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Pagodas and pavilions (ge 閣) are the most popular and representative multi-story buildings since Buddhism was introduced to China. While providing visitors with a new visual experience, they have also largely reshaped the urban space and skyline in medieval China. The former originated from India and Central Asia and was transformed in China, developing a unique style; The latter originated more from the creation of Chinese architects and became a model of typical Chinese-style Buddhist architecture. Briefly, the pagoda matured earlier than the pavilion, and continuously developed while maintaining its basic style; the pavilion-style Buddhist architecture gradually developed later and finally matured after the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1276), partially presenting a different spatial logic from the pagoda, and bringing a new visual experience. In my opinion, although the pavilion may not necessarily be as large as the pagoda in terms of volume and absolute height, it can provide believers with greater visual impact in the internal space for worship, due to the cross-story giant Buddhist statues; the closer integration of Buddha statues and architecture makes it replace or share the core position of the pagoda in some monasteries and even become the visual center of the entire religious space. Due to the existence of the pavilion, viewers can not only worship the Buddhist statues on a two-dimensional plane or by looking up at the statues from the bottom, but have also gained a three-dimensional perspective, to worship directly at the Buddha's shoulders, neck, and head. In the Buddhist grottoes, the layout of the early single-layer or multi-layer horizontally distribution of caves on cliff was also changed due to the excavation of the cross-layer giant statue grottoes, covered by multi-story pavilion-style buildings, providing viewers with a visual experience similar to that of the pavilions of great statues. Additionally, there is a new visual experience of worshiping the Buddha in a vertical circle, in cases such as Bamiyan and the Leshan Giant Buddha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhism spread along the Silk Road, and its pagodas were introduced into Central Asia from India in the beginning, and then into Xinjiang, which evolved various pagodas, showing the characteristics of multi-culturalism, reflecting the epidemic of Buddhism in Xinjiang during the Han and Tang Dynasties and the evolution of pagodas under the influence of Chinese culture, and finally making the pagodas in Xinjiang an important component of Chinese-style pagodas. This paper makes a comparative analysis of the pagoda styles in Xinjiang to find the influencing factors, so as to reflect the exchange and mutual learning between different cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pagodas and pavilions (ge 閣) are the most popular and representative multi-story buildings since Buddhism was introduced to China. While providing visitors with a new visual experience, they have also largely reshaped the urban space and skyline in medieval China. The former originated from India and Central Asia and was transformed in China, developing a unique style; The latter originated more from the creation of Chinese architects and became a model of typical Chinese-style Buddhist architecture. Briefly, the pagoda matured earlier than the pavilion, and continuously developed while maintaining its basic style; the pavilion-style Buddhist architecture gradually developed later and finally matured after the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1276), partially presenting a different spatial logic from the pagoda, and bringing a new visual experience. In my opinion, although the pavilion may not necessarily be as large as the pagoda in terms of volume and absolute height, it can provide believers with greater visual impact in the internal space for worship, due to the cross-story giant Buddhist statues; the closer integration of Buddha statues and architecture makes it replace or share the core position of the pagoda in some monasteries and even become the visual center of the entire religious space. Due to the existence of the pavilion, viewers can not only worship the Buddhist statues on a two-dimensional plane or by looking up at the statues from the bottom, but have also gained a three-dimensional perspective, to worship directly at the Buddha’s shoulders, neck, and head. In the Buddhist grottoes, the layout of the early single-layer or multi-layer horizontally distribution of caves on cliff was also changed due to the excavation of the cross-layer giant statue grottoes, covered by multi-story pavilion-style buildings, providing viewers with a visual experience similar to that of the pavilions of great statues. Additionally, there is a new visual experience of worshiping the Buddha in a vertical circle, in cases such as Bamiyan and the Leshan Giant Buddha.

