largest brick structure in the world jetavanaramaya

Largest Brick Structure in the World: Jetavanaramaya Tharindu Ishan Edirisinghe UNMC 009966

1. INTRODUCTION

Jetavanaramaya (also known as Jetavana) was built by King Mahasena in 273-301 AD. Situated in

the ancient city of Anuradhapura, which was the capital of Sri Lanka during that era. At the time of

its inception, Jetavana was appreciated as the third tallest structure in the world followed by the

Great Pyramids of Giza. Jetavana currently has a Volume of 233,000 cubic meters, which inarguably

makes it the largest brick structure in the world. In 1985 Jetavana was named a World Heritage Site

by UNESCO.

After its construction, Jetavana stood at 121.9m (400ft). At present, Jetavana stands at 70.7m with a

base diameter of 102m. It is a brick stupa, where more than 93,300,000 baked bricks have been

used for its construction (Ranaweera, 2004).

1.1. Back Ground

Jetavana is a religious monument built to honour the Eight Great Deeds of Lord Buddha and to

enshrine the possessions of Lord Buddha. Jetavana is said to enshrine a sash or belt tie which

belonged to Lord Buddha.

Construction of a stupa is believed to be a great deed in Buddhism; hence countless number of

Kings in ancient Sri Lanka built stupas to accumulate good Kamma. Furthermore, the presence of a

stupa gives one a feeling of stability, strength, nobility, and grandeur (Ranaweera, 2004)..

Figure 1 Jetavanaramaya Stupa.

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Source: De Silva, 2010


2. DESIGN

Jetavana is a solid construction, mostly composing of burnt bricks.

2.1. Components

The design of the stupa can be broken down into 9 main components. Figure 2 shows the basic

components of a Sri Lankan stupa.

Figure 2. Main components of a Sri Lankan stupa.

Source: Ranaweera & Silva, 2006, fig. 10

The dome is the largest and structurally the most important component of the Jetavana. There are

many different dome shapes used for stupas such as; bell, bubble, paddy, pot & lotus. In the case of

Jetavana, the paddy heap shape was adopted. This dome shape is geometrically similar to an

ellipsoid.

The basal rings, square chamber, cylinder and spire are all made of different sizes of burnt bricks,

made specifically for each component of the stupa.

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Main Components of a Stupa

1, 2, 3 - Basal rings

4 - Dome

5 - Square Chamber

6 - Cylinder

7 - Spire

8 - Minaret

9 - Crystal


2.2. Foundation

Like all mega stupas, the location of Jetavana was carefully chosen so that the bed rock was situated

close to the surface. In the case of Jetavana, the foundation extends 8.5m (28ft) to the bed rock (W.

Geiger, 1950).

No accountable source of the foundation constructions of Jetavana exists. However, the Mahavamsa

a chronicle that records the history of Sri Lanka contains a description of, construction of a

foundation of a mega stupa similar to Jetavana, called Ruvanvelisaya.

This account states that initially the proposed land was dug out to the bedrock. Then crushed rocks

were carried in to fill the space and were compacted by elephants, whose legs were covered with

leather. Afterwards, butter clay was used to fill in and level out the surface of crushed rock. This is

followed by a course of bricks placed on top of the clay. Over this, a layer of lime paste was

reinforced by a network of iron. The last layer was sheets of copper and silver for water proofing

(W. Geiger, 1950). The end product was a reinforced concrete foundation with water proofing. This

foundation method might have been used for the construction of the Jetavana foundation, as

Ruvanvelisaya was constructed 100 years prior to the construction of Jetavana.

3. MATERIALS

Also according to Mahavamsa there was firm quality control on materials used by the ancient

builders.

3.1. Bricks

The bricks used in the construction of Jetavana had much better strength and a larger size relative

to modern factory made bricks in Sri Lanka. The properties of the bricks used in Jetavana are given

in table 1.

Table 1. Mechanical properties of Jetavana bricks.

Property Value

Compressive strength 8500 kPa

Tensile strength 850 kPa

Young’s modulus 4.5 GPa

Poisson’s ratio 0.25

Specific weight 16.9 kN/m3

3Source: Ranaweera, 2004, Table 4


There were different sized bricks used. This was because various sizes of bricks had to be used for

different parts of the stupa.

