RESEARCH ARTICLE

Typology of religious spaces in the urban historical area of Lhasa, Tibet

  • Yingzi Zhang ,
  • Tao Wei
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  • Department of Architecture, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China

Received date: 25 Nov 2016

Revised date: 14 May 2017

Accepted date: 14 May 2017

Published date: 26 Sep 2017

Copyright

2017 2017 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

This work focuses on the spatial compositions and characteristics of religious sites and surrounding pilgrimage space in the city of Lhasa, which is the sacred center of Tibet. The modernization and urbanization of the city in recent decades have transformed the spatial and socioeconomic positions of its urban religious sites. The present study offers insights into the composition of urban religious spaces in the city of Lhasa with consideration to the spatiality and sociality of these spaces. After examining the current situations of religious spaces, we classify the target spaces into five types using the cluster analysis method and identify the characteristics of each type. We then discuss the socioeconomic values of each type of religious space and derive recommendations for planners. The analysis performed in this study may contribute in the special planning for the protection of religious traditions.

Cite this article

Yingzi Zhang , Tao Wei . Typology of religious spaces in the urban historical area of Lhasa, Tibet[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2017 , 6(3) : 384 -400 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2017.05.001

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