Ruins of Buddhistic Temples in Praga Talley: Tyandis Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon (available at archive.org/details/ ruinsofbuddhisti00gronrich), written by Isaac Groneman and published by H.A. Benjamins, Semarang, in 1912. We discuss in particular the Groneman s observations concerning the orientation of the temples, in reference to the path of the sun, and the descriptions of the statues, in particular those concerning the mudras of Buddha. As a reader can easily see, the Groneman s book is an outstanding report about the temples of Mendut, Pawon and Borobudur. It is essential for anyone who is studying the temples, not only for the scholars, but also for those persons which are fascinated by the Javanese antiquity.

Keywords: Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy.

Isaac Groneman was a physician in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia, who wrote many publications on Javanese culture and antiquity. After the medical studies, in 1858 he left his homeland for the Dutch East Indies and became the sultan's physician. Once in Java, Groneman was fascinated by the traditional Javanese culture, and by the Hindu-Javanese monuments. He became the President of the Yogyakarta Archaeological Society [1], and was involved directly in the excavation of the Prambanan temple near Yogyakarta.

Isaac Groneman had a profound interest for the religious context of Candi Borobudur [1]. He considered Borobudur as a Buddhist sanctuary, obtaining support by King Chulalongkorn, at that time on his way to Java heading to explore civilization [1]. Groneman invited the king to Borobudur and this was "the beginning of friendship on the way to understanding the ancient Javanese heritage" [1]. And then, we find King Chulalongkorn mentioned in Groneman's book of 1912, published by H.A. Benjamins, Semarang. The book is entitled "Ruins of Buddhistic temples in Prägä valley: Tyandis Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon" (available at archive.org/details/ ruinsofbuddhisti00gronrich). In the title we find the word "tyandi", that is "candi", "temple".

The book is a remarkable discussion of the three temples, which are linked by a ritual relationship and by an alignment of the sites. The temples of Mendut and Pawon are thought to have been early purification temples for pilgrims going to Borobudur [2]. On the Vesak Day, a procession along the alignment of the temples goes from Mendut to Borobudur. In his book, Groneman is following the same approach, and the first temple he discusses is Candi Mendut.

Here we report only a few of the remarkable observations made by Groneman. The reader finds them quoted in the following sections. I am reporting in particular the discussions concerning the orientation of the temples, in reference to the path of the sun, and the descriptions of the mudras of the statues of Buddha. Actually, as discussed in [3-5], the Borobudur temple can be linked to the zenith passage of the sun, and to the zenith is referring a mudra of some of the Buddha’s statues at Borobudur. To conclude this introduction, let us stress that the Groneman’s book is an outstanding report about the temples of Mendut, Pawon and Borobudur. This book is therefore essential for anyone who is studying these temples, not only for the scholars but also for the persons fascinated by the Javanese antiquity.

Tyandi Mendut

The description of Mendut starts from an observation. "The first striking thing we see is that, in contravention to almost all other buddhistic buildings, the frontage of these ruins have not been placed opposite to the East, the sunrise, but strange enough, opposite to the Northwest”. This Groneman’s observation leads us to consider that the entrance of the temple is facing the processional walkway to Borobudur. Probably, the walkway started from a royal palace further east of Mendut.

The Mendut temple possesses two sculptures before the entrance. To the left, the sculpture represents a princess in a garden of fruit-trees, with a baby at her breast, and many children all round. To the right, we see “an Indian, — not buddhistic — prince with much more children in such another garden”. The children have a crescent of the moon on the hind part of their heads, but, as observed by Groneman, “both the children and their parents miss everything that might have spoken of a buddhistic character”. Groneman tells that there are Dutch scholars who suppose the prince to be the Buddha's father and the woman to be the Buddha's mother. However, a different explanation of the sculptures was provided by the “buddhistic king of Siam”, Chulalongkorn. Before giving the king’s explanation, Groneman continues the description of the gigantic images we can see in this temple.

Inside the temple we find an altar-shaped throne, and on the throne sits a colossal Buddha statue, dressed in the manner of the southern Buddhists, having uncovered his right shoulder and arm. The hands before his breast have the posture (mudra) of the Mahayanists, that is, the followers of the "Big Carriage" (Great Vehicle). Groneman explains that this is the posture that the followers “of the northern church, generally (not always) give to the first of their five Dhyani-Buddhas”.

In the Mendut temple, to the right of Buddha, we see a buddhistic prince seated on a throne, which is richly decorated with nagas, lions, and elephants. He wears the monk's hood and a small Buddha image in his crown. This characterises him as a Buddhist. The other prince that we see opposite him, to the left of the Buddha, seating on an equally rich throne, doesn't wear a monk's hood. This characterises him as not buddhistic prince. The two kings wear the prabha, or disk of light, on the back of their heads. The Siam's king, who visited Mendut in 1896, interpreted the images as follow. One of the princes, who is wearing, “like he does himself, a Buddha image in his crown,” was “perhaps the king of the buddhistic empire, under whose reign the Barabudur was built”. Further the King supposed the other images to represent the not-buddhistic father and predecessor. The explanation of the king “became so comprehensible and logical to me – tells Groneman - that I could not but accept and defend it against others, and so I came to the hypothesis that the ashes of the two kings (but certainly the son's ashes) must have been buried in this tyandi”.

Shailendra dynasty

A description of Mendut is given in [6], where we find that the temple was built around early ninth century AD. Mendut is the oldest of the three temples, so it was built before Pawon and Borobudur [6]. From the Karangtengah inscription, we known that the temple was built and finished during the reign of King Indra of Sailendra dynasty. The inscription is dated 824 AD. It is telling that King Indra “built a sacred building named Venuvana”. The name means "bamboo forest". Archaeologist JG de Casparis has connected the temple mentioned in Karangtengah inscription with the Mendut temple [6,7].

The Shailendra dynasty was the name of an Indonesian dynasty that emerged in 8th century Java, whose reign marked a cultural renaissance in the region [8,9]. As told in [8], Shailendras were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism and covered the Kedu Plain, also known as Probo Valley, of the Central Java, with several Buddhist monuments. One is the colossal stupa of Borobudur. The Shailendras are considered to be a thalassocracy, that ruled the maritime Southeast Asia [8]. But they have also promoted intensive rice cultivation on the Kedu Plain.

