Outside the European Tradition #2

Select and fully identify two examples of sacred spaces from different cultures, one of which must be from beyond the European tradition. Discuss how each space accommodates both religious beliefs and practices within its culture.


The Fougang Si Pagoda in Yingxian, China is a Buddhist pagoda that also happens to be the tallest wooden building in the world. Many pagodas housed relics such as statues of Buddha and sacred images and texts, all of which provided a place for devotion to Buddha. Unlike Christianity, which focuses on large gathering spaces for many people to congregate together, Buddhists built more intimate facilities for meditation and other such practices. They were not focused on the socialization aspect of religion, but the meditative. Nevertheless, this Buddhist pagoda is of monumental scale, which shows that the Chinese still wanted to create a building that would be impressive to their god. With this pagoda they accomplished a large scale monument for their god that also suited the meditative activities they wanted to perform inside of it.


Florence Cathedral, which was the center for all of the most important religious practices in Florence during the 14th c., was built by Arnolfo Di Cambio in 1296. It was built with the idea that it would be able to hold all 100,000 citizens of Florence during this time period. Although this was never fully achieved, what was accomplished was an extremely beautiful and elaborate place of worship for the citizens of Florence. Florence Cathedral is the epitome of what Christians in this time period wanted to achieve with their churches. Unlike the meditative focus of Buddhism, Christianity focuses much more on congregation, which is only possible in a church of gargantuan proportions. Also, the bigger the church the more impressive. Not only were they trying to make God happy through this beautiful space of worship, they were also trying to make outsiders look at Florence with greater admiration because of this great church.