Studies On Chinese Contemporary Buddhist Architecture In The Han Area

Abstract: The traditional architectural features have experienced worrisome loss during the high-speed economic development in modern China, which is a natural consequence of fading of the traditional culture and impact of the western culture. At the same time, due to the revival of the Buddhism, the increasing number of the Buddhists and the prosperity of the tourism-related activities, the architecture of the temples becomes urgent and practical construction problems. However, prevalent defects do exist in Buddhist buildings in the traditional resident region of the Han people in China: over pursuit of magnificence and expensive, excessive imitation of the ancient style, lack of features, monotony of the landscape, unfitness of the modern Buddhism demand, and so on. Therefore, Buddhist buildings in the traditional resident region of the Han people in China are studied in this dissertation. Aiming at fulfilling the actual needs of the modern Buddhist temples construction, the adaption of the construction planning and design of Buddhist temples, which is to satisfy the usage of the Buddhists and the harmony with society, age and region, is investigated in the circumstance of the modernization of the Buddhist organization and devotion. Afterward, a kind of cultural building creative ideas are provided to explore the innovations in the modern architecture with Chinese characteristics, to search for the cultural significance of Buddhism, and to be incorporated with modern architectural theory.The dissertation is organized as follows: Present actuality is examined in Chp.2-4. The evolvement history of Buddhist temples is reviewed firstly, coordinating with the related religious sociology, architecture, and Buddhist dogma. After that, the status and the defects of modern Buddhist temple buildings are concluded and summarized on the basis of the data from statistics and fieldwork. Corresponding policy is investigated in Chp.5-7. Buddhism architectural theory and practical policy are analyzed at three levels: the planning context, the functional layout and the philosophy notion. It is shown that economic infrastructure, social function and legal system are three key factors in exterminating the overall appearance of Buddhist temples. Planning policies are given for three basic types of cities, forests and villages, respectively. It is concluded that Buddhist temple function and self-cultivation activities and determines the overall layout of individual form. A better overall layout model is obtained for the temples and individual design policy. Furthermore, Buddhist concept of space, of environment, of aesthetics and of ethics is the source of architectural features. The fundamental principles of Buddhist architecture are outlined. Chp.8-9 is particular case studies. Taking the Western Christian churches, Buddhist temples of Japan and Taiwan's modernization process and cases as reference examples, three modes of cities, forests and villages in the contemporary Buddhist architectural creation are discussed through the construction practice by the author in Jiuhua Mountain.It is concluded that, contemporary Buddhist temple construction should follow the age changing, revisit the history, and confront the practical issues. Based on the modernization of the Buddhism, we should adopt the proper policy of seeking truth from facts, adhering to innovation and following the fundamental principles of architecture.