Architecture 200 :: History of Ideas in Architecture I

Study Guide :: Unit 5

Building in the Service of Belief: Monasteries, Pilgrimage Shrines, and Heavenly Monuments, 400 CE–1200 CE

In this unit we trace an architecture of persuasion as it reaches from the centres to the frontiers of belief systems. Conquest and conversion go hand in hand. Engagement of the faithful is an important element. Shrines, pilgrimage sites, and accommodation for mass participation are hallmarks of a new order of building types. Gothic cathedrals with their soaring vaults and sumptuously decorated naves bathed in the suffused light of stained glass provide a foretaste and evocation of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Monastic rule and the buildings that codify the beliefs and practices underpinning it, along with attendant shrines and reliquaries to attract pilgrims, are formulated into ritual complexes as these ideas drive architectural form and decoration from northern Europe to southern Japan.

However, the architecture of persuasion is also as inventive as the beliefs and philosophies behind it, and new variants arise from the diverse personal causes at work behind those beliefs. We can trace how new forms of shrines and churches emerge as Christianity diverges in Greek and Latin orthodoxies. As Shia and Umayyad Islam is institutionalized, the mosque emerges. Temple forms are adapted to accommodate Hinduism in India, Buddhism in Japan, and the merging of ancient Taoist practices with the beliefs of Buddhism and Confucius in China.

Learning Objectives

• Understand how belief systems in the period ca. 400 CE to ca. 1200 CE drive the invention of new architectural forms to accommodate a new kind of popular participation in religious ritual and ceremony.
• Distinguish these new architectural forms (e.g., the pilgrimage shrine and the monastery), and examine how they are variously adapted to place, ideology, and belief in Europe, China, Japan, Indonesia, Burma, the Mediterranean, and South America.
• Appreciate how decorative (often sculptural) programs begin to serve systematic mass educational ends.

Learning Activities

• Recommended time to complete this unit: 2 weeks.
• Access the course home page for news and updates.
• Access and review the course-support websites.
• Check in with your Academic Expert.
• Read the Study Guide case studies and the assigned readings for this unit; check the recommended online links.
• Read A Global History of Architecture, “800 CE.”
• Continue to build your Journal.
• Answer five of the study questions at the end of this unit.
• Complete and submit Assignment 5: Long Research Essay.

Case Study 1

Chang’an (“Perpetual Peace”) City, China

Wade–Giles (an alternative spelling and pronunciation system): Ch'ang-an

Imperial capital to numerous dynasties, Chang’an was revived in the 4th century CE as a center of Buddhist learning. By 750 CE, under the Tang, it may have housed about 1,000,000 residents. Built on wealth from the Silk Road, it was famous for its monasteries, libraries, scholarship, and prized relics (including four of Buddha’s teeth), as well as for its trade economy (it saw the invention of the bill of exchange). The neighbourhood system of gridded-square-blocks (fangs) was planned by imperial engineer Yuwen Kai (555–612 CE). It became the model for city planning throughout China, Korea, and Japan but was mostly demolished in 904 CE when the capital was moved to Luoyang.

Case Study 2

Akapana Pyramid, Temple of Tiwanaku, La Paz, Bolivia

(Spanish: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu)

Around 400 CE Tiwanaku emerged as an expansive imperial state; by 800 CE it was a large urban centre. The main temple, a series of terraced platforms surrounded by an immense artificial moat, illustrated the sacred order of the universe while marking the location of sacred springs, the origin of mankind. The temple housed a priest cult; the priests were viewed as guardians and representatives of this sacred universe.

Case Study 3

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Israel

(or Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, or the Church of the Resurrection)

Constructed by Constantine, the church was begun in 335 CE and finished about 400 CE. It was intended to enshrine the tomb of Christ and the site of the discovery of the “true cross.” The most venerated pilgrimage site in Christendom, it was later the destination of numerous crusades. It included a colonnaded atrium for the mass assembly of the faithful, a basilica church, and a rotunda containing the tomb. It provided the model for numerous “copies,” such as San Stefano, in Bologna. It was completely destroyed in 1009 CE by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah; reconstruction in 1027–1028 focused on the rotunda.

Case Study 4

Loro Jonggran, Candi Prambanan, Central Java, Indonesia

[Candi Rara Jonggrang (Wikipedia)]

Construction began in 850 CE. Only 32km from Borobudur, this Hindu temple complex signified regime change. It promoted ideas of the divine kingship of Mararam Balitung (d. 910 CE; claimed to be an incarnation of Shiva), as well as being dedicated to the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Three central shrine towers are surrounded by 224 small shrines.

Case Study 5

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

(Arabic, Harim al-sharif)

An octagonal shrine capped by a gilded dome, the Dome of the Rock was commissioned by Abdul-Malik, ninth Umayyad caliph of Islam, and erected by Syrian workmen 685–705 CE, along with a mosque (al-Aqsa, rebuilt in 780, restored in 1035 CE). The mosque-type form is actually a monumental response to pious belief in Mohammed's presence at this place during a mystic night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. The original wooden dome was rebuilt after 1016. The interior surfaces were covered with brilliantly colored stucco work. There have been restorations and changes at various later times, most notably in the 16th century.

