Ordination hall

{{short description|Type of Buddhist building}} [[File:พิธีอุปสมบท ณ พระอุโบสถ วัดบวรนิเวศ.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Ordination ceremony in the ordination hall of Wat Bowonniwet in Thailand]]The '''ordination hall''' (Pali: ''sīmā'') is a Buddhist building specifically consecrated and designated for the performance of the Buddhist ordination ritual (''upasampadā'') and other ritual ceremonies, such as the recitation of the Pāṭimokkha.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7450972|title=Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology|last=Murphy|first=Stephen A.|publisher=River Books & The Siam Society|year=2014|chapter=Sema Stones in Lower Myanmar and Northeast Thailand: A Comparison}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=O'Connor|first=Richard A.|year=2009|title=Place, Power and People: Southeast Asia's Temple Tradition|journal=Arts Asiatiques|volume=64|issue=1|pages=116–123|doi=10.3406/arasi.2009.1692}}</ref> The ordination hall is located within a boundary ({{IAST|sīmā}}) that defines "the space within which all members of a single local community have to assemble as a complete Sangha ({{IAST|samagga sangha}}) at a place appointed for ecclesiastical acts ({{IAST|kamma}})."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Kieffer-Pülz|first=Petra|year=1997|title=Rules for the sīmā Regulation in the Vinaya and its Commentaries and their Application in Thailand|url=http://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8868|journal=Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies|language=en|volume=20|issue=2|pages=141–153|issn=0193-600X}}</ref> The constitution of the ''sīmā'' is regulated and defined by the Vinaya Piṭaka, along with its commentaries and sub-commentaries.<ref name=":1" />

==Burmese ordination halls== [[File:Kalyani Sima.jpg|thumb|Kalyani Ordination Hall in Bago, Myanmar.]] In Burmese, ordination halls are called '''''thein''''' ({{Langx|my|သိမ်}}), derived from the Pali term {{Transliteration|pi|sīmā}}, meaning "boundary". The ''thein'' is a common feature of Burmese monasteries (''kyaung''), although the ''thein '' may be not necessarily be located on the monastery compound itself.<ref name=":0" /> Shan ordination halls, called '''''sim''''' (သိမ်ႇ)'','' are exclusively used for events limited to the monkhood.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Tannenbaum|first=Nicola|title=The Heart of the Village: Constituent Structures of Shan Communities|year=1990|jstor=40860287|journal=Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|volume=5|issue=1|pages=23–41}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sealang.net/shan/|title=Shan-English Dictionary|last=Sao Tern Moeng|date=1995|publisher=Dunwoody Press}}</ref>

The central importance of the ordination hall in the pre-colonial era is exemplified by the inclusion of an ordination hall, the Maha Pahtan Haw Shwe Ordination Hall (မဟာပဋ္ဌာန်းဟောရွှေသိမ်တော်ကြီး), as one of seven requisite edifices (နန်းတည်သတ္တဌာန) in the founding of Mandalay as a Burmese royal capital.<ref>{{Cite web|last=ဇင်ဦး|title=မန္တလေးမြို့တည်နန်းတည် သတ္တ (၇) ဌာန ပြုပြင်မွမ်းမံမှု ၉၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းပြီးစီး|url=https://www.moi.gov.mm/npe/?q=node/15213|website=Ministry of Information|language=my|access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref><ref>The seven requisite edifices in founding Mandalay include the city walls (နန်းမြို့ရိုး), the city moat (ကျုံးတော်), Atumashi Monastery (အတုမရှိကျောင်းတော်ကြီး), the Pitakataik (Mandalay) (ပိဋကတ်တိုက်တော်ကြီး), the Thudhamma Zayat (သုဓမ္မာဇရပ်တော်ကြီး), Kuthodaw Pagoda (ကုသိုလ်တော်ဘုရား), and the Maha Pahtan Ordination Hall (မဟာပဋ္ဌာန်းဟောရွှေသိမ်တော်ကြီး).</ref>

==Thai ordination halls== In Thailand, ordination halls are called '''''ubosot''''' ({{langx|th|อุโบสถ}}, {{IPA|th|ʔù.boː.sòt|pron}}) or '''''bot''''' ({{lang|th|โบสถ์}}, {{IPA|th|bòːt|}}), derived from the Pali term {{Transliteration|pi|uposathāgāra}}, meaning a hall used for rituals on ''uposatha'' ("Buddhist sabbath") days.<ref>Architecture of Thailand. A Guide to Traditional and Contemporary Forms. Nithi Sthapitanonda; Brian Mertens.</ref> The ''ubosot'' is the focal point of Central Thai temples, whereas the focal point of Northern Thai temples is the stupa.<ref name=":2" /> In Northeastern Thailand (Isan), ordination halls are known as '''''sim''''' ({{lang|th|สิม}}), as they are in Laos ({{langx|lo|ສິມ}}) and the Tai-Shan States of Myanmar(သိမ်ႇ). The ''ubosot'', as the wat's principal building, is also used for communal services.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

In the Thai tradition, the boundary of the ''ubosot'' is marked by eight boundary stones known as ''bai sema'', which denote the {{Transliteration|pi|sīmā}}. The oldest ''bai sema'' date to the Dvaravati period.<ref name=":1" /> The ''sema'' stones stand above and mark the ''luk nimit'' ({{lang|th|ลูกนิมิต}}), stone spheres buried at the cardinal points of the compass delineating the sacred area. A ninth stone sphere, usually bigger, is buried below the main Buddha image of the ''ubosot''. The entrance sides of most ''ubosot'' face east.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} While ''wihan'' buildings also similarly house Buddha images, they differ from ''ubosot'' in that ''wihan'' are not marked by ''sema'' stones. Across from the entrance door at the end of the interior is the ''ubosot''{{'s}} largest Buddha statue which is usually depicted in either the ''meditation attitude'' or the ''Maravijaya attitude''.

==References== <references/>

== Further reading == * Karl Döhring: ''Buddhist Temples Of Thailand''. Berlin 1920, reprint by White Lotus Co. Ltd., Bangkok 2000, {{ISBN|974-7534-40-1}} * K.I. Matics: ''Introduction To The Thai Temple''. White Lotus, Bangkok 1992, {{ISBN|974-8495-42-6}} * No Na Paknam: ''The Buddhist Boundary Markers of Thailand''. Muang Boran Press, Bangkok 1981 (no ISBN) * Carol Stratton: ''What's What in a Wat, Thai Buddhist Temples''. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2010, {{ISBN|978-974-9511-99-2}}

Category:Buddhist architecture Category:Buddhist buildings and structures Category:Buddhist monasticism Category:Thai Buddhist art and architecture