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BOOK REVIEWS
CHINESE BUDDHIST MONASTERIES: THEIR PLAN AND ITS FUNCTION AS A SETTING FOR BUDDHIST MONASTIC LIFE, J. Prip-Møller, Architect, F.R.I.D.A., Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 1967, pp vii, 300. HK$250.
According to my encyclopaedia, architecture is concerned with finding practical and aesthetic solutions to the problem of enclosing spaces for living, worship and work. But what sort of limitations are imposed on plans by the needs of the particular activity enclosed; and conversely too, one supposes, what sort of limitations are imposed on the activity itself by the building techniques developed by a culture? Mr. Prip-Møller is a scholar who attempts to answer such questions in perhaps one of the most difficult fields: an oriental, monastically based, religion which although not changing over much during the centuries it has been established in China, makes all sorts of complex demands on the designers of buildings to house its celibate communities.
The knowledge necessary for a study of this kind is of course very special: not only architectural, but cultural and religious as well. The author of this book, first published in Denmark thirty years ago and now here in reprint in Hong Kong, was well-qualified however for the task he set himself. In setting out to see how the plans of Chinese Buddhist monasteries have related to the needs of Buddhism and the way of life, training and spiritual goals of its monks, he was already armed with extensive architectural knowledge and professional experience in China, and a great deal of knowledge also of the Buddhist religion (a study of meditation ritual is among his other publications). He already spoke the language, and travelled extensively, mainly in central China and the Yangtze valley where Buddhism was still in a flourishing condition, in search of his data, and architectural sketches and plans.
The result of this painstaking and lengthy research is a book of considerable value and interest to many kinds of reader. Although personally, I would have liked to see a chapter at the end drawing together the more fundamental points about functional relationships, everything of significance appears to have been covered. There is much information on Buddhist monasticism itself, including the training of novices, descriptions of ordinations, monastic rules and monastic punishments. There are also very plentiful and interesting illustrative materials relating to monasteries and the Chinese monastic way of life.