Case Study 6

Great Mosque, Córdoba, Spain

(Cathedral-Mosque of Córdoba)

The Mosque at Córdoba was built 784–787 CE, and was intended to consolidate Islamic/Arab rule in Spain. By the end of the 10th century, Córdoba was the largest city in Europe. The Great Mosque illustrated the development of the mosque as a unique building type. Centred on a hypostyle communal prayer hall, with a walled courtyard, it also exemplifies one of the first uses of a minaret. The complex included the caliph’s palace, and by symbolic association brought together the secular and spiritual realms of political power. At the time nothing equaled its scale in Europe. Now incorporated into a cathedral church, only a small part of the original structure survives.

Case Study 7

Abbey Church of St. Riquier (Centula), near Amiens, France

The abbey (a church connected to a monastery) was completed in 799 CE. As originally built, it served to illustrate typical characteristics of the northern European development of the basilica church: west and east cylindrical towers, transept, and apsidal choir. The monastery housed 300 monks, and 100 novices. Pilgrims were attracted by its collection of 25 sacred relics.

Case Study 8

Plan of St. Gall (Codex Sangallensis), St. Gallen, Switzerland

Named after the Abbey of St. Gall library in which it was kept, the plan was drawn in red ink on calfskin in the 9th century CE. Now in the collection of the Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen, Ms 1092, this “ideal” plan provides insight into the organization of a Christian Benedictine pilgrim monastery for 110 monks and about 100 lay people, built around an abbey church. There is no evidence the monastery was ever built.

Case Study 9

Borobudur, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Built between 760 and 830 CE, Borobudur is one of the first Mahayana Buddhist stupa pilgrimage complexes. Its plan follows a mandala diagram within a complex system of axial symmetry, while its form references the “great cosmic mountain.” Designed so the pilgrim would move through the site, the spaces are organized as a progression of lessons, or levels on 1,460 relief panels, at the end of which successful students can attain the state of bodhi (perfect wisdom).

Case Study 10

Great Mosque of Samarra, Samarra, Iraq

Built between 848 and 851 CE, it was at the time the largest mosque in the world. The city of Samarra covered 50 square kilometers, the palace and gardens of the Abbasid caliph, Al-Mutawakkil, occupied more than 173 hectares on a cliff overlooking the Tigris River. The mosque’s interior (38,000 square metres) featured four hypostyle structures and 17 aisles surrounding a courtyard. The unique free-standing spiral minaret was built on an axis to the principal north entrance, and was wide enough that a donkey carrying a rider could climb it. The association of a palace with a mosque may signal an evolution from more egalitarian earlier times to the more hierarchical Persian times in which secular and religious power were more closely aligned. A reconstruction of the mosque was started in the 1990s.

Case Study 11

Dagobas at Pagan (Bagan), Burma

The Shwezigon dagoba (“pagoda”) was completed in 1196 CE. Typical of Pagan dagobas in its combination of diversity within a replicative formula, Shwezigon (or Dhamma-yazyka) rises off a five-sided base, with three terraces, each sheathed in terracotta plaques illustrating Jataka tales; at each of the five corners there is a small temple with a stupa. The people of the Kingdom of Pagan, observing a pure form of Buddhism, were great dynastic powers of Southeast Asia, eventually dominating a vast territory that included most of present-day Burma. Pagan kings, like the Khmers of Cambodia, adopted the Hindu idea that Buddha was a manifestation of Vishnu and that a virtuous king could also be a manifestation of Vishnu. The capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, Arimaddanapura (city of the crusher of enemies), was at the centre of their rule, during which they built over 2,000 of these temples and stupas; this one was a classic example.

Study Questions

Choose five of the study questions to answer.

1. Choose two case studies from the Study Guide for this unit. Find their sections in A Global History of Architecture, and then examine two online resources covering each of these cases. What is the difference in the organization of information, point of view, analysis, emphasis, visualization, and use of sources between your print textbook and the online media?
2. Annotate a ground plan or map of Chang’an, China, and explain how the city developed to accommodate and express the interests of Buddhist belief, civic administration, commerce, and imperial power.
3. In note form, describe the main architectural elements of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. Then note the practical and symbolic functions of these elements, and the role each plays in accommodating the pilgrim visitors, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
4. Using ground plans of the actual abbey church and monastery of St. Riquier, France, and the ideal plan of St. Gall, compare and make notes on how pilgrims might have been received, accommodated, and circulated through these sites, as well as what these plans reveal about the life (work, commerce, ritual observances, etc.) of the monks who lived there or who would have lived there.
5. In illustrated note form, explain how cosmological belief systems were “built into” the temple complexes at Akapana, Bolivia, and Shwezigon Dagoba (pagoda), Burma.
6. Using sketch plans of Borobudur, in Indonesia, indicate how traffic flow and the sequencing of the ritualistic experience were designed into this site.
7. Drawing on any three case studies from this unit, explain in a short essay (500–750 words) how architectural form and decorative (i.e., sculptural) iconography reveal how religious beliefs serve political ideologies.

Assignment for Credit

Complete Assignment 5 before proceeding to Unit 6.