Tibetan Architecture

Potala Palace, the symbol of Tibet, is the most outstanding architecture for visitor to touch the buildings in Tibet. Besides this one, those typical architectures which are colored in some bright colors will shock you immediately. From monasteries to residential buildings, from the monk’s overall to the laymen’s garments, even to furniture and knitting, all the colors are rich and vigorous. However, there’s no a better place to show such a magnificence of colors than the toilets on the Tibet Plateau.

Characters
Influenced by architectural culture of Chinese and Indian, Tibetan buildings give people extremely exotic feelings. And Tibet is an area melted the Buddhist culture every where, so the houses here also tell people the religious connotation of this region.

The most unusual feature of Tibetan architecture is that many of the houses and monasteries are built on elevated, sunny sites facing the south, and are often made out a mixture of rocks, wood, cement and earth. Little fuel is available for heat or lighting, so flat roofs are built to conserve heat, and multiple windows are constructed to let in sunlight. Walls are usually sloped inwards at 10 degrees as a precaution against frequent earthquakes in the mountainous area.

Local Residences
Housing styles in Tibet vary according to regional conditions. The most common style is the white Stone Tower.

Stone towers are built like military fortifications. The perimeters of these buildings are usually built in the shape of a trapezoid for increased strength. They are usually two-story buildings made of stone and wood. The lower floor is where livestock is stabled. .The upper floor is comprised of living rooms for the family, storerooms and a shrine room. Unlike the ancient eave-styled houses typical in inland China which are designed for areas of higher rainfall, the Tibetan Stone Towers have flat roofs which make removing the frequent snows easy.

Traditional Kham architecture is seen in most dwellings in Kangding. Although the area has been previously heavily logged, wood is imported and used abundantly for housing. Horizontal timber beams support the roof which in turn is supported by wooden columns. The interior of houses are usually paneled with wood and the cabinetry is ornately decorated. In Ganzi, Kham, surrounded by forests, is known for its beautiful wooden houses built in a range of styles and lavishly decorated with wooden ornamentation.

Besides these two, there are also single-story houses in Tibet, as well as tents in the pastures of Northern Tibet, which are also elaborately designed and mostly used as shrines now. In the forested eastern region wooden houses are more popular. In the remote Ngari and other regions, caves and earthen houses are built.

Religious Architectures
In Tibet, people may find the temples are built much more magnificent than their houses. Because religious Tibetans think their houses are only resting places for their bodies while temples are for their souls. So the holy places such as temples will express more Tibetan culture.

According to the Buddhist sutras the universe is composed of four huge continents and eight small continents and its center is Mt. Meru. Tibetans follow this cosmology and create artwork called Mandalas as miniature representations of the universe. They also apply their cosmology to the design of their architecture. The halls in the Samye Monastery and Tholing Monastery are examples of this. Golden Roofs are another unique feature of Tibetan temples. They are usually decorated with many holy or auspicious subjects such as lotuses, stupas, Dharma Wheels, inverted bells, prayer flags and animals.

Unique decorations are applied around these temples. Bright red, yellow and white make the Tibet temples more impressive than the local residences. This then makes the internal halls quite dark and allows beams of sunlight from the upper windows to be used to focus on and highlight the faces of the statues. This makes the statues seem more sublime. Every part of the temples is well-painted. Murals, using the five colors significant in Buddhism, are very common on the temple walls. These colors and their symbolic significance are red--fire, yellow--earth, blue--sky, white--cloud and green—water. Most of the murals have religious motifs, including religious figures, stories or propitious religious symbols.