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Description of  Architecture, Ritual and Cosmology in China: The Buildings of the Order of the Dong (Routledge Research in Architecture)

1032133554 rar 1032133554 rar Drawing on the authors extensive fieldwork in the Dong areas in southwest China, this book presents a detailed picture of the Dongs buildings and techniques, with new insights into the Dongs cosmology and rituals of everyday life meshed with the architecture, and the symbolic meanings. It examines how the buildings and techniques of the Dong are ordered and influenced by the local culture and context. The timber bridges and drum towers are the Dongs most prominent architectural monuments. Usually built elaborately with multiple roofs, these bridges and drum towers were designed and maintained by the local carpenters who also built the village suspended houses, in an oral tradition carried down from father to son or to apprentice. They were funded entirely by the local people, and the bridges tend to be built in places without great pressure of traffic or another bridge already existing close by. Why does such great expense go into the Dongs buildings with elaboration? How were they built? And what do they mean to their users and builders?