In [8] we can find that it is suggested that Shailendra was a native Javanese dynasty, and that the Sanjaya dynasty was a branch of the Shailendras. So the members of the Shailendra family were initially the rulers of the Medang Kingdom. As we can read in [8], the association of Shailendra with Mahayana Buddhism began after the conversion of Panaraban or Panangkaran to Buddhism. The Tale of Parahyangan tells that the King Sanjaya ordered his son, Rakai Panaraban or Panangkaran, to convert to Buddhism, “because their faith in Shiva was feared by the people in favor of the pacifist Buddhist faith” [8]. Actually, this is in agreement to the King Chulalongkorn’s observation.

Tyandi Pawon

After a detailed discussion of Mendut, Groneman continues describing Pawon. Leaving Mendut behind us, we cross shortly after a small iron bridge built over the river Elo. Then, after having been ferried over the Progo river, and moving westwards, we arrive at the “little dukuh of Brajanala … where we see the very small tyandi Pawon before our having turned into the broad kenari-avenue which leads” to Barabudur. Groneman tells that in the past this tyandi had been pulled down and afterwards rebuilt again. Its name, which means "kitchen", is “clear enough to make us understand how the Javanese would have shown the striking contrast between this small temple and the other more extensive one, as if it were a kitchen compared with a mansion or temple”. Then Groneman explains why the temple was pulled down and then rebuilt.

The small ruin that Groneman sees has some conformity to the many grave temples, which are surrounding the main temple of Candi Sewu, in Prambanan valley. “But this conformity is not a perfect one”. At Pawon, we find a small square room with a small porch, “we enter by means of some narrow treads flanked by the Garuda-Naga ornament, but this room is empty and unadorned”. Shallow niches exist in each sidewall, in correspondence of the place where “once may have stood a pedestal and image”. Like in Candi Mendut, Groneman explains that the niches may have been used to light the inner-part of the temple.

According to Groneman, this temple was a mausoleum built to receive an urn containing the ashes of a guru or monk. As in the case of Mendut, Groneman observes that “It is an extraordinary thing that even the entrance of this incontestably true buddhistic temple had not been made on the east side but to the west”. Again we find an observation on the orientation of the temple. As we have already mentioned, this temple is on the processional walkway to Borobudur.

Borobudur Temple in 2013 (Courtesy 22Kartika, Wikipedia)

Tyandi Barabudur

“After having walked through the umbrageous kenari-avenue and the village of Bara … we shall arrive within half an hour at the hill upon which we see stand the pasanggrahan, and the colossal ruin”. It is an “enormous mass of stone gradually developing itself in majestic lines and forms, in all the terraces, following each other in a regular range of succession till we see rise in their centre the high cupola now covered again by a cone with three sun- shades”.

It is a pilgrimage site and then “He who would approach this dagob to sacrifice his flowers to the Buddha, … was obliged to mount all these terraces, and walk along these sculptures”. During this walk, the pilgrim can find in the temple a “revival of the Buddha and his doctrine”, which is showing how to reach the nirvana, the “infinite not-to-be as the end purpose of all life, and the deliverance of all the miseries of a sensual existence”. And then, let us follow, as Groneman did, “the way the pilgrim took, and mount the hill which carries this heavy mass of stone”. So Groneman starts the discussion of first terrace of the temple.

Then we arrive to the doorways.

Four doorways are present in the structure, which are leading to stairs, that according to Groneman are the weak points of the architecture. At the foot of the doorway, there are naqa-heads, that “ended into outward turned mythical monster-heads which, at first sight remind us of elephants rather than of snake-like animals”. Wilhelm von Humboldt and other European examiners, like the Dutch scholar Leemans, considered these monstrous figures as elephant's heads, “without perceiving however, that they changed into serpent's bodies when seen on the side- posts of the doorways”. Also Groneman had been misguided himself, and defended this error against the King of Siam. But the King succeeded in convincing him, by logical argumentation, that the naga represents a power inimical to Buddhism. The monster, according to the Siam opinion, is Rahu “who also tries to devour the sun during every eclipse”. Very interesting this observation linking the temple to astronomy.

As explained in [10], eclipses are battles between Rahu and the Sun, Surya. The myth referring to these battles concerns the amrita, the nectar of immortality, produced by the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. After this nectar has been prepared, it is distributed to the gods, the devas. In [10], it is told that Rahu. an asura (semi-god), sitting among the gods, was able to drink the amrita. But this fact was observed by Surya and Chandra, the Moon, and Visnu was alerted. Visnu decapitated Rahu. Having drunk “just a bit of the amrita”, only Rahu’s head was made immortal while his body died. It is the head of Rahu that attacks the Sun during the eclipses. The head swallows it, but Rahu has no body to digest the sun, and then the eclipse ends and the sun appears again [10].

After reporting the King’s observation on Rahu, Groneman continues describing the first gallery. We see that the two walls of the gallery are decorated with imageries which are richly framed. An “uninterrupted band of exquisite festoons has been affixed above these sculptures under the cornice of the back-wall. … On the back wall we see similar temple-groups, but all of them, even the small niche-temples, are crowned with dagobs and cones”. Moreover we see rosettes and guirlandes with birds. On the five encircling walls of Borobudur, “we see no less than 432 niches provided with Buddha-images … We now turn to the left in order to begin our walk along the sculptures of the upper series of the back-wall. This wall is … showing us a comparatively well explained row of following events which give us an idea about the life of the Buddha Siddharta, Gautama, the Shakyamuni, from beginning to end”.

