Mount Meru and the mandala

Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is the mythic five-peaked mountain at the center of the universe in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religions. It is represented in the image above as a mandala (a "circle") and as a yantra (a symbol for meditation). Meru in Sanskrit means "high."

What is interesting about this is that it reverses the traditional Sri Yantra of the Tantric movement, and instead of a vanishing point to the center, known as the bindu, we have a mountain peak instead. Many temples across Asia were built as symbolic representations of this mountain. Like this one at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya, Thailand:

Although the mountain is said to be in an indeterminate location, maybe in the Himalayas or Pamirs, designs like the one at top also represent the yoni (vulva), hence all those triangles, so maybe we know where it is after all. Compare it with these Western images here, here and here. For many too, Mount Meru is associated with the sacred mountain of Tibet, Mt. Kailash, although mythical mountains should have no earthly form. (There is a real Mt. Meru in Tanzania.)

Above is Hsinbyume Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar, representing Mount Meru. Sadly, the pagoda was mostly destroyed in a massive earthquake of 2025.