Intangible culture with Related Tags
Heritage with Related Tags
Mount Wutai
Mount Wutai, with its five flat-topped peaks, is a sacred mountain for Buddhism. Its cultural attractions include 41 temples, including the East Hall of Foguang Temple, the tallest surviving Tang Dynasty wooden structure, which contains life-size clay sculptures. It also features the Ming Dynasty Shuxiang Temple, which contains 500 statues that weave Buddhist stories into a three-dimensional picture of mountains and rivers. Overall, the architecture on Mount Wutai records the development of Buddhist architecture over more than a thousand years and its influence on Chinese palace architecture. Mount Wutai, which literally means "Five Terraces", is the highest mountain in northern China and is striking for its rugged terrain and five empty, treeless peaks. Temples were built here from the 1st century AD to the early 20th century.
Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland
The seven timber houses on this site in eastern Sweden represent the culmination of a timber-framed building tradition in the region that dates back to the Middle Ages. They reflect the prosperity of independent farmers in the 19th century, who used their wealth to build spacious new homes with elaborately decorated outbuildings or suites for festivals. The paintings represent a fusion of folk art with styles favoured by the landowning class at the time, including Baroque and Rococo. Decorated by painters, both known and unknown itinerant artists, these listed houses represent the final flowering of a long cultural tradition.
Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Kyoto was founded in 794 AD and modeled after ancient Chinese capitals. It was the imperial capital of Japan from its founding until the mid-19th century. Kyoto was the cultural center of Japan for more than 1,000 years and is a representative of Japanese wooden architecture (especially religious buildings) and Japanese garden art, the latter of which has influenced garden design around the world.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area
There are about 48 Buddhist monuments in the Horyu-ji area of Nara Prefecture. Several of these were built in the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the oldest surviving wooden structures in the world. These masterpieces of wooden architecture are important not only for art history, as they show how Chinese Buddhist architecture and layout were adapted to Japanese culture, but also for religious history, as they were built at the same time that Buddhism was introduced to Japan from China via the Korean Peninsula.
Churches of Chiloé
The churches of Chiloé are unique examples of wooden church architecture in Latin America. They represent a tradition started by the Jesuit itinerant missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries, continued and enriched by the Franciscans in the 19th century, and still flourishing today. These churches embody the intangible wealth of the Chiloé archipelago, bearing witness to the successful fusion of indigenous and European cultures, the complete integration of the architecture with the landscape and environment, and the spiritual values of the community.
Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region
Lake Ohrid is a stunning natural wonder that provides a refuge for a wide range of local freshwater plants and animals dating back to the Tertiary period. The town of Ohrid, situated on the lakeshore, is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Built mainly between the 7th and 19th centuries, the town is home to the oldest Slavic monastery (St Pantelejmon) and over 800 Byzantine-style icons dating from the 11th to the late 14th century. In the shallow waters near the lakeshore, three sites attest to the presence of prehistoric pile dwellings, while the small forest peninsula is home to the remains of an early Christian church founded in the mid-6th century.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps
This collection of 111 small, individual sites includes remains of prehistoric pile dwellings (or stilt dwellings) in and around the Alps, built around 5000-500 BC, on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. Excavations at only some of the sites have provided evidence that provides insights into life and how communities interacted with their environment during the Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistory of Alpine Europe. 56 of the sites are located in Switzerland. These settlements are a unique group of archaeological sites, well-preserved and culturally rich, and are one of the most important sources for studying early agricultural societies in the region.
Sudanese style mosques in northern Côte d’Ivoire
The eight small adobe mosques at Tenggerira, Kuto, Sorobongo, Samatijira, Mbengue, Kong and Kawara feature prominent wooden structures, vertical buttresses topped with pottery or ostrich eggs, and tapering minarets. They represent an architectural style thought to have originated in the town of Djenné around the 14th century, when it was part of the Mali Empire, which prospered on the gold and salt trade across the Sahara to North Africa. From the 16th century onwards in particular, the style spread southward from the desert regions to the Sudanese savannah, where buildings became shorter and buttresses more substantial due to a wetter climate. The mosques are the best preserved of 20 such structures still in existence in Côte d’Ivoire, which at the beginning of the last century had hundreds of them. The mosques have a distinctive Sudanese style, endemic to the West African savannah region, and developed between the 17th and 19th centuries, when merchants and scholars expanded southwards from the Mali Empire, extending trans-Saharan commercial routes into forested areas. They are important testaments to the trans-Saharan trade that facilitated the expansion of Islam and Islamic culture, and reflect a fusion of Islamic and local architectural forms that continues to this day.