As a World Cultural Heritage site with sacred landscape featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture, much attention has been focused on the sustainable development of Bagan (Myanmar). Particularly, the monitoring of landscape surface subsidence and monument instability is of great importance to the protection and development planning of the Bagan heritage site. In this study, we applied high resolution TerraSAR-X imagery acquired from 2019 to 2020 for deformation monitoring based on the small baseline subset (SBAS) and persistent scatterer synthetic aperture radar interferometry (PSInSAR) approaches. We identified several hotspots and pagodas with displacement anomalies linked to land cover change and previous earthquakes. The cross comparison between SBAS and PSInSAR and the precision of height estimates derived by PSInSAR indicated a millimetric precision of the derived deformation products. The combination of the two multi-temporal SAR interferometry approaches satisfies the two-scale monitoring requirements from landscapes to monuments, particularly for large-scale World Heritage sites. The non-contact monitoring method has potential when traditional methods using field accessibility and surveillance are constrained.

The production of stone sculptures in the form of statues, steles, and pagodas was arguably one of the most prominent forms of Buddhist devotion in early medieval China. The abundant Buddhist imagery and devotional inscriptions adorning their surfaces provide rich information on their creation, commission, consecration, and worship, which is essential for comprehending the local community's religious landscape. This paper employs a network analysis approach to visualize and analyze the spatial arrangement of Buddhist images on the surfaces of pagodas from Nannieshui 南涅水, Shanxi 山西 Province. Network analysis reveals that Nannieshui pagodas were commissioned and worshipped differently from other kinds of stone sculpture, as shown by its emphasis on the spatial and sequential order of Buddhist images depicted on the exterior of these pagodas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. Through analyses of these incantation sheets, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment of medieval East Asia. Previously, all known traces of material dhāraṇīs from early Korea, with just a few exceptions, were related to the Sūtra of the Pure Light Incantation enshrined in the relic crypts of pagodas—a practice that has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets, whose date this paper infers to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that Unified Silla had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to coeval Chinese practice. The Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets from Silla show the modification and continuation of Chinese dhāraṇī practice. Unlike the Chinese amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulet sheets were likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam in Silla's capital. At the same time, they were placed in the pagoda to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that they had a mortuary function similar to those buried in Chinese tombs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Myanmar–Thai border area has been the stage for charismatic monks revered by the populace following three religious traditions: the northern Thai tradition of khruba worship, Myanmar Buddhism in the peripheries, and Karen history of seeking variable millenarian leaders. Their practices are characterised by the construction of large Buddhist structures; the formation of a community of devotees; ascetic and/or moral practices; and a diversity of followers including ethnic minorities. The construction is enabled by donations from those wielding political and economic power, and through the massive labour of devotees. Minorities and impoverished populations provide the labour of devotion towards religious construction, gaining sustenance by the monk's compassion. This article examines the process of material construction of enormous architectural structures such as pagodas. This involves the labour of devotees, in this case namely the Karen minorities, which in turn expands the capacity for further merit-making and thereby increases the saints' charisma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan stupas are the symbolic buildings of Tibetan Buddhism, widely distributed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with a long history and rich cultural connotations, holding a lofty position in the hearts of Tibetan monks and laymen. In the new era of advocating national cultural confidence, Tibetan stupa, as the representative of Tibetan culture, should be explored for its historical significance and artistic value. In recent years, many scholars have conducted in-depth studies on Tibetan stupas from different disciplinary perspectives. In order to further promote the research on Tibetan stupas, this paper reviews the research on Tibetan stupas in China in the past century, and comments on the problems and deficiencies of the research on Tibetan stupas in China in the past century on the basis of the analysis of the previous research status, so as to provide a valuable reference for the further research on Tibetan stupas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A pagoda-like evaporator for rapid, scaling-free desalination of hypersaline feed. • Integrated evaporation and Marangoni convection via an alternating hot–cold pattern. • A long-term evaporation rate of 1.7 kg·m−2·h−1 without scaling for 20 wt% NaCl solution. Solar-driven evaporation holds significant potential for desalinating hypersaline brines, which pose challenges for traditional reverse osmosis. However, achieving both rapid evaporation and scaling prevention remains a key obstacle. In this study, we introduce a pagoda-like solar evaporator designed to optimize heat and mass transfer during the evaporation process of hypersaline brines. The interconnected multi-layer structure creates an alternating hot–cold pattern that integrates solar and environmental evaporation, enhancing the overall evaporation rate. This pattern also induces thermal Marangoni convection within the evaporator, mitigating local ion accumulation and providing durable scaling resistance. The pagoda evaporator sustains an evaporation rate of approximately 1.70 kg·m−2·h−1 over 8 h with a 20 wt% NaCl solution and produces 7.78 L·m−2·day−1 of fresh water without surface scaling in outdoor experiments. This innovative and facile design marks a significant advancement in the sustainable and efficient desalination of highly saline brines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of stone sculptures in the form of statues, steles, and pagodas was arguably one of the most prominent forms of Buddhist devotion in early medieval China. The abundant Buddhist imagery and devotional inscriptions adorning their surfaces provide rich information on their creation, commission, consecration, and worship, which is essential for comprehending the local community’s religious landscape. This paper employs a network analysis approach to visualize and analyze the spatial arrangement of Buddhist images on the surfaces of pagodas from Nannieshui 南涅水, Shanxi 山西 Province. Network analysis reveals that Nannieshui pagodas were commissioned and worshipped differently from other kinds of stone sculpture, as shown by its emphasis on the spatial and sequential order of Buddhist images depicted on the exterior of these pagodas.

