"stupa" is the tomb of a "monk", which is equivalent to the tomb of an imperial family. There are different layers according to the level. There are 1, 3, 5 and 7 floors in the tower, and the number of floors symbolizes the level of the road. The seven-level pagoda comes from this, and the towers are all singular, which means that the monk is single.
The internal structure of the tower body is mainly solid and hollow, and the number of floors of the tower body is mostly one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, etc., while the number of floors with two, four, six, eight and other negative numbers is extremely rare.
Pagoda plays an important role in guarding the soil and water of one side and dispelling evil spirits in religious culture. In order to dispel evil spirits, according to the theory of the induction between man and nature, we must use the positive number (odd number) to represent "everbright", so that we can better absorb the "righteousness" around us. The number of yin (even number) will gather yin, which is quite different from the original intention of building the tower.
According to the provisions of the Twelve Karma Sutra, the true meaning of Buddhism, the number of chakras is one, two, three, five, six, seven and eight.
The Indian tower wheel is even. However, after it was introduced to China, it was influenced by the theory of "Yin-Yang and Five Elements", and all of them did not use even numbers, but used odd numbers, because the even numbers in "Yin-Yang and Five Elements" were Yin and the odd numbers were Yang. In order to worship Buddha and absorb the "essence" of various theories, the construction of China stupa is singular.
Extended data:
Origin of stupa:
The stupa originated in India. Before Buddhism was introduced to China in the first century, there was no "tower" or the word "tower" in China. When stupa in Sanskrit and Thupo in Pali were introduced into China, they were transliterated as "Tapo", "Fotu", "Fautu" and "Fautu".
Stupa in ancient India was used for collecting Buddhist relics and offering sacrifices to Buddha statues and Buddhist scriptures, and it was also translated as "square grave" and "round tomb". It was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that the translator created the word "tower" as a unified translation name, which is still in use today.
The common pagodas in China can be divided into wooden pagodas, masonry pagodas, metal pagodas, glazed pagodas, etc. The wooden pagodas were dominant in the Han and Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the masonry pagodas were developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties. According to the types, it can be divided into pavilion tower, dense eaves tower, Lama tower, King Kong throne tower and tomb tower.
The tower is generally composed of underground palace, pedestal, tower body and tower brake. The plane of the tower is mostly square and octagonal, and there are also hexagonal, dodecagonal and circular shapes. Towers are solid, hollow, single tower and twin towers. It is one of the functions of Chinese pagodas to climb the tower and look out. The number of floors of the tower is generally odd, such as three, five, seven, nine, eleven and thirteen floors ... The so-called saving a life is better than building a seven-level pagoda, which refers to a seven-level tower.
Baidu encyclopedia-stupa
Phoenix net-the origin and art of stupa