What is a Sema (Bai Sema)?
Monday, April 7th, 2008
A sema is a stone that marks the boundary of a sacred ground of a temple. There are a total of eight semas that surround the Bot. Women are not allowed to enter the area that is marked by the semas - however, they often do and nobody cares.
Sema stones are usually leaf-shaped. The sema stone that you can see in the photos also depicts the dhamma wheel, an important buddhist symbol.
A Chedi is a a bell-shaped tower. Another word for chedi would be a pagoda or a stupa. It either contains a relic of the historical Buddha Ghautama or of a Thai king or an important Thai monk. Sometimes also important religious buddhist teachers are buried under a chedi (their ashes is stored under the chedi).