As a World Cultural Heritage site with sacred landscape featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture, much attention has been focused on the sustainable development of Bagan (Myanmar). Particularly, the monitoring of landscape surface subsidence and monument instability is of great importance to the protection and development planning of the Bagan heritage site. In this study, we applied high resolution TerraSAR-X imagery acquired from 2019 to 2020 for deformation monitoring based on the small baseline subset (SBAS) and persistent scatterer synthetic aperture radar interferometry (PSInSAR) approaches. We identified several hotspots and pagodas with displacement anomalies linked to land cover change and previous earthquakes. The cross comparison between SBAS and PSInSAR and the precision of height estimates derived by PSInSAR indicated a millimetric precision of the derived deformation products. The combination of the two multi-temporal SAR interferometry approaches satisfies the two-scale monitoring requirements from landscapes to monuments, particularly for large-scale World Heritage sites. The non-contact monitoring method has potential when traditional methods using field accessibility and surveillance are constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the monastic complexes of the Tang Dynasty located in the territory of the Chang'an-Tien-Shan corridor of the Great Silk Road allows us to see how the existing planning and artistic solutions of Chinese architecture are combined with the traditions of Buddhist architectural thought, and how architectural forms are transformed under the influence of natural, socio-cultural and political conditions. Monastic complexes in China and modern Kazakhstan were chosen as objects of study, which enabled the main features of the cult architecture of the Tang period to be identified.

Studying the monuments of the Great Silk Road is an urgent issue of modern science for the countries participating in this centuries-old trade and cultural exchange. The Chang'an-Tien Shan corridor of this road presents a complex synthesis of different cultures, especially the Buddhist faith and its artistic expression in the art of architecture, in close conjunction with Chinese traditions, including the layout of public and religious spaces. Studies of Chinese scientists that have not been translated into Russian allow us to reconstruct the overall picture of the evolution of architectural forms in this region. The largest cultural centers of the dynasties of Ancient and medieval China are used as an example.

