ABSTRACT
Chorten are religious memorials, not domestic houses, and they are commonly described as the body or three bodies of Buddha. They are represented as animated bodies that are also houses and supports for offerings. This chapter foregrounds the marked continuities between chorten and domestic houses through the instructions that we assembled for making our Skarra memorial. It mirrors our manual of instructions or storyboard, and convey a sense of people coming together to make merit and commemorate their dead rather than associated specialist practices for assembling and consecrating religious houses/bodies, which require specific permissions. The chapter discusses the location of the chorten and presents an isomorphism between the person of individual humans and houses, as well as salient differences among them. The positioning of the Skarra chorten prompts reflections on relations among the family’s houses in the context of urbanisation, partitioning and generational differences.