3.2. Mortar

An analysis done by Abeyratne (Ranaweera, 2004) on the mortar in Jetavana, revealed that the

mortar consisted of finely crushed dolomitic lime & sand and clay in a ratio 1:5. The role of mortar

was primarily to fill the gaps in between the bricks. Therefore, a thin mortar of slurry consistency

was used in the construction.

3.3. Brickwork

Given that the mortar was of thin consistency, the mortar layer was close to zero. This made better

transfer of load between the bricks, virtually by direct contact.

3.4. Plastering

A final layer of plaster was used on the outer surface of the brickwork to provide water-proofing for

the stupa.

Figure 3. Ancient brick work of Jetavana Stupa.

Source: Ranaweera, 2004, fig. 16

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4. CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

The design of a stupa is far more complicated than that of a pyramid. Thus, builders who worked on

Jetavana showed great technological skills and management skills. The site was well supervised and

quality control was a major priority for the builders. Mahavamsa gives a description of,

construction of colossal stupas similar to that of Jetavana. (W. Geiger, 1950)

5. STRUCTURAL ASPECTS

According to Prof. M.P.Ranaweera, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, the

paddy heap shape of Jetavana was ideal in terms of the structural perspective. This is due to the

gradient of the paddy heap being equal to the angle of repose. This in turn creates very low tension

in the dome due to self-weight (Ranaweera & Silva, 2006). According to many, ancient builders have

discovered this shape from trial and error.

A Finite Element studies done by Prof. Ranaweera on Jetavana, showed that a maximum vertically

compressive stress of 837kPa exists at the centre of the stupa at foundation level. This compressive

stress is 1/10 of the maximum strength of the brick. In addition, the hoop and radial stress are

compressive with a maximum stress of 208 kPa (Ranaweera, 2004).

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6. CONCLUSION

Due to the strict quality control of construction material & construction management, Jetavana was

able to earn the title of the largest brick structure in the world during the time of its construction.

Even in the present (after conservation program), this stupa stands as the largest brick structure in

the world.

Figure 4 Jetavanaramaya in the 1880-1890.

Figure 5 Jetavanaramaya in the 2010

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Source: Loroj. Anuradhapura Jetavanaramaya. 2010

Source: Jetavanaramaya Dagoba Ruined. 2009


7. LIST OF REFERENCES

Ranaweera, M.P, Ancient stupas in Sri Lanka – Largest brick structures in the world. 2004. CHS

Newsletter No. 70, December 2004, London, Construction History Society. Web. 1 Nov. 2011. <

http://www.stupa.org.nz/imagine/CHSPaper.pdf >.

Ranaweera, Munidasa, and Silva, Gamunu, Conservation And Restoration Of Ancient Stupas In Sri

Lanka. 2006. Proc. of Tenth East Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering & Construction –

EASEC10, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, 2006. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.

<www.stupa.org.nz/imagine/Ancient_Stupas_in_Sri_Lanka.pdf>.

Pieris, Kamalika. Architecture and Landscape in Ancient and Medieval Lanka. Web log

post. Lankalibrary. 25 June 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=19>.

Pieris, Kamalika. Engineering skills in ancient and medieval Sri Lanka. Web log post. Lankalibrary. 24

Dec. 2008. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?

f=19&t=4568>.

W. Geiger, 1950, Mahavamsa or the Great Chronicle of Ceylon, Ceylon Government Information

Department. Archive.org. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.archive.org/stream/mahavamsaorgreat00mahciala/mahavamsaorgreat00mahciala_

djvu.txt >.

De Silva, Ranga. Jetavanaramaya. 2010. Photograph. Anuradhapura. Pix.stcscouts.com. 14 June 2010.

Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://pix.stcscouts.com/rangadesilvablog/?p=1440>

Jetawanarama Dagoba Ruined. 2009. Photograph. Ancient Ruins, Anuradhapura, Ceylon. Lankapura.

2009. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://lankapura.com/2009/05/abhayagiri-dagoba-ruined-at-

anuradhapura-ceylon/>.

Bryenh. Sri Lanka | Anuradhapura. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. 22 June 2011. Web. 08 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryenh/5911597784/.<http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryenh/

5911597784/>.

Loroj. Anuradhapura Jetavanaramaya. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. 24 May 2010. Web. 08 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/26751081@N06/4636335478/>.

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largest brick structure in the world jetavanaramaya

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