Image courtesy https://pixabay.com/it/users/reggaelooper-3002941/

Here we find a remarkable observation. “Let us begin our walk to the left of the eastern staircase in order to return to our starting-point following the course of the sun of the northern hemisphere (29), going through the South, West and North. This order of succession regulated after this sun, we always find back on these and other Hindu ruins; more or less a witness of the northern origin of Javanese Buddhism”. In the note (29), Groneman tells that he was the first (in 1887) to observe this link to the apparent course of the sun seen by the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. “It is an important fact to those who believe the Buddha a sun-god”. Let us stress that Candi Borobudur is placed in the tropical zone and therefore the path of the sun during the year is different from that observed in the northern hemisphere at latitudes above the Tropic of Cancer [3-5]. Therefore, the direction of the pilgrimage is honouring the northern origin of Buddha. For moving to reach the top of the monument, also the King of Siam followed this direction.

“For convenience' sake, and in order to assist the visitor in finding” the sculptures, Groneman counts them “from the preceding staircase or from the first till the ninth wall-angle, and begin with the eastern staircase”. And then Groneman starts discussing the scenes related to Buddha’s life.

The discussion of all the other statues continues in the Chapters VIII and IX.

In Chapter X we arrive at the top of the monument, where we find three circular terraces. On the first “we see stand 32 open worked dagobs or tyaityas; on the second there are 24, -and on the third and highest 16, so altogether 72. And within this circle rises the majestic middledagob as the only real dagob or stupa representing the leading idea, the final purpose of the whole ruin”. We can also admire the surrounding mountainous landscape. The valley of Progo river lies westward “at the foot of mount Menoreh, … and, to the east, of the high twin volcanoes Merbabu and Merapi, and, to the north, of the Sumbing, the highest volcano of this part of Central Java”.

Image Courtesy Pandu Adnyana, Wikipedia.

Mudras of Buddha

I found the book of Groneman when searching for some discussion about the statues of Buddha and the fact that they have different mudras, that is, positions of the hands, linked to North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass points according to Mahayana. As told by Wikipedia [11], at Borobudur, "the first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which the Buddha statues that face one compass direction have the corresponding mudra. Buddha statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represents one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own symbolism". The reference given for this discussion is [12].

In the Chapter XI we find what Groneman tells about the statues representing Buddha. We can see that all the statues are in a sitting posture with crossed legs, “almost in the same posture the Javanese call sila, but upright”. The statues are dressed with a thin mantle uncovering their right arms and shoulders. They have the tiara, the round hair-knot, “on their heads all covered with short curls. Even the urna, the little tuft of hair on their fronts is still to be seen on many a sculpture, and on the other ones, less accurately hewn, they are forgotten”. For what concerns the posture of all the statues, Groneman notes that it is showing resignation and peace, “and may speak of the later final dissolving in the nirvana, the joy and painless not-to-be”.

About the mudras of the statues of Buddha we find a detailed discussion.

"Among the sculptures placed opposite the five zones of heaven, the East, South, West and North and the Zenith, there is to be seen a slight difference in the posture of the right hands, and something more difference in the posture of the two hands with regard to those sculptures we see on the round terraces”.

All the sculptures on the five encircling walls have their left hands in their laps, with the palm on the right foot. Then Groneman describes in details the corresponding postures of the hands, the mudras. For what concerns the sculptures of the open worked tyaityas on the three round terraces, the statues raise their two hands before the epigastric region, “the left one with the palm and the bent finger-tips in an upward direction, the right one with the palm to the left and the fingers bent over those of the other hand”. Moreover, these statues “all miss the glory”. One of the 72 statues of Buddha in open worked tyaityas on the three round terraces. Photographer Giovanni Boccardi. For the UNESCO Connected Open Heritage project.

Groneman tells that there is still another sculpture, unique of its kind. It had been found in the middle-dagob. It is a Buddha image corresponding in size to all other sculptures, but the posture of the hands “tallied with those on the eastern lower walls”. After a discussion about this specific statue, Groneman distinguishes the statues into three groups: 1. 432 Buddhas in the open temple- niches on the five encircling walls, which are seated on lotus-thrones and crowned with glories. 2. 72 Buddhas in the open worked tyaityas on the three round terraces, without any glory or lotus- throne. 3. The only Buddha of the large dagob entirely sequestered, without glory or throne.

Groneman is then mentioning Wilhelm Von Humboldt, telling that he was the first who considered five of the six Buddhas, to be the representations of the five Dhyani-Buddhas. “Especially in the posture of the hands there is some conformity between five of the six Barabudur-images and the five Dhyani-Buddhas such as we see them hewed in Asia”. Moreover Groneman is mentioning Alfred Foucher.

According to Foucher, there are seven groups of mudras. They are: 1) the bhunisparsya mudra (East); 2) the vara-mudra (South); 3) the dhyani-mudra (West); 4) the abhaya-mudra (North); 5) in the 64 niches on the fifth and highest wall the vitarka-mudra (the gesture of discussion); and among the 72 cupolae of the 3 circular terraces, 6) the dharma-tyakra-mudra (mark of distinction). Finally, we find the only sculpture from the wholly closed dagob, hewed in the bhumi-sparsya- mudra. After referring about these mudras, Groneman stresses that a slight difference exists between Foucher's ideas and his own ideas, which are supported by the observations of King Chulalongkorn.

Let us conclude our article on the Groneman’s book - a book essential for anyone who is studying Borobudur - as he concluded his discussion on the mudras. He tells that in Borobudur, we can find Buddha hewed as preacher, “preaching the doctrine to all people, and consequently towards all the regions of heaven”. According to Groneman the fact that this preaching preacher “has been placed upon the highest wall” of the monument is easy to understand, because the preaching of the doctrine is the highest expression of Buddhism, “and possibly referred to both the world of the four zones of heaven and to the one of the celestials in the zenith”.

