Architecture: Asia

Parallel to cultural developments in the West during the centuries around the start of the common era—and in essential isolation from the West—completely separate developments were occurring in southern and eastern Asia, shaping civilizations and cultures that continue to this day, and whose fundamental philosophical views continue with little change, despite long contact with the West.

Indian Architecture

The first of these cultures to be treated, and in some ways those that had the most important influence on other Asian cultures, were those that developed in what is now India. As early as 5,000 years ago several cities flourished along the Indus River in northeastern India, producing remarkable artwork and forms of writing still debated as to methods of decipherment. A native Dravidian religion later developed in this area, with emphasis on male and female fertility imagery. About 3,500 years ago groups of Aryan invaders moved in from the north, bringing more ascetic religious practices. These two ancient belief systems underlie Indian temple architecture to this day, combining abstract diagrammatic and symbolic plan arrangements overlaid with a profusion of luxuriant carvings portraying the numerous gods, shown in episodes from their many stories, including depictions of transcendental male and female physical union.

Around 2,600 years ago three major religions developed in India—Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism—each with a variant belief in the transmigration of souls, reborn in new bodily form after death. In Hinduism, with its pantheon of numerous deities largely associated with natural elements and events, the ancient emphasis on the individual and the universal, male and female, the phallic lingam form and the corresponding female yoni imagery, was strongly developed. Hinduism, with its many elaborate rituals carried out by Brahmin priests, was rejected by Jainism, and also by Buddhism, started by Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563–c. 483 b.c.e.), who, through meditation directed at release from human desire, achieved the state of "enlightened one," or Buddha. Spread throughout India and far beyond by disciples and monks who emulated the Buddha's example, Buddhism rejected the elaborate Hindu rituals in favor of seeking release from self with the extinction of desire, leading ultimately to a state of nirvana.

Hindu architecture.

In Hindu belief the primordial world floated in a vast ocean, with a sacred mountain at its center consisting of five or six ascending levels or terraces. From this idea developed the concept of the gods residing in the mountains or in sacred caves; this led to the creation of temples as caves carved into the solid rock of cliff sides, the carved elements of the shaped space inside recalling more ancient forms once carved in wood. A good example is the Vishnu cave-temple carved out in the sixth century at Badami in Karnataka, southern India, a hall with many square columnar piers, oriented on a north-facing axis.

Two axes typically govern Hindu temple architecture: a horizontal ground-plane axial system oriented to the cardinal directions, most often facing east; and a towering mass marking a vertical axis. This vertical mass, the shikhara, represents the sacred mountain, and rises in massed layers, gently rounded at the top. The enormously thick masonry walls of the base enclose a small internal chamber, the sacred cave-womb space, garbhagriha. Leading up to the garbhagriha are several chambers, aligned on the principal east-facing axis, surrounded by columnar porches, the entire complex set on a tall plinth or base, the mandapa. The type of the northern Indian temple is well represented by the Khandariya Mahadeva temple at Khajuraho, built about 1030 in the Madhya Pradesh region of north central India, whose rising, slightly parabolically curved shikhara, in the quintessential mountain profile, is composed of bundled layers.

Buddhist architecture.

Ironically, Buddhist architecture in India is comparatively rare, surviving better in examples based on Indian prototypes but built in places to which Buddhism was carried, such as Sri Lanka and Cambodia, and in wooden framed temples built in China and Japan. The building type mostly closely related to Indian sources is the stupa. Following the Buddha's death, his ashes were divided into ten parts, which were carried to places associated with his life and teaching. These portions of his remains were buried in mounds inspired by the small mounded village memorials or chaityas traditionally built over the remains of deceased leaders. The Buddhist stupa, a large domed mound covered with stone, represents the dome of heaven; it is enclosed by circular walkways for meditation, and defined by encircling stone fences punctuated by large gates in the cardinal directions representing the winds. A splendid example (remaining in India) is the Great Stupa at Sanchi in the Madhya Pradesh, begun by the Indian ruler Asoka sometime between 273 and 236 b.c.e. The broad dome, 120 feet (36.5 meters) in diameter and rising 54 feet (16.5 meters) in height, is capped with a square railing (harmika ) and a spire-like form (chatra ) resembling superimposed umbrellas representing the stages of enlightenment achieved by Buddha as well as symbolizing the bodhi tree under which he achieved his final enlightenment. As Buddhism spread eastward, this chatra form is believed to have inspired the development of the Chinese pagoda tower (the name for which derives from the Sanskrit dagoba for stupa).

