Influences on Architecture for the Pagoda in Battersea

MIlton Keynes

• Reverend Gyoro Nagase partially modeled the Battersea Peace Pagoda on one he built at Milton Keynes, England in 1974. Like the Battersea pagoda, the Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda houses sacred Buddhist relics and serves as a memorial to all who have fallen in wars around the world. The Battersea and Milton Keynes Peace Pagodas are two of many built across the globe by Buddhist monks.

Sri Lankan Influence

• Like the Peace Pagodas in Battersea and Milton Keynes, the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order built a pagoda in Sri Pada, Sri Lanka. These three pagodas were influenced by ancient Sri Lankan and Indian stupas. The rounded form of the main dome, or anda, of these pagodas was simplified into a rounded cylinder in the Battersea pagoda.

Japanese Pagodas

• The Battersea pagoda was heavily influenced by the Japanese Buddhist pagodas, such as the Great Buddha Hall in Todai-Ji and the pagoda in Daigo-Ji. Furthermore, these Japanese pagodas were developed from Buddhist pagodas in China, such as the Liao brick pagoda in Manchuria and the Foquang Temple pagoda. The Battersea pagoda has octagonal roofs, similar to many of the Japanese pagodas, and the levels of the pagoda are stacked like Indian Buddhist stupas, inspired by ancient Hindu temples.

Indian Buddhist Stupas

• The Battersea Peace Pagoda also was influenced by the Indian Buddhist stupa, which is a derivative of the Indian Hindu temple. The concentric, diminishing, stacked levels of the Indian stupa and Hindu temple are a diagram of the heavens and eternity, and the Battersea structure mimics this with its multi-leveled roof and tapered lower story. The Hindu temple and Indian stupa are the progenitors for all pagodas, not only the Peace Pagoda at Battersea Park.