References [1] http://borobudurpark.com/en/borobudur-colonial-period/ Retrieved 30 December 2012. . [2] Norbert C, Brockman. Encyclopedia of Sacred Places, 2nd Edition. Pag.59. . [3] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). A short note about the zenithal sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java. PHILICA Article number 972. Published on February, 2017. . [4] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering MMSE Journal. Open Access, 2017, 10 (May), pp.1-12. Also available at https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519183v1 [5] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur. PHILICA Article number 1197. Published on 25th December, 2017. . [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendut Retrieved 30 December 2017. [7] Daigoro Chihara (1996). Hindu-Buddhist architecture in Southeast Asia. p. 125. Retrieved 30 December 2017. [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shailendra_dynasty Retrieved 30 December 2017. [9] Zakharov, Anton O. (August 2012). The Sailendras Reconsidered (PDF). Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Singapore. [10] Deepak Sarma, Contributor Huffintonpost. When Rahu Swallows the Sun: The Eclipse According to One Hindu Myth, Published 17 August 2017. . [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur Retrieved 30 December 2017. . [12] Roderick S. Bucknell & Martin Stuart-Fox (1995). The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism. UK: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-0234-2.

Information about this Article Published on Sunday 31st December, 2017 at 16:44:01.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Ruins of the Buddhist Temples in the Progo Valley, Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Described by Isaac Groneman in his Book of 1912.. PHILICA Article number 1204. The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur. Philica, Philica, 2017. ￿hal-01677101￿

HAL Id: hal-01677101 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01677101 Submitted on 8 Jan 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés.

The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)

Published in enviro.philica.com

Abstract Here we discuss the link of the 72 stupas on the top platform of the Borobudur temple to the number of days between the solstice and the zenith passage of the sun. This link is strengthened by the recent find of an alignment of Borobudur and the satellites Mendut and Pawon temples, along the sunset azimuth on the day of zenith passage of the sun, proposed by G. Magli in arXiv.

In some previous papers [1-8], I have discussed alignments to sunrise/sunset azimuths on the days of the zenith passage of the sun, for architectural complexes in the tropical zone. In [1], I considered Sigiriya, the Lion Rock in Sri Lanka. I showed that the main axis of this archaeological complex is aligned along the sunset azimuth on the two days of zenith passage of the sun. Also in the case of the Buddhist complex of Sanchi [2], which is at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer, we have an alignment along the sunset of the day of zenith passage, the summer solstice (the solstice alignment was found by Kameswara Rao [9]). At the Mesoamerican sites of Tula and Chichen Itza [8], again, we have alignments along the sunset azimuth of the zenith passage of the sun (the alignment of Chichen Itza is well-known and was discussed in [10,11]).

Of the temples of Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur in Java, I wrote in [5-7]. In [5], it is discussed in particular the Sewu temple, an eighth century Buddhist temple complex of Java. The layout of the temple is a Mandala, oriented along the cardinal lines. Using ephemeris software, we can easily see that there is an alignment along the sunrise on the days of the zenith passage. Moreover, the temple has in the first and second rows of the Mandala a number of ancillary temples, seventy-two, which is also the even number of the days passing from the zenithal passage of October to the December solstice (inclusive of the mentioned days), and also from the December solstice to the zenithal passage on the end of February (or first of March).

The Sewu temple is predating the nearby Rara Jonggrang, simply known as Prambanan, by over 70 years and the Borobudur by about 37 years. Prior to the construction of these temples, probably the Sewu temple served as the main temple of the kingdom [12]. Since Candi Sewu was built before the other two temples, we can suppose that it was a model for them, in particular for what concerns the number of ancillary temples and stupas (in Java, “candi” means “temple”). Let us consider the Borobudur temple (Figure 1), one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. “The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa” [13]. In the Figure 1 (right panel), we can see the 72 stupas on the top platform of the temple.

Figure 1: Borobudur (left image, Courtesy Gunawan Kartapranata; right image, Courtesy Google Earth).

Again, we have the number 72; as we have previously told, this number is equal to the even number of the days passing from the zenithal passage in October to the December solstice, and from the December solstice to the zenithal passage on the end of February or first of March. In fact, in [6], I stressed the possibility that the number of the ancillary temples or stupas in the temples of Sewu, Prambana and Borobudur, had a calendrical link to the path of the sun.

In [13], where the Candi Borobudur is discussed, we can find another important evidence for the link of the 72 stupas to the zenith of the sun. The link is concerning the mudras of the statues of Buddha. "At first glance, all the Buddha statues appear similar, but there is a subtle difference between them in the mudras, or the position of the hands. There are five groups of mudra: North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass points according to Mahayana. The first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which the Buddha statues that face one compass direction have the corresponding mudra. Buddha statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represents one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own symbolism" [13].

Another link to the zenith passage of the sun is an alignment of three temples, Borobodur and the satellites Mendut and Pawon temples, along the sunset azimuth on the days of zenithal sun, alignment proposed by G. Magli in arXiv [14]. In [13], we read that "During the restoration in the early 20th century, it was discovered that three Buddhist temples in the region, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, are positioned along a straight line. A ritual relationship between the three temples must have existed, although the exact ritual process is unknown". In [14], G. Magli has proposed that the line indicated the azimuth of the sunset on the days of zenithal sun (let us note that, for the line of the three temples, an alignment along sunrise was proposed too in [15]). It is easy to test the alignment proposed by Magli using software such as SunCalc.org for instance. Using date 12 October, as in [6], we can see the alignment as in the Figure 2. Actually, SunCalc.org and the Photographer's Ephemeris give this day for the zenith passage.

Figure 2: The alignment of the three temples along the sunset on a day of zenith passage of the sun, obtained by means of SunCalc.org.

For what concerns the architecture of Borobudur, let me add to the references also the very interesting article [16] on the algorithm used for building the temple.

