many of the monasteries of the sacred Buddhist peak Koya,
trace their origins to this period. So does the Eastern Monas-
tery, To ̄ji, in Kyoto. Although buildings of temple com-
pounds in the middle part of the Heian period remained
small in comparison to their Nara counterparts, decoration
became lavish. The change corresponded to the surge in Pure
Land Buddhism, whose monasteries often included a re-
creation of the Buddha’s paradise, or Pure Land, in the form
of a hall with a lotus pond in front of it. The Phoenix Hall
of the Byo ̄do ̄in in Uji, once the residence of one of Japan’s
wealthiest families, and the Golden Hall of Chu ̄ sonji in
Hiraizumi are typical Fujiwara-period (951–1086) monas-
tery buildings. By the end of the Heian period, however,
much less ornate temple compounds became popular: one-
bay square halls dedicated to Amita ̄bha Buddha of the West-
ern Paradise were common.
Austere construction characterized temple compounds
of the next period of Japanese history, named Kamakura
(1185–1333) after the location of its capital, when the power
of government lay in the hands of the military ruler known
as the shogun. Austerities suited to a militaristic age were
compatible with Zen Buddhism, a meditational sect, which
became popular across Japan beginning in the thirteenth
century. Like Esoteric and Pure Land Buddhism, Zen was
transmitted from China. Yet even from the twelfth, thir-
teenth, and fourteenth centuries, when Chan (Jpn., Zen)
flourished in South China, few temple compounds survive
intact, in contrast to the scores of Zen temple compounds
with original structures in Japan. Zen temple compounds are
known for two-story entry gates where portrait statues of the
sixteen arhats were installed on the second floor. The main
Buddha hall of a Zen temple compound, where public cere-
monies were enacted, was known as butsuden. Other assem-
blages of monks took place in the law hall. Both in Kamaku-
ra and later in Kyoto in the fourteenth through sixteenth
centuries, Zen temple compounds consisted of public recep-
tion space, used chiefly by the main abbot; abbot’s quarters;
halls for study and meditation; a hall for su ̄ tra recitation; a
hall dedicated to the monastery founder; and usually gar-
dens. The abbot’s quarters traced its origins to a humble one-
bay square hut (ho ̄jo ̄), the kind of dwelling used by the earli-
est Indian Buddhists, but these became increasingly impor-
tant and lavish by the end of the twelfth century. Yet another
hall type of Zen temple compounds was the shariden, the
relic hall. Examples of all these structures remain in Kamaku-
ra and most survive at one of the best examples of a Zen tem-
ple compound, the To ̄fukuji in Kyoto. Two styles of Kama-
kura temple compounds originated on China’s southeastern
coast. They were differentiated by the names Indian style and
Tang (or Chinese) style, even though their buildings used
Chinese components from base to roof. Other temple archi-
tecture of the period and as late as the fifteenth century was
designated Japanese (native) style and mixed style.
The return of the shogunate to the Japanese capital in
Kyoto ushered in the Muromachi age (1338–1573), a period
of luxurious living represented by the Silver Pavilion and the
Golden Pavilion. Each was a devotional-meditational-
reception hall for the private use of the shogun at his residen-
tial-religious building complexes. The in-town shogunate
residences also included tea huts and Zen meditational gar-
dens, sometimes made largely of rocks. The Muromachi pe-
riod was the last age of great innovation in Buddhist temple
architecture in Japan.
Temple compounds survive, are restored, and built
anew in China, Korea, and Japan today. After a millennium-
and-a-half of history, they are still centers of Buddhist educa-
tion, worship, and communal life.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prip-Moller, Johannes. Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: Their Plan
and its Function as a Setting for Buddhist Monastic Life. Co-
penhagen, 1937.
Seckel, Dietrich. The Art of Buddhism. Translated by Ann Keep.
New York, 1968.
Soper, Alexander. The Evolution of Buddhist Architecture in Japan.
Princeton, N.J., 1942.
Steinhardt, Nancy S., ed. and expander. Chinese Architecture. New
Haven, Conn., 2002.
Suzuki Kakichi. Early Buddhist Architecture in Japan. Translated
by Mary N. Parent and Nancy S. Steinhardt. Tokyo, New
York, and San Francisco, 1980.
Zhongguo jianzhu yishu quanji, vol. 12: Fojiao jianzhu. Pt. 1: The
North, edited by Cao Changzhi. Beijing, 2002; Pt. 2: The
South, edited by Ding Chengpu. Beijing, 1999.
Zhongguo meishu quanji, vol. 4: Zongjia jianzhu, edited by Sun
Dazhang and Yu Weiguo. Beijing, 1991.
NANCY SHATZMAN STEINHARDT (2005)TEMPLE: BUDDHIST TEMPLE COMPOUNDS
IN TIBET
The area covered by Tibetan Buddhist culture—which ex-
tends from the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China into
neighboring Chinese provinces and into adjacent parts of
India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma (Myanmar)—shares a
common architectural tradition. The basic units are the tem-
ple and the stupa. Temples may stand alone either in open
countryside or in a village or town, or more commonly they
may, singly or in a group, form the core of a monastic com-
munity, or sometimes of a fortified palace complex. Stupas,
usually modest in size, are ubiquitous features of the land-
scape. Occasionally a stupa of massive proportions will dom-
inate a monastery or temple site.
The architectural style of Tibetan Buddhism is distinc-
tive and as such has been exported to Mongolia and parts of
China, and to Tibetan refugee communities around the
world. The style has been created over some fourteen centu-
ries as an eclectic mix from a variety of sources. Basic design
concepts of plan and elevation—viha ̄ra, man:d:ala, multisto-TEMPLE: BUDDHIST TEMPLE COMPOUNDS IN TIBET 9049