Islamic Architecture

The religious landscape of India, and indeed large portions of southeast Asia, was dramatically changed with the spread ofIslam from the west. Islamic armies of the Turks and Afghans conquered northern India in the late twelfth century, and an independent Islamic state was declared there in 1206. Mosque building now took the place of temple building, revealing a fundamental difference in the concept of the religious building. Whereas the Hindu temple was a vertical point marker in space, its interior densely enclosed, dark, mysteriously introvert, the mosque in contrast (inspired by the court of the prophet Muhammad's house in Mecca) was open to the sky, a public gathering place for prayer, extrovert. The introduction of Islam in Hindu India set up a fundamental conflict that still continues, after eight centuries, to generate intense clashes and to cause bloodshed.

By about 1500 this Islamic empire was enlarged by Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty, to extend from Afghanistan to Bengal. By this time a distinctive north Indian Islamic culture had emerged, with Islam established as the official religion, but with later Mughal emperors such as Akbar and Shah Jahan fostering a broader cultural tolerance. Where the teaching of Islam held firm, however, was in the elimination of figural sculpture from sacred buildings (although figural painting was practiced separately). Gardens, mirroring the Koranic descriptions of paradise, became a design specialty of the Mughals.

For many observers, the pinnacle of Mughal architecture was reached with the creation of a striking white marble tomb, the Taj Mahal, built by the bereft emperor Shah Jahan on the banks of Jumna River near Agra, Uttar Pradesh, to honor his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth. Begun around 1631, the building itself was finished in six years, while the garden and adjoining buildings were completed in 1643. Bounded by a wall punctuated by a large entry gate on the southern edge is a broad square garden laid out in a precise grid, with channels of water on the axes (symbolic of the rivers of paradise) converging on a slightly elevated pool in the center. Lawns and planted beds fill the four quadrangles; originally intended to have different plants producing flowers continuously during the cycle of the seasons, the flower beds were framed by fruit trees. No literate Mughal entering the garden could fail to appreciate the images of paradise that informed every aspect of the design, for over the entry gate, written out in black marble inlay in a white marble band, is this passage from the Koran:

But Oh thou soul at peace,
Return thou unto thy Lord, well-pleased, and well-pleasing unto Him,
Enter thou among thy servants,
And enter thou My paradise.

At the northern edge, on a raised platform is the white domed tomb, a masterwork conceived by the Shah's architects, Ustad Ahmed Lahori and Ahb al-Karim Ma mur Kahn, aided by the court calligrapher Amanat Khan. The square mass of the central building is a symbol of calm and harmony, for it is exactly as high as it is wide, and the height of the dome is exactly the same as that of the arched entry block. The white marble mass of the building is embellished everywhere with representations of the flowers of paradise, crafted of inlays of jade, lapis, amber, carnelian, jasper, amethyst, agate, heliotrope, and green beryl. In addition to the flower and geometrical ornamental inlays, black marble inlay everywhere presents passages from the Koran that relate to paradise on the Day of Judgment. In its purity of material and its balance of proportions, the Taj Mahal serves as a fitting representation of paradise.

Chinese Temples and Residences

Buddhism was introduced to China around the first century b.c.e. Buddhist temples there were built in the wood-frame tradition that had developed in China around the second millennium b.c.e. A good example, because constrained in size, is one of the oldest surviving wood buildings in China, the Nanchan Temple on Wutai Mountain in Shaanxi province, begun 782 c.e. Stupas in China were replaced by pagodas, inspired not only by the multilevel chatra but also drawing on the tradition of local watchtowers. The horizontal layers of the stacked parasols were modified as encircling projecting roof bands (as in the brick pagoda of the Song Yue temples at Song Mountain, Henan province, built in 523). From this evolved the timber-framed pagoda, with superimposed broad eaves carried by the densely stacked brackets, as seen in the Fogong temple at Yingxian, Shaanxi province, built in 1056.