References [1] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka, arXiv:1311.2853, published in the International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 11, Pages 60-62. DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [2] Sparavigna, A. C. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments. PHILICA Article number 543. Published on 22nd November, 2015. [3] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and its role in the Planning of Architectures. PHILICA Article number 584. Published on 13th April, 2016. [4] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex. PHILICA Article number 591. Published on 23rd April, 2016. [5] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Sewu Temple and the zenithal passage of the sun. PHILICA Article number 970. Published on 18th February, 2017. [6] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). A short note about the zenithal sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java. PHILICA Article number 972. Published on February, 2017. [7] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering MMSE Journal. Open Access, 2017, 10 (May), pp.1-12. Also available at https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519183v1 [8] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza. PHILICA Article number 1162. Published on 18th November, 2017. Also available at https://hal.archives- ouvertes.fr/hal-01649936v1 [9] Kameswara Rao, N. (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Buddhist stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India 20:87-98. [10] Vv. Aa. (2017). Passage of the Sun, WHS. Available at http://www.worldheritagesite.org/connection/Passage+of+the+Sun [11] Mendez, A., Barnhart, E. L., Powell, C., & Karasik, C. (2005). Astronomical Observations from the Temple of the Sun. Available at http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/observations_temple_sun.pdf [12] Dumarçay, J. (2007). Candi Sewu and Buddhist architecture of Central Java, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. [13] Vv. Aa. (2017). Borobudur, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur Retrieved on 25 December 2017. [14] Magli, G. (2017). Archaeoastronomy of the Sun path at Borobudur. arXiv:1712.06486 (Submitted on 18 Dec 2017). [15] Long, M., & Voute, C. (2008) Borobudur: Pyramid of the Cosmic Buddha , Printworld, NY. [16] Situngkir, H. (2105). Borobudur was Built Algorithmically. BFI Working Paper Series, WP082010. arXiv:1508.03649 (Submitted on 13 Aug 2015).

Information about this Article Published on Monday 25th December, 2017 at 17:47:18.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur. PHILICA Article number 1197. Chichén Itzá Courtesy Makalu https://pixabay.com/photos/mexico-chichén-itzá-pyramid-3774303/ The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza. Philica, Philica, 2017. ￿hal-01649936￿

HAL Id: hal-01649936 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01649936 Submitted on 28 Nov 2017

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

(Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)

Abstract Using software SunCalc.org we can easily observe the alignments of buildings along the direction of the sunset on the day of the zenith passage of the sun, at two Mesoamerican sites. These sites are those of Tula and Chichen Itza.

The tropics are the regions of the Earth that lie between the latitude lines of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. In this zone of the Earth, we have the opportunity to see the zenith passage of the sun, that is, we can see the sun passing at noon directly overhead. The zenith passage happens on two days in the year. These days depend upon the latitude of the place of observation. Let us note that, at the Tropic of Cancer, the zenith passage happens on the day of the June solstice and at the Tropic of Capricorn on that of the December solstice; at the equator, the zenithal sun is observed on the two equinoxes.

When the sun passes overhead, the shadows of objects and persons disappear. As explained in [1], the days when this happens assume a sacred significance for the people that live and lived within the tropics. "A number of legends identify it as a time when the way is open into the upper world" [1]. In some Guatemalan villages, the two dates of zenith passage, which are coincident to the period of rains, are marked by ancient rituals. Also in ancient Hawai’i - Ref.1 explains - the zenith passage of the sun was a moment of great sacred power.

Being the zenith passage so important for people in the tropical zone [2-8], it is not surprising that we can find it evidenced by the local architectures too [3,9-13]. We have, for instance, that some monuments possess a "zenith tube" at their apex [10,14]. It is a vertical sighting tube inserted in the vault of the structure , which produces in a dark chamber a perfectly perpendicular beam of light when the sun is at the local zenith. Alignments of monuments are also possible: we observed them at Sanchi, India [15,16], at the Lion Rock in Sri Lanka [17], at Angkor Wat [18] and at the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur Temples in Java [19,20].

Alignments of the monuments in the Mesoamerican site of Chichen Itza are well known [21,22]. "El Castillo appears to be oriented so that the west plane of the pyramid faces the "Zenith passage" [21]. Here we show this alignment using software SunCalc.org and satellite images. This software is an online application used to "to ascertain the sun movement with interactive map, sunrise, sunset, shadow length", and other data. About the use in archaeoastronomy for the simulation of shadows by means of SunCalc.org, we discussed in [23]

Before observing the alignment of El Castillo, let us consider the site of Tula. Here we show the alignment of the Palacio Quemado (the Burnt Palace) along the sunset on the day of the zenith passage of the sun. In this manner, we can add the site of Tula to the other sites where a worship of the zenithal sun existed.

The site of Tula. Tula was an important regional center, that became the capital of the Toltec Empire in the period between the fall of Teotihuacan and the rise of Tenochtitlan [24]. The site is close to the city of Tula de Allende. "The main attraction is the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl which is topped by four, four metre high basalt columns carved in the shape of Toltec warriors … The feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl is linked to this city, whose worship was widespread from central Mexico to Central America at the time the Spanish arrived" [24]. The pyramid of Quetzalcoatl is also known as the pyramid of the Morning Star [25]. The other main structures of the site include another pyramid, two Mesoamerican ballcourts and several large buildings. One of them is the Palacio Quemado (the Burnt Palace) [25]. If we used the SunCalc.org software, we can see that the Palacio Quemado has an orientation along the sunset on the two days of the zenith passage of the sun. The Figure 1 is a screenshot of the result given by the software. We see two lines giving the directions of sunrise and sunset. We have also the curve representing the apparent motion of the sun in the sky. When this line is passing through the site, it means that at noon the sun passes through the zenith. In the Figure 1, we can see that the sunset direction corresponds to the long axis of the Palace.

Figure 1: Alignment of the Palacio Quemado (Tula) along the sunset on the day of the zenith passage of the sun.

Influence of Tula. In [24], we find mentioned that there is evidence of Tula influence in other parts of Mesoamerica [26]. "One of the most debated questions is what, if any, relationship there might be between Tula and Chichen Itza far to the south in the Yucatan Peninsula". This debate exists because there are similarities in various art and architectural styles. "It is certain that neither could have conquered the other, but there is evidence that they may have been connected through trade networks " [26]. Ref.24 tells also that the planning of Tula was adopted by some Aztec city-state rulers for their urban centers [26].

After observing the Figure 1, we can add the alignment along the sunset of the zenithal sun as a link to the architecture of Chichen Itza.

Chichen Itza. It was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people. The archaeological site is located in the Yucatan. As told in [27], the site displays several architectural styles, "reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the Northern Maya lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion" [27].

