The Back Hall
- Tag Archives Buddhist architecture
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Buddhist temples, a primer in structure and iconography (2)
A bodhisattva is a compassionate Buddha-like being who has elected to postpone his or her own enlightenment in order to assist others on their journey. Commonly shown in female form, she is also known colloquially as the “Goddess of Mercy,” and is often depicted pouring from a vial containing “elixir of compassion.” Other representations of this bodhisattva have numerous arms and heads, symbolizing a limitless ability to relieve the suffering of others.
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Buddhist Monasteries. A primer on Structure and Iconography (1)
When the pilgrim enters a Catholic Monastery, Shrine or Church there are statues and/or paintings of different people, either Saints, or Vergins, or Martirs. Traditionally we all know who they are due to their respective iconography, say, Saint Anthony has always lilies (he devoted his Purity to the Christ in front of the altar the Blessed Virgin Mary – BTW, the interest on the sexuality of the Saints is a constant in Catholicism -), a book and Jesus young boy is in his arms. So, when we see a statue or a painting that shows a man, with some lilies, a book and bearing a boy, there is no need to ask, you may start preying to get an spouse (he is the Saint to pray if you want to do a good wedding).
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Buddhist Monastery architecture in China. Vihara (2)
In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Chan (Zen) sect developed a new ‘seven part structure’ for temples. The seven parts – the Buddha hall, dharma hall, monks’ quarters, depository, gate, pure land hall and toilet facilities – completely exclude pagodas, and can be seen to represent the final triumph of the traditional Chinese palace/courtyard system over the original central-pagoda tradition established 1000 years earlier by the White Horse Temple in 67.
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Buddhist monastery architecture in China (1). General View
Thanks to Umberto Eco’s the Name of the Rose, we all know the architecture of a Cistercian Monastery: the Church, and next to it the Cloister which is the Center of the public life of the Monastery. Monks sleep in the Dormitorium, which is open to the Cloister’s second floor, and pass their time on the ground level, either in the garden, in the Scriptorium or in the Refectorium. Next to it, logically, stands the kitchen. Usually there is a direct entrance to the Cloister, with storage for goods. The (usually spectacular) Capitular Hall opens, alone, towards the Cloister