Before the onslaught of Western influence in the nineteenth century, China's social structure had long been shaped by two philosophical systems resulting from the writings of two sages of the fifth century b.c.e.—Laozi and Confucius (Kong fuzi). These two systems fit nicely with the Chinese concept of yin and yang, the necessary presence of basic dualities or polarities in the universe, such as male and female. The system of Laozi, called Daoism (from Dao, "the way"), in comparison with Confucianism, is nonrational or naturalistic, and nonauthoritarian, embracing the spontaneous variation of nature. Confucianism, in contrast, originally developed as a system to ensure logical orderly governance, was rooted in a sense of underlying order, obedience to authority, veneration of ancestors, and respect for one's elders. These two philosophical systems were brought into alignment with the religious tenets of Buddhism, which flourished in China (prior to the Communist Revolution in the mid-twentieth century).

Confucian ideas of an orderly system intended to promote and maintain social order are well illustrated by one of the oldest manuscripts to survive in China, Kao gong ji (The artificer's record), from the fifth century. This remarkable document is a guide for laying out cities, outlining general principles that hold true in large measure for modest residential compounds as well as for the sprawling complex of the imperial household and governmental center of Ming and Qing China—the Forbidden City, Beijing. Chinese culture is about containment—the nation is bounded by a wall (the Great Wall to keep out the barbarians); the city is bounded by a wall (indeed, the word for city and wall is the same, cheng ); and the individual household compound is bounded by a closed wall. The Kao gong ji instructs that a capital city should be a square 4,000 feet to a side, oriented to the cardinal directions, with three gates to a side. The main gate should face south, and the principal street runs north-south, leading to the governmental center. Each of the cardinal axes and directions is associated with one of the five elements, with attributes and colors associated with each of the cardinal directions. East is linked with spring, wood, and the color green. South is associated with summer, fire, and red. West is associated with autumn, metal (in particular gold), and white. North is connected with winter, night, and the color black. Where the axes of the city intersect in the center, zhong, is the location of the ruler's residence and place of administration, associated with a vertical axis mundi, earth, and the royal color yellow (the central imperial palace buildings—and only these buildings—were covered with yellow glazed roof tiles). There, in a room facing southward toward a court sat the emperor, likewise facing south, at the center of all things.

Residences were walled family compounds, ruled by the male master, with lesser authority associated with his wife and several consorts. The walled house was made up of a series of inward-focused courtyards, and the "good wife" was one who never ventured outside the walls. Ideally laid out on a north-south axis, the house had a simple door opening to the street, leading to a first inner service court, lined by kitchen and service rooms to the south, with children's and guest rooms east and west. A door in the northern wall of this court led to a second inner court, lined with children's suites east and west, but on the axis on the north side of this court would be the parents' suite of rooms, often in the very center of which was a large room, the ancestral hall, with an altar on its north side for the veneration of ancestors and the gods.

In contrast to this ordered regularity and the straight axial lines of the house itself was the studied and felicitous irregularity of the adjoining garden in compounds of the more well-to-do. In a yin (feminine) and yang (male) balance, the house was seen as Confucian while the garden was Daoist. While some gardens could be large, such as the famous ones in Suzhou, even a small court could be made a symbol of nature by the adroit use of a small lagoon or pond, a few selected trees, a selected unusually irregular rock. Paths were made of curved or broken and bent lines, since inauspicious or malevolent spirits could only move along straight lines. Gardens were considered more difficult to design than houses, and they were intended to look as if they had grown entirely out of nature. Hence, the intellectual study of garden design and the making of gardens was a discipline associated with highly educated poets, philosophers, and men who had distinguished themselves in government service.