We have mentioned above one of the monuments of the site, El Castillo. It is the Temple of Kukulkan, a Maya deity represented as a feathered serpent similar to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl. It has the form of a step pyramid, consisting of a series of nine square terraces. This pyramid was superimposed to an old temple [27,28]. In the Figure 2, we see a screenshot of software SunCalc.org. We see the alignment mentioned in [21,22].

Figure 2: Alignment of El Castillo (Chichen Itza) along the sunset on the day of the zenith passage of the sun.

Conclusion. Here we have shown the peculiar alignment of El Castillo at Chichen Itza using software SunCalc.org and satellite images. By means of this software, we can find that another Mesoamerican site, that of Tula, exists where a building is aligned along the sunset on the day of the zenith passage of the sun. This building is the Palacio Quemado. This reference to the zenithal sun is an architectural aspect which is notably linking the two Mesoamerican sites.

References [1] Vv. Aa. (2017). Zenith Passage of the Sun. At http://what-when-how.com/ancient-astronomy/zenith- passage-of-the-sun/ [2] Aveni, A. (2001). Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, 2nd Edition. University of Texas Press. [3] Aveni, A., & Hartung, H. (1981). The Observation of the Sun at the Times of Passage through the Zenith in Mesoamerica. Archaeoastronomy (Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy 12), 3, S51-S70. [4] Broda, J. (2006). Zenith Observations and the Conceptualization of Geographical Latitude in Ancient Mesoamerica: A Historical and Interdisciplinary Approach. Proceedings of the Oxford Seven Conference in Archaeoastronomy, edited by Todd Bostwick and Bryan Bates. [5] Freidel, D., Schele, L. & Parker, J. (1993). Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow Paperbacks. [6] Mendez, A., & Karasik, C. (2014). Centering the world: zenith and nadir passages at Palenque. Archaeoastronomy and the Maya, 97. Draft available at http://www.academia.edu/2368146/Centering_the_World [7] Malmström, V. H. (2014). Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization, University of Texas Press. [8] Selin, H. (2008). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Springer Science & Business Media. [9] Aveni, A. F., Milbrath, S., & Lope, C. P. (2004). Chichen Itza's legacy in the astronomically oriented architecture of Mayapan. Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 45(1), 123-143. [10] Barnhart, E., & Powell, C. The Importance of Zenith Passage at Angkor, Cambodia. Available at web site www. mayaexploration. org/pdf/angkorzenithpassage. pdf. [11] Šprajc, I. (2004). Astronomical Alignments in Río Bec Architecture. Archaeoastronomy, 18, 98-107. [12] Aveni, A. F., & Gibbs, S. L. (1976). On the orientation of precolumbian buildings in central Mexico. American Antiquity, 41(4), 510-517. [13] Aveni, A. F. (1981). Tropical archaeoastronomy. Science, 213(4504), 161-171. [14] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone . Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering MMSE Journal. Open Access, 2017, 10 (May), 1-12. Available HAL, hal-01519183 [15] Kameswara Rao, N. (1992). History of Astronomy: Astronomy with Buddhist stupas of Sanchi, Bull. Astr. Soc. India 20:87-98. [16] Sparavigna, A.C. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments. Philica article number 543. [17] Sparavigna, A.C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka. arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.2853. Published in International Journal of Sciences, 2013, 2(11):60-62 DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [18] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex (April 23, 2016). PHILICA, Article number 591. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2769261 [19] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Sewu Temple and the Zenithal Passage of the Sun (February 18, 2017). PHILICA Article number 970. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920127 [20] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). A Short Note About the Zenithal Sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur Temples in Java (February 19, 2017). PHILICA Paper number 972. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2920124 [21] Vv. Aa. (2017). Passage of the Sun, WHS. Available at http://www.worldheritagesite.org/connection/Passage+of+the+Sun [22] Mendez, A., Barnhart, E. L., Powell, C., & Karasik, C. (2005). Astronomical Observations from the Temple of the Sun. Available at http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/observations_temple_sun.pdf [23] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Role of the Shadows in a Bronze Age Stone Circle (October 14, 2017). SSRN e-Journal. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3053130 [24] Vv. Aa. (2017). Tula (Mesoamerican site), in Wikipedia. At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tula_(Mesoamerican_site) [25] Vv. Aa. (2017). Tula, The Temple Trail. At http://thetempletrail.com/tula/ [26] Smith, M. E. (2007). Tula and Chichen Itza: Are we Asking the Right Questions?. Twin Tollans: Chichen Itza, Tula and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, 579-617. Available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/1-CompleteSet/MES-07-TulaChichen.pdf [27] Vv. Aa. (2017). Chichen Itza, in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza [28] Willard, T.A. (1941). Kukulcan, the Bearded Conqueror : New Mayan Discoveries. Hollywood, California: Murray and Gee. OCLC 3491500.

Information about this Article Published on Saturday 18th November, 2017 at 19:00:34.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. C.(2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza. PHILICA Article number 1162. Burma Myanmar Rangoon Temple Courtesy dMz https://pixabay.com/photos/burma-myanmar-rangoon-temple-803442/ The Shwedagon Pagoda and the Zenith Passage of the Sun Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Shwedagon Pagoda and the Zenith Passage of the Sun. Philica, Philica, 2018. ￿hal-01700519￿

HAL Id: hal-01700519 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01700519 Submitted on 4 Feb 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés.

The Shwedagon Pagoda and the Zenith Passage of the Sun

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)

Abstract Here we discuss the orientation of the Shwedagon Pagoda, the gilded stupa situated on Singuttara Hill in Yangon, Myanmar, and a possible link with the sunrise on the days of the zenith passage of the sun. These days are also linked to the Festival of the Full Moon of the month of Kason, the second month of the traditional Burmese calendar. In Myanmar, this is the festival of the Vesak Day of Buddha.

The Shwedagon Pagoda, also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda or the Golden Pagoda, is a gilded stupa situated on Singuttara Hill, in Yangon, Myanmar. This Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Myanmar. Wikipedia tells that historians and archaeologists consider the pagoda built by the Mon people between the 6th and 10th centuries AD [1]. However, a tradition exists which is telling that the Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,600 years ago. In this manner, the Golden Pagoda would be the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world [2]. This tradition is described in detail at the web site [3].

