Building Identities: The Architecture of the Persona

We often approach architecture to deal with people’s social identities, as these structures are often the products of communal efforts or institutionalized orders. Nonetheless, we sometimes observe a discrepancy in the architectural homogeneity and the diversity of personalized practices brought forth by architecture. Hence, the built environment possesses often unexplored possibilities to prospect personal identities and biographies. In this paper I intend to scrutinize the role of built structures in the architecture of the persona. From the vantage point of Singularized Archaeology I aim at disentangling a quintessential Icelandic passageway house from the seventeenth century. Doing so, I turn the focus away from the standard debate on form and function of architectural design towards the variety of interpretive possibilities incorporated in the archaeological structures themselves, the building materials, the building processes as well as the relationality of the material assemblages that compose the architecture.     

元代萨迦派在五台山的传播

藏传佛教有许多教派,元朝时萨迦派最为兴盛。在考察萨迦派在五台山的传播之前,有必要先概述萨迦派的历史及其与元朝皇室的密切关系。有了这个基础,再研究萨迦派在五台山的传播就顺理成章了。     

圆仁求法目录所记五台山石刻考

隋唐时代是中日两国文化交往的重要时代,日本全面学习隋唐文化,其中日本来华的求法高僧尤其值得注意.今存日本的大量早期汉籍文献,往往是他们由唐土携回日本的.东来求法诸僧当中,圆仁(794-864)最为著名,他巡礼五台、参拜长安诸寺,求取了大量的法宝、典籍,曾编为《日本国承和五年入唐求法目录》、《慈觉大师在唐送进录》和《入唐新求圣教目录》,《入唐新求圣教目录》编成在后,著录经籍最多①.圆仁在五台山巡礼时曾抄写经卷②,礼拜佛像③,临摹图画④,摹写碑文,故所编《入唐新求圣教目录》中包含了以上这些巡礼活动所得文献.圆仁抄录的五台山石刻也著录其中,惜不见于历代石刻著录.今特举出此五种石刻,结合《入唐求法巡礼行记》⑤、《行历钞》⑥、《广清凉传》⑦、《宋高僧传》⑧、《净土往生传》⑨、敦煌文献等,考证其来源和本事.     

黔灵风光好万象映禅机——清代黔灵山写景诗管窥

黔灵山以佛教禅宗文化和奇丽的自然景观为特色.清代黔灵山写景诗,在展现自然人文景致的同时,以“本来面目”、“明月”、“本源”、“宝光”等象征语汇来体认禅宗哲学中本心的澄明、觉悟、圆满的内涵与质性;以“幻影”、“游子”、“乡关”等词汇反省本心失落的缘由;以“隔尘渐修”、“骑牛归家”、“截断两头”等象征性话语探讨重现本心本性的开悟方法;以“一切现成”、“拈花微笑”的禅悟观照揭橥禅者回归本心本性时的禅悟境界.     

Of Palaces and Pagodas: Palatial Symbolism in the Buddhist Architecture of Early Medieval China

This paper is an inquiry into possible motivations for representing timber-frame architecture in the Buddhist context. By comparing the architectural language of early Buddhist narrative panels and cave temples rendered in stone, I suggest that architectural representation was employed in both masonry and timber to create symbolically charged worship spaces. The replication and multiplication of palace forms on cave walls, in “pagodas” (futu 浮圖, fotu 佛圖, or ta 塔), and as the crowning element of free-standing pillars reflect a common desire to express and harness divine power, a desire that resulted in a wide variety of mountainous monuments in China. Finally, I provide evidence to suggest that the towering Buddhist monuments of early medieval China are linked morphologically and symbolically to the towering temples of South Asia through the use of both palace forms and sacred ma alas as a means to express the divine power and expansive presence of the Buddha.     

Apollo and the Virgin: The Changing Meanings of a Sacred Site on Anafi

The ruins of an ancient Greek temple on a Cycladic island form part of an Orthodox Christian shrine. To local people and returning migrants, the site is that of their patron saint; its pre‐Christian past is irrelevant except in so far as it establishes their specific link with the ancient world, and thus with national claims of unbroken continuity between modern and ancient Greece. To early travellers and antiquarians, and to today’s archaeologists, it has been primarily the ancient site which is of interest, while tourists are more concerned in finding “an unspoilt island”. A historical survey of information about the ancient and the Christian site reveals ambiguities and confusions about both. These multiple meanings for locals and scholars are discussed.     

Feeding the Mountains: Sacred Landscapes,Mountain Worship,and Sacrifice in the Maya and Inca Worlds

Three texts reviewed here address the linkages between religion and mountainous landscapes in the Maya and Inca realms. Bassie-Sweet provides a thorough analysis of the Maya mythologies of creation and situates its players and concepts within the real world. Besom thoughtfully tackles the place of mountains and child sacrifice within the Andes with a focus on the late prehispanic Inca. Reinhard and Constanza offer a detailed and richly illustrated case study of state-sponsored child sacrifice on a mountaintop in the south of the Inca Empire. Taken together, these somewhat disparate books produce several fascinating parallels in the sacred geographies of mountains and the offerings made to them.     

扑不灭的一簇圣火——张琴秋之恋

本文通过张琴秋在西路军兵败祁连、陕北十年和“文革”浩劫等几个历史时期的活动和遭际 ,记述了这位中国现代女中豪杰的三次婚恋和她坎坷而光辉的人生经历。文字朴实无华 ,内容感人至深     

Pyrophany on Mount Horeb: The Burning Bush

The burning bush is one of the most well-known and im-portant miracles in the Pentateuch. Numerous natural explanations have been offered in the literature and a few new ones have been added here, for the bush that burned but was not consumed. Some examples include hallucinogenic drugs, an active volcano, optical illusions, natural gas leak, subterranean fire, St. Elmo’s fire, a bush with red berries or flowers, and a bush that emitted flammable vapors. They have been broadly categorized here based on explanations involving the man Moses, events that might have occurred at the location (Mount Horeb), and explanations involving the bush itself. Those explanations are reviewed here from the perspective of a combustion engineer. The conclusion is that the best explanation for the burning bush is that it was supernatural.     

Doing Building Work: Methods at the Interface of Geography and Architecture

This paper summarises the methodological approach taken in an interdisciplinary project involving geographers and architects. The project charted the diverse afterlives of the modernist‐inspired, state‐sponsored, residential high‐rise, and did so drawing on two cases: Red Road Estate in Glasgow and Bukit Ho Swee Estate in Singapore. In offering a specific account of, and reflection upon, the methodologies used in the High‐rise Project, we hope to advance the methodological repertoire of human geography generally and contribute further to the new wave of scholarship on geography and architecture.     

Rockfort Temple at Tiruchirapalli,India: Conservation of a Sacred Landscape

Sacred sites in India are subject to many development pressures. Unlike heritage monuments, cultural and historic landscapes have not been the focus of institutional protection and preservation efforts. Using Rockfort Temple complex at Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, as a case study, we propose that an integrated conservation approach be based upon restoring the natural and spatial archetypes that constitute the landscape vocabulary. A group of excavated and structural temples are located on a hill on the banks of the river Kaveri surrounded by a medieval fort that became the nucleus of urban growth over time. Overwhelming growth of commerce within the last half century has resulted in many problems such as traffic congestion, confusing circulation, and visual chaos, which in turn have led to the loss of sanctity. The structure of the pilgrim landscape constituted by circumambulatory paths, tanks and groves, shrines and temples can be clarified and made legible by minor design interventions such as restoring historic buildings, reviving the holy tanks, planting sacred trees, and building rest pavilions along the pilgrim path.