Seven-Story Stone Pagoda – Nitobe Memorial Gardens, Vancouver, British Columbia

The pagoda structure derives from that of the stupa, a hemispherical, domed, commemorative monument first constructed in ancient India. Stupas appeared in China with the import of Buddhism and, during a long history of well over a thousand years, have become a valued part of the national Buddhist art.

At the beginning, the stupa was a reliquary for keeping the relics or ashes of a saintly Buddhist. It is said that bead-like crystals of white or some other colour were often found among the ashes after cremation, and they are called shelizi or "holy relics".

Buddhists believe that when Sakyamuni, founder of the faith, was cremated, 84,000 beads of holy relics were found. They were shared among the kings of eight nations, who built stupas to house them for worship. This was generally thought to be the origin of stupas or pogadas. Subsequently they were built not only to bury the relics or ashes of venerable monks but also to safekeep holy scriptures and various ritual implements. They are therefore also called fota (Buddha’s pagodas) or baota (treasure pagodas) and are objects of homage.

A Chinese proverb says, "To save a life is a holier deed than to build a stupa of seven stories." Pagodas are mostly of seven or thirteen stories. This is because odd numbers were supposed to be masculine and auspicious in China, but this has nothing to do with the teachings of Buddhism.

With the growth and development of commerce and mercantile interests, by both land and sea, came the spread of Buddhist missions as well. There followed a process known to scholars as the Indianization of other regions of Asia. As the structures and practices of Buddhism came to dominate these areas, so too were these features absorbed into the various cultures they influenced.

Particular styles become typical to a region. In Japan, for example, the five-story pagoda is common, with each story representing one of the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind, and void (sky, heaven). The finial is also divided into five parts. The shape of the stories varies; they can be circular, square, or polygonal. Each story in an East Asian pagoda has its own prominent projecting bracketed roof line, and the whole structure is capped by a mast and disks. In general, the pagoda form is intended primarily as a monument, and often it has very little usable interior space.