\[ **BT: [[art#architecture, garden and landscape design, and urban design]]** ] --- # architecture ## architecture and religious beliefs ### the importance of location [[When (historically) building religious edifices, location mattered. Lecouteux describes the necessity of a 'magically pure place', i.e. one without a pre-existing supernatural presence. This was the case in both Europe and China.]][^1] ### the significance of various elements #### walls [[In China, a 'shadow wall' was a short wall erected directly behind the main entrance. The goal was to keep out evil spirits, who can only move in a straight line (and therefore not navigate around the shadow wall).]][^2] #### rooves [[In many places, including in southern China, ‘three tiles are removed from the roof in order to ease the passing’ of a dying person.]][^3] [[In England, a house’s roof’s ‘ridge tile was called the “soul window”’.]][^4] [[Globally, ‘the roof is connected to ideas about the beyond’ (i.e. the afterlife).]][^5] [^1]: Claude Lecouteux, *[[Lecouteux, Tradition of Household Spirits, 2000|The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices]]*, trans. Jon E. Graham (Inner Traditions, 2000), p. 19. [^2]: Wolfram Eberhard, *[[Eberhard, Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, 1986|A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought]]* (Routledge 1986), p. 263. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchin00wolf/. [^3]: Claude Lecouteux, *[[Lecouteux, Tradition of Household Spirits, 2000|The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices]]*, trans. Jon E. Graham (Inner Traditions, 2000), p. 39. [^4]: Claude Lecouteux, *[[Lecouteux, Tradition of Household Spirits, 2000|The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices]]*, trans. Jon E. Graham (Inner Traditions, 2000), p. 39. [^5]: Claude Lecouteux, *[[Lecouteux, Tradition of Household Spirits, 2000|The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices]]*, trans. Jon E. Graham (Inner Traditions, 2000), p. 39.