How to Use stupa in a Sentence

stupa

noun
  • Bi Ma places some pine sprigs in the fireplace of a stupa—a Buddhist shrine—and sets them alight.
    Jason Motlagh, Marie Claire, 18 Jan. 2018
  • The stupa is believed to mark the spot where Buddha preached his sermon at Deer Park.
    Antonia Neubauer, Town & Country, 5 Oct. 2016
  • In Ladakh, that might mean building stupas, small piles of ice that last through dry seasons.
    National Geographic, 9 Dec. 2019
  • And there are new additions to the collection on view for the first time such as a bell from Indonesia in the shape of a stupa.
    Roger Catlin, Smithsonian, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Since Wangchuk invented the ice stupa in 2013, he's been teaching villagers in Ladakh how to build their own.
    Rasha Aridi, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Nov. 2021
  • And a sculptural depiction of a stupa, carved in relief on a limestone panel, opens the show.
    Holland Cotter, New York Times, 21 July 2023
  • Wangchuk and his students built their first ice stupa in November 2013.
    National Geographic, 16 June 2020
  • One of the oldest stone structures in India, the stupa covering was built to shelter the remains of a Buddha.
    Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 8 Apr. 2021
  • This is one of the more surprising finds in Bangkok, hidden away in the back of Wat Arun, far from the busy riverfront and scenic main stupa, a major tourist attraction.
    Joe Cummings, CNN, 2 Nov. 2021
  • Throngs of worshipers sat on the earth around the bleach-white stupa, a large dome that represents the earth’s elements and is used as a place of meditation.
    Maria Abi-Habib, New York Times, 2 May 2018
  • Protesters flowed in from townships on Yangon’s fringes and all over the city, converging on the area around Sule Pagoda, a sparkling golden stupa that is the heart of the city center.
    Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2021
  • Wangchuk, 50, plans to build up to 20 ice stupas, each capable of supplying millions of gallons of water.
    National Geographic, 15 Nov. 2016
  • There were markets, public baths, a sewage system, and a Buddhist stupa, mostly constructed out of sun-baked brick.
    Lilit Marcus, CNN, 8 Sep. 2022
  • At its peak, the temple boasted a smaller stupa at the front, a room or cell for monks, the podium of a column or pillar, a staircase, vestibule rooms, and a public courtyard that overlooked a road.
    David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Feb. 2022
  • The earthquake destroyed the church in Shilaprabat, and it was rebuilt near a Hindu stupa that still bears the signs of the disaster, with its steeple standing askew at a 30 degree angle.
    Rojita Adhikari, CNN, 8 June 2018
  • In 2016, the stupa was a crumbling stub poking up amid a mound of detritus, its elaborate patterns of arches nearly worn away.
    New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021
  • The hemisphere-like shape known as the stupa is a common sight in Buddhist architecture, and Sanchi Stupa is perhaps the most famous of the ancient examples.
    Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 8 Apr. 2021
  • This year, farmers and students together built a higher stupa.
    National Geographic, 16 June 2020
  • Monks, nuns and laypeople go through their daily practices on a day during the December full moon festival at the Ruwanwelisaya stupa in the town of Anuradhapura.
    Roger Catlin, Smithsonian, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Its soaring, gilded stupa gleams on a ridge overlooking a city of greenery and watery expanses which has retained links to the British colonial past that Kipling chronicled.
    Denis D. Gray, The Denver Post, 9 Mar. 2017
  • In Myanmar, people performed exercises near the Shwedagon pagoda, the landmark Buddhist stupa in Yangon.
    Washington Post, 21 June 2017
  • Dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries, it was built in a pyramidal shape with three main tiers around a hill including five concentric square terraces, three circular platforms and a monumental stupa on top.
    Maggie Hiufu Wong, CNN, 28 Oct. 2022
  • At Long Beach’s first Sankranta festival to celebrate the Cambodian new year, people knelt and prayed at a mound of sand called a stupa, decorated with bright yellow flowers to honor ancestors.
    Jeong Park, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2023
  • All the restoration work on the stupa was being done according to surviving examples on the building’s symmetrical exterior.
    New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stupa.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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