Physical aspects of Buddhist sacred place in congested urban context: examination of contemporary Buddhist architecture in Western Province

Abstract

Image and the Imageability are the main physical aspects which can be identified in a place. Capacity of image making of a 'place' is called as the imageability of the place. That ability of a place is determined by its imageable structure which consist with the sensible and perceptual arrangement. Religious buildings and places evoke speical images for people . Because , religion has done a major role of the transition of human beingsfrom barbarians to civilized people. Most Buddhist sacred places in rural areas are possessed with considerable images. But, due to the unavoidable urbanization of towns, the Buddhist sacred places in congested urban contexts have more restrictions of projecting their images. Their perceptual arrangement is not strong as a Buddhist sacred place. The study finds that sensible arrangement can be used as the tool for their physical aspects. Activities in some urban Buddhist sacred places are lest functioning and other unnessary activities are invading into that Buddhist sacred place. It may be lead to the destruction of the Buddhist society . To avoid that dangerous situation, the study proposes that the weakenesses of sensible and perceptual arrangements of Buddhist sacred places in congested urban contexts to be identified and improved to give a certain amount of physical aspects for that Buddhist sacred places.