Japanese Architecture and Gardens

Japanese architecture, like Japanese culture, is distinct and unique but at the same time incorporates elements imported from China, notably Buddhism. The native religion of Japan, Shinto, is described as a form of nature's idealization, and was largely responsible (some scholars have suggested) for Japan's being able to retain a distinct cultural identity in the face of the strong Chinese influence. The "way of the gods" (the literal meaning of Shinto ) is based on deep respect for kami, an eternal superconsciousness believed to be inherent throughout nature, in ancient trees, in remarkable boulders, in streams, and other natural manifestations, provoking profound awe. Shinto as a religion is itself unique, having neither dogma, scriptures, nor form. The religious content of Shinto, reflected in a native focus on purity of form, material, and construction in objects and architecture, is thought to have been formulated during the Yayoi period (c. 300 b.c.e. to c. 300 c.e.). Kami is considered present also in human constructions of utmost simplicity of form and purity of construction. This is demonstrated by the ritual reconstruction, every twenty years, of the most sacred Shinto shrines, as at the Ise Jingu precinct or shrine on the eastern coast. There, since the reign of Emperor Temmu (672–686), now some sixty times, on identical adjoining sites, the complex of buildings has been meticulously duplicated and rebuilt with new carefully prepared cypress timbers and thick perfectly trimmed thatch roofs, leaving only the most sacred central pole covered and protected on the adjoining site, awaiting the next rebuilding.

Beauty as a principle pervading all nature and, ideally human construction, reshaped Buddhist architecture, introduced from China after 552 c.e. Factions of the imperial family, early converts to Buddhism, strongly endorsed this new religion that was seemingly so contradictory to native Shinto, and supported the building of a temple and monastery complex that became the Horuji temple complex, marked by its tall five-storied pagoda. Other larger temple and monastery compounds followed elsewhere, but perhaps the perfection of Sino-Nipponese Buddhist architecture was reached in a private residential compound converted by its owner, Fujiwara Yorimichi (994–1074) into a realization of the Pure Land Buddhist Paradise as illustrated in the Taima Mandala brought from China in the late ninth century. Built in 1053 in Uji, near Kyoto, the Byodoin contains the regent's private chapel, the Amida Hall, called the Hodo (Phoenix Hall) because its plan with central tail and outstretched wings is said to resemble the phoenix, and also because of the ceramic phoenix images crowning its roof. Reflected in the waters of the lake, the outstretched wings might be seen to suggest flight. Inside sits a gilded wooden image of the Buddha, seated on an open lotus, hands serenely folded in meditation.

An exceptionally ascetic form of Buddhism—Chan (Zen) Buddhism—was introduced from China around 1200. Emphasizing pragmatism while shunning elaborate external rituals, Zen Buddhism held strong appeal for the ruling samurai warriors. Replacing perfunctory ritual with highly focused meditation and stern self-discipline, Zen Buddhism proposed a different path to enlightenment, and its reduction to pure essence is well illustrated by the austere meditative rock gardens of Zen monasteries, most notably in the rock garden at Ryoanji, built in the 1480s in Kyoto. Within this temple courtyard, five groups of judiciously placed rocks are set into a broad bed of carefully raked white pebbles, presenting an image resembling islands in a shimmering sea or mountain tops poking through layers of clouds.

A fine residential example showing the Zen Buddhist focus on essentials and on refinement of detail can be found in the Katsura Villa, built from c. 1616 to 1660 in stages by Prince Hachijo Toshihito and his son Noritada on the Katsura River southwest of Kyoto. The plain-frame construction of now-darkened unlacquered cedar, contrasted with white plastered walls and white paper screens, the studied angles of its gentle gable roofs, and its internal spaces governed in their proportions by the standardized tatami floor mats measuring roughly 3 by 6 feet, perfectly realize Zen ideals. But as part of the villa complex itself, the purest manifestation of Zen artlessness, painstaking attention to detail, and careful balance of differing textures in building materials and garden elements is found in the five dispersed teahouses placed with subtle precision in the surrounding garden. With absolute simplicity of building materials and intimate human scale, the Japanese tea-house is the perfect setting for the austere, stylized, slowly choreographed quasi-religious tea ceremony in which partaking a beverage can be considered a Zen meditation.

See also Aesthetics: Asia ; Buddhism ; Confucianism ; Daoism ; Garden ; Religion: East and Southeast Asia ; Sacred Places ; Shinto .

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Leland M. Roth