3rd storey: vestibule 3V
Vestibule devoted to the mChod rten brgyad (Aṣṭamahācaitya), placed in the S-E corner of the sKu ’bum, with its door looking eastwards, giving access to the other floors and itself contains two short flights of steps lit through a small window opening in the eastern wall. There are no statues and the two-line inscription running along the S and the W-walls is so badly defaced that we have not deemed it worthwhile reproducing it here. The only interesting information which can be drawn from it refers to the fact that it was planned (bkod pa) according to the explanations of the omniscient Bu ston. S-wall: Two stūpas: the Mya ngan ’das mchod rten (Stūpa of the Parinirvāṇa) (groundplan No. 1), and the Cho ’phrul mchod rten (Stūpa of the Great Miracle) (groundplan No. 2). W-wall: Three stūpas: the Byang chub chen mchod rten (Stūpa of the Great Enlightenment) (groundplan No. 3), the rNam rgyal mchod rten (Stūpa of the Victory) (groundplan No. 4) and the Pad spungs mchod rten (Stūpa of the Heap of Lotuses) (groundplan No. 5). S-wall: Two more stūpas: the ’Od zer can mchod rten (the Resplendent Stūpa) (groundplan No. 6) and the bKra shis sgo mang mchod rten (the Auspicious Stūpa with many doors) (groundplan No. 7). At the N-end of the E-wall there is the Sum cu rtsa gsum lha’i mchod rten (the Stūpa of the Thirty-three Gods) (groundplan No. 8).
[Lo Bue and Ricca 1990, p. 247-248/Lo Bue and Ricca 1993, p. 287].