This paper introduced the origin of the Kuishan Pagoda and its role in "increasing architectural achievements and reinforcing scenic sights" of Xuzhou from the perspective of the city's Fengshui (geomancy). The round base of the pagoda was 16.7 meters in diameter. The octagonal pagoda had seven stories, with a height of 67 meters. Each story had 4 doors that face each other in pairs. From the second to the seventh story, the pagoda was decorated with brick-carved waist eaves, cornices, rafters, upward angles and tile ranges, which were rigorously and strictly designed and distributed. The outward-pointing waist eaves were narrow and short and boast exquisite shapes. The top of the pagoda pointed skywards and was decorated with interlayered metal wheels. The pagoda top with metal wheels appeared magnifi cent and demonstrated exquisite craftsmanship, adding a particularly imposing atmosphere to the pagoda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly referred to in Chinese by the term jinglu , scriptural catalogs constitute a specific sort of Sinitic bibliographical literature that deals primarily with texts accepted in East Asian Buddhist circles as authoritative in matters of religion. The role that these catalogs played in the history of the Chinese Buddhist canon has become the subject of various important studies, but still oft-neglected are the functional places that such texts filled in the sphere of Buddhist devotional practice. To try to redress the balance, this essay brings into focus a small but significant group of Southern Song (1127-1279) Buddhist monuments in the Sichuan basin. Not only do these monuments allow us a rare glimpse into the devotional uses and symbolic functions of scriptural catalogs, but they offer a vantage point from which to view at least a part of what premodern Buddhists in the Sichuan basin actually believed and practiced. Résumé: Les catalogues de sutras, généralement appelés jinglu en chinois, constituent un type spécifique d'ouvrage bibliographique consacré aux textes considérés dans les milieux bouddhiques d'Asie orientale comme faisant autorité en matière religieuse. Le rôle joué par ces catalogues dans l'histoire des canons bouddhiques chinois a fait l'objet de travaux approfondis mais la place qu'ils occupent dans les pratiques dévotionnelles reste largement négligée. Afin de compenser un tel manque, cet article se concentre sur un petit groupe de monuments bouddhiques des Song du Sud (1127-1279) dans la plaine du Sichuan. Ces monuments nous offrent non seulement une perspective inédite sur les usages dévotionnels et les fonctions symboliques des catalogues de sutras, mais éclairent aussi d'un jour nouveau ce que les bouddhistes du Sichuan prémoderne croyaient et pratiquaient concrètement. 提要: 華言「經錄」者，係漢文書誌之一種，其列載文獻多為東亞佛教界視作宗教權威。該類書誌在漢文佛教藏經史上的角色雖已頻獲檢討，然鮮有學者留心其於佛教虔敬活動中所發揮的功用。為了補益相關研究，本文考察了一批見在四川盆地的南宋佛教文物。這些文物不僅使我們得以管窺經錄的虔敬用途與象徵功能，亦為瞭解當地部分前現代佛教信眾的觀念和行持提供了一個視點。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A large number of stone blocks, stacked up in diminishing size to form pagodas, was discovered in northern China, primarily eastern Gansu and southeastern Shanxi. Their stylistic traits and inscriptions indicate the popularity of the practice of making stacked pagodas in the Northern dynasties (circa the fifth and sixth centuries CE). They display a variety of Buddhist imagery on surface, which is in contrast with the simplification of the structural elements. This contrast raises questions about how stone pagodas of the time were understood and how they related to contemporaneous pagoda buildings. This essay examines these stacked pagodas against the broader historical and artistic milieu, especially the practice of dedicating Buddhist stone implements, explores the way the stacked pagodas were made, displayed, and venerated, and discusses their religious significance generated beyond their structural resemblance to real buildings.

This article explores the Buddhist ritual and architectural conventions that were incorporated into the Chinese funeral architecture during the medieval period from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. A careful observation of some key types of sacred architectural forms from ancient East Asia, for instance, pagoda, lingtai, and hunping, reviews fundamental similarities in their form and structure. Applying translation theory rather than the influence and Sinicization model to analyze the impact of Buddhism on Chinese funeral architecture, this article offers a comparative study of the historical contexts from which certain architectural types and imageries were produced. It argues that there was an intertwined mutual translation of formal and ritual conventions between Buddhist and Chinese funeral architecture, which had played a significant role in the formations of both architectural traditions in Medieval China.

Between 1900 and 1940, thousand of Cambodian Buddhist pagodas were destroyed and rebuilt all over Cambodia. Cambodian populations had to negotiate, site by site, with the administration of the Protectorat to renovate and revitalize their rural or urban religious buildings. Despite the Ancient temples, Buddhist monasteries were first not integrated to the definition of heritage. They then became an issue of representation for the Cambodian elite who took over this administrative strake to assert their social and political prerogatives over French authorities. While new Cambodian studies focus on concepts of community, village and network, who are the actors of these pagodas buildings, from the countryside to the capital, and what are the issues of these new foundations of Buddhist monasteries during colonial period in Cambodia?