As explained in [3], the pagoda's beauty derives from the geometry of its shape and of the surrounding structures and by its golden glow (see Figures 1 and 2). The pagoda rises 99 m on the Singuttara Hill (51 m), above the city. The stupa is plated with solid gold bars. Its tip is set with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and other gems and golden bells. At the very top, there is a single 76- carat diamond.

Figure 1: The south-eastern side of Shwedagon Pagoda. Image Courtesy: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

Figure 2: A monk is walking on the facade. Image Courtesy: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

For what concerns the architecture of this temple, Ref.3 is telling that, from an aerial view of it (Figure 3), we can see that the Stupa has four small pagodas “at the 4 cardinal point" [3], 64 pagodas encircling the base, a plinth, terraces and an octagonal base. Actually, as we can see from the figure, the complex is not cardinally oriented.

Figure 3: Shwedagon Pagoda in Google Earth.

Wikipedia [4] explains that the temple has four entrances, each leading up a flight of steps to the platform on Singuttara Hill. These entrances are guarded by a pair of giant leogryphs, the chinthe. It is customary to circumnavigate Buddhist stupas in a clockwise direction. "In accordance with this principle, one may begin at the eastern directional shrine, which houses a statue of Kakusandha, the first Buddha of the present kalpa (Sanskrit word meaning an aeon). Next, at the southern directional shrine, is a statue of the second Buddha, Konagamana. Next, at the western directional shrine, is that of the third Buddha, Kassapa. Finally, at the northern directional shrine, is that of the fourth Buddha, Gautama" [4]. In [5], we can find more details on the temple and the statues and shrines we can find there.

In [3], we read that the many religious festivals linked to the Myanmar lunar calendar are drawing people to pagodas. Among the most important festivals mentioned in [3] we find the Festival on the Full Moon Day of the Myanmar month Tabaung (February-March), and the Myanmar New Year Festival in April. We find also the Buddha Day Festival, known as Kason Festival, in the month of Kason (April-May). The Festival of the Kason Full Moon day is the Vesak Day in Myanmar. During this festival, people "carry earthen pots filled with water and flowers to offer to banyan trees, in memory of the Buddha. Legend goes that the holiday falls on the hottest day of the year. Buddhists in Burma use water to cool off and protect the holy tree, under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment" [6]. Let us note that Kason is popularly called the water-pouring month.The Kason Festival marks the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha (Vesak)[7]. This day is more universally known as Vesak, and is celebrated in countries where Buddhism is widely practised, such as India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

It is remarkable that, in Myanmar, the Vesak holiday is considered “the hottest day of the year”. However, what is, symbolically, the hottest day of the year? For the tropical zone, we can imagine it as a day of zenith passage of the sun. In some previous papers [8-16], we have discussed that the layout of the architectures of tropics can show some links or even alignments along the directions of sunrise/sunset on the days of the zenith passage of the sun. Therefore, let us consider again the image in the Figure 3, and try to investigate if we can find in this layout of the Shwedagon complex a link to the zenithal sun and, consequently, a link to the “hottest day of the year”, that popularly, in Myanmar is the day of the Kason Festival.

As we have already told, the Shwedagon complex has not the main axes aligned along the north- south and east-west directions. These axes have an angle of about 16 degrees from the cardinal axes. So AB axis in the Figure 3 is not aligned along the direction of sunrise/sunset on equinoxes. It corresponds to a sunrise azimuth of 74 degrees. In Yangon, this is the azimuth of the sunrise on the days from the First of May to May 3 (according to software sollumis.com). From May 3 to May 12, the noon altitude of the sun is greater than 89 degrees.

Using another software, the SunCalc.org software that, like sollumis.com, is an online application which can be used to ascertain the sun movement with an interactive map, we can see that we have the zenith passage of the sun on May 7 (the other day of zenith passage is August 5). So we can tell that AB axis of the Shwedagon temple is aligned along the sunrise of the first day of a period during which the sun has an altitude equal or greater than 89 degrees. That is, symbolically, it could be the first of the hottest days of the year. Now, let us consider the Full Moon Day of Kason. In 2018, it will be on 29 April [17]. Using SunCalc.org, for April 29, we obtain the Figure 4. We see that axis AB in Figure 3 is practically coincident with the direction of the sunrise on the Kason Day 2018 (sunrise azimuth 75 degrees).

In 2017, the Kason Day was on May 10 [18], and in 2016 it was on May 20. Since the Festival is determined by the full moon, its date changes year after year. Of course, the directions of the sunrise on these days are rather different, and therefore, we cannot have a specific alignment according to the Festival. But, since the lore goes that the Full Moon of Kason is linked to “the hottest day of the year”, we can conclude telling that the temple complex of the Shwedagon Pagoda was probably planned with an alignment along the direction of the sunrise on the day which represent the beginning of the period of the hottest days of the year, that is, the period during which we have the zenith passage of the sun.

Figure 4: Sunrise direction on the day of the Kason Festival, 29 April 2018 (Courtesy SunCalc.org).

References [1] Pe Maung Tin (1934). The Shwe Dagon Pagoda. Journal of the Burma Research Society. 1–91. [2] Hmannan Mahayazawindawgyi. The Great Glass Palace Chronicle. Royal Historical Commission of Burma. 1832. [3] http://www.shwedagonpagoda.com/index.htm [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shwedagon_Pagoda [5] Billinge, T (2014). Shwedagon Paya. The Temple Trail. Retrieved 2014-12-29. [6] https://www.irrawaddy.com/lifestyle/vesak-day-rangoon.html [7] http://www.buddhanet.net/vesak.htm [8] Sparavigna, A. C. (2013). The Solar Orientation of the Lion Rock Complex in Sri Lanka, arXiv:1311.2853, published in the International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 11, Pages 60-62. DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.335 [9] Sparavigna, A. C. (2015). On the alignment of Sanchi monuments. PHILICA Article number 543. Published on 22nd November, 2015. [10] Sparavigna, A. C. (2016). Solar Alignments of the Planning of Angkor Wat Temple Complex. PHILICA Article number 591. Published on 23rd April, 2016. [11] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Sewu Temple and the zenithal passage of the sun. PHILICA Article number 970. Published on 18th February, 2017. [12] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). A short note about the zenithal sun and the Sewu, Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Java. PHILICA Article number 972. Published on February, 2017. [13] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering MMSE Journal. Open Access, 2017, 10 (May), pp.1-12. Also available at https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519183v1 [14] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at the Mesoamerican Sites of Tula and Chichen Itza. PHILICA Article number 1162. Published on 18th November, 2017. Also available at https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01649936v1 [15] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun at Candi Borobudur. PHILICA, Article number 1197. [16] Sparavigna, A. C. (2017). The Ruins of the Buddhist Temples in the Progo Valley, Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Described by Isaac Groneman in his Book of 1912. PHILICA Article number 1204. [17] https://www.officeholidays.com/countries/myanmar/index.php [18] https://evisa.moip.gov.mm/public_holiday.aspx

Information about this Article

Published on Monday 29th January, 2018 at 22:39:09.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A.C. (2018). The Shwedagon Pagoda and the Zenith Passage of the Sun. PHILICA Article number 1233. The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

To cite this version:

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia. Philica, Philica, 2018. ￿hal-01712828￿

HAL Id: hal-01712828 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01712828 Submitted on 19 Feb 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés.

The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

(Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)

Published in enviro.philica.com

Abstract In this article we show that the Monumental Axis of Brasilia is oriented along the sunrise direction on the days during which it happens the zenith passage of the sun. This fact could be a mere coincidence. However, since the plan of the town is considered as highly symbolic, this alignment could have been intended as a good omen for the town, to reach the zenith of prosperity and power.

Brasilia is the federal capital of Brazil, founded on April 21, 1960. The capital was planned by Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer designed its civic buildings, and Roberto Burle Marx was the landscape architect. In 1957, an international jury selected the layout proposed by Costa, in spite of the fact that his plan was not as detailed as the plans presented by other architects. It “was chosen by five out of six jurors because it had the features required to align the growth of a capital city" [1,2]. The initial plan proposed by Costa was transformed over time, but most of its features have survived [2].

In [2], the item of Wikipedia is telling that the foundation of Brasilia, as a “representation of the conquest of an extensive region in Brazil” inspired the symbolism of the plan. In it, Costa used a cross-axial design to indicate “the possession and conquest of this new place” [2,3]. The cross is made by the two principal components of the plan, the Monumental Axis and the Residential Axis (Figures 1 and 2). The Monumental Axis was designated for the political and administrative activities. For the design of the residential apartment blocks, inspiration came form Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse of 1935 and from the superblocks on the North American Radburn layout, 1929 [4,2].

Figure 1. Brasilia as seen from the International Space Station (Courtesy NASA).

Figure 2. Brasilia from Google Earth, oriented as in the Pilot Plan drawn by Lucio Costa.

The crossed layout of the town is often described as a dragonfly, an airplane or a bird [1,2]. In the framework of an architectural perspective, the airplane-shaped plan was certainly an homage to Le Corbusier [2]. About the symbolism of Costa's design of Brasilia, we find other information in [5]. There, it is told that in the cross of the town, besides the above-mentioned symbols, some scholars have also found "a reference to the cross of the early Portuguese conquerors, the bow and arrow of the native populations of Brazil, or the jet shape as a symbol for future innovation" [6]. In the case of the bow and arrow, the arrow is the Monumental Axis and the bow the Residential Axis.

In both the items of Wikipedia, [2] and [5], it is told that the Monumental Axis "points east to west", but this orientation is not that of the cardinal points of the compass. In the satellite images, the Monumental Axis is forming with the cardinal North-South direction an angle of about 108 degrees. 107 degrees is the angle of the azimuth of the sunrise on the days of the zenith passage of the sun, that is, of those days during which the sun reaches the zenith (Figures 3 and 4). These days are February 5 and November 5 (Brasilia is between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and there the sun has two zenith passages). Actually, the Axis is so large that, if we observe the sunrise from its western end, we can see the sun at the other end of the avenue (see the simulation obtained by means of Google Earth in the Figure 5).

Figure 3: Using SunCalc.org, we can determine the zenith passages of the sun. Here it is shown the sunrise direction on February 5 (yellow line). The red line represents the direction of the sunset. The shaded area contains the apparent motion of the sun during the year.

Figure 4: A detail of the orientation, from SunCalc.org.

Figure 5: Simulation of the sunrise on February 5, observed from the western end of the Axis (TV tower and buildings included).

In the tropical zone, the zenith passage of the sun had influenced the ancient architectures [7]. Therefore, we can consider that also the plan of Brasilia was influenced by the sun and its zenith passage. Of course, the fact that the directions of the Axis and of sunrise are so close could be a mere coincidence; however, since the plan of Brasilia is considered as having a highly symbolic meaning, the alignment of the Monumental Axis could have been intended as a good omen for the future life of the town, that of reaching the zenith of prosperity and power.

References [1] Epstein, David (1973). Brasilia: Plan and Reality: a study of planned and spontaneous urban development. University of California Press. ISBN 0520022033. OCLC 691903. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasília [3] Wong, Pia (1989). Planning and the Unplanned Reality: Brasilia (Master of City Planning, 1988). IURD Working paper series. 499. University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Urban & Regional Development. OCLC 21925988. [4] Deckker, Thomas (2016). Brasília: Life Beyond Utopia. Architectural Design. 86 (3): 88–95. doi:10.1002/ad.2050. ISSN 1554-2769. [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lúcio_Costa [5] Barnitz, Jacqueline, & Frank, Patrick (2015). Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition. University of Texas Press. p. 188. ISBN 9781477308042. [6] Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering Journal, 10 (May), 1-12.

Information about this Article Published on Wednesday 14th February, 2018 at 20:33:04.

The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. C. (2018). The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia. PHILICA. Article number 1242.