Featured Application: UAV-SfM was applied for generating 3D pagoda models in Thailand. As a novel innovative technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used in archaeological studies owing to their cost-effective, simple photogrammetric tool that can produce high-resolution scaled models. This study focuses on the three-dimensional (3D) modeling of the pagoda at Wat Maha That, an archaeological site in the Ayutthaya province of Thailand, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site of notable cultural and historical significance in 1991. This paper presents the application of UAV imagery to generate an accurate 3D model using two pagodas at Wat Maha That as case studies: Chedi and Prang. The methodology described in the paper provides an effective, economical manner of semi-automatic mapping and contributes to the high-quality modeling of cultural heritage sites. The unmanned aerial vehicle structure-from-motion (UAV-SfM) method was used to generate a 3D Wat Mahathat pagoda model. Its accuracy was compared with a model obtained using terrestrial laser scanning and check points. The findings indicated that the 3D UAV-SfM pagoda model was sufficiently accurate to support pagoda conservation management in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient pagodas are usually parts of hot tourist spots in many oriental countries due to their unique historical backgrounds. They are usually polygonal structures comprised by multiple floors, which are separated by eaves. In this paper, we propose a new method to investigate both the rotational and reflectional symmetry of such polygonal pagodas through developing novel geometric models to fit to the 3D point clouds obtained from photogrammetric reconstruction. The geometric model consists of multiple polygonal pyramid/prism models but has a common central axis. The method was verified by four datasets collected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a hand-held digital camera. The results indicate that the models fit accurately to the pagodas’ point clouds. The symmetry was realized by rotating and reflecting the pagodas’ point clouds after a complete leveling of the point cloud was achieved using the estimated central axes. The results show that there are RMSEs of 5.04 cm and 5.20 cm deviated from the perfect (theoretical) rotational and reflectional symmetries, respectively. This concludes that the examined pagodas are highly symmetric, both rotationally and reflectionally. The concept presented in the paper not only work for polygonal pagodas, but it can also be readily transformed and implemented for other applications for other pagoda-like objects such as transmission towers.

Pagoda successfully created the "exclusive shop" model in the fruit industry, and now it is the world's largest fruit chain retailer, creating the miracle of fruit sales. Behind the miracle is the innovation of fruit industrialization, that is, the retail-pull industrialization, which realizes the farmers' income increase, consumer satisfaction and sustainable business development, and also promotes the upgrade and development of fruit industry in China. The retail-pull industrialization business model has important reference significance for the fresh industry of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a novel innovative technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used in archaeological studies owing to their cost-effective, simple photogrammetric tool that can produce high-resolution scaled models. This study focuses on the three-dimensional (3D) modeling of the pagoda at Wat Maha That, an archaeological site in the Ayutthaya province of Thailand, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site of notable cultural and historical significance in 1991. This paper presents the application of UAV imagery to generate an accurate 3D model using two pagodas at Wat Maha That as case studies: Chedi and Prang. The methodology described in the paper provides an effective, economical manner of semi-automatic mapping and contributes to the high-quality modeling of cultural heritage sites. The unmanned aerial vehicle structure-from-motion (UAV-SfM) method was used to generate a 3D Wat Mahathat pagoda model. Its accuracy was compared with a model obtained using terrestrial laser scanning and check points. The findings indicated that the 3D UAV-SfM pagoda model was sufficiently accurate to support pagoda conservation management in Thailand.

Despite the growing research done on sacred spaces in Buddhist Myanmar, no attention has yet been given to the role dreams play in the selection and development of such spaces. This article will address this lacuna by exploring how dreams are regarded by 20th⁻21st centuries Buddhists in Myanmar, as evidenced in autobiographies, ethnographic work, and popular literature in relation to the creation and evolution of sacred places. Although there are many kinds of sacred sites in Myanmar, this article will look specifically at Buddhist stupas, commonly referred to in Burmese as, pagoda or zedi. These pagodas, found in nearly every part of Buddhist Myanmar, are also those structures most prevalent in Buddhist dream accounts and often take on phantasmagorical qualities when those same Buddhists attempt to recreate the pagodas of their dreams.