L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
At the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement provide evidence of the first European presence in North America. Excavated remains of timber-framed peat-turf buildings are similar to those found in Greenland and Iceland in northern Europe.
Old Rauma
Rauma, located on the Gulf of Bothnia, is one of Finland's oldest ports. Rauma was built around a Franciscan monastery, where the mid-15th-century Church of the Holy Cross still stands today, an outstanding example of a Nordic timber-framed ancient town. Although it was destroyed by fire in the late 17th century, it still retains its ancient vernacular architectural heritage.
Church Town of Gammelstad, Luleå
Gammelstad, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, is the best-preserved example of a unique type of "church village" that once existed across northern Scandinavia. 424 wooden houses are crammed around an early 15th-century stone church, which was used only on Sundays and religious festivals to accommodate worshippers from the surrounding countryside who were unable to return home during the day due to the long distances and transportation.
Bryggen
Bryggen is Bergen's old wharf, a reminder of the town's importance as part of the Hanseatic League trading empire from the 14th to the mid-16th century. Bryggen has suffered from fires several times, the most recent in 1955, which destroyed Bryggen's characteristic timber houses. Its reconstruction followed traditional patterns and methods, so its main structure has been preserved, a remnant of the old timber-framed urban architecture that was once common in Northern Europe. Today, about 62 buildings remain in this former townscape.
Vlkolínec
Vrkolinec, located in central Slovakia, is a well-preserved settlement of 45 buildings with the traditional features of a Central European village. It is the most complete collection of this type of traditional wooden houses in the region, which are usually found in mountainous areas.
Himeji-jo
Himeji Castle is the best-preserved example of early 17th-century Japanese castle architecture, consisting of 83 buildings with a highly developed defense system and sophisticated protective devices dating back to the early shogunate period. It is a masterpiece of wooden architecture that combines practicality and beauty, with white plastered earth walls unifying the elegant appearance and a subtle relationship between the building volumes and multi-layered roofs.
Old Town Lunenburg
Lunenburg is the most complete surviving British colonial plan in North America. Founded in 1753, the city retains its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern developed in England. Over the centuries, residents have worked to preserve the city's character, retaining the wooden architecture of the houses, some of which date back to the 18th century.
Li Shutong Memorial Hall
The Li Shutong Memorial Hall is a national 3A-level tourist attraction and a municipal patriotic education base. The memorial hall consists of two parts: the former residence and the garden, with a total area of 4,000 square meters. The former residence covers an area of 1,400 square meters. The main building, interior furnishings, and outdoor cultural landscape are rebuilt according to historical data. It is mainly based on traditional wooden structures, with four courtyards and a "field"-shaped residential pattern. The key restored landscapes include Tongda Money House, Buddhist Hall, Living Room, Western Study, Chinese Study, Yi Garden, and some plaques and couplets. The garden covers an area of 2,600 square meters and consists of Taihu stone rockery, ponds, long pavilions, and Master Hongyi Memorial Pavilion. The exhibition consists of five parts: indoor and outdoor restoration, Li Shutong's life picture exhibition, Li Shutong's life stone carvings and calligraphy and seal carving imitation outdoor exhibition area, and outdoor art creation exhibition.
Dule Temple
Dule Temple, commonly known as Dafo Temple, is located on West Street in Jixian County, Tianjin. Legend has it that An Lushan rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and swore an oath here because he wanted to be an emperor and "wanted to enjoy happiness alone instead of sharing happiness with the people", hence the name of the temple. The ancient temple was built in the tenth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the second year of Tonghe in the Liao Dynasty (984 AD). It is one of the only three remaining Liao Dynasty temples in China and was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in the first batch announced by the State Council in 1961. It is also one of the ten scenic spots in Tianjin. Dule Temple is now listed in the preliminary list of world historical and cultural heritage. The mountain gate is three bays wide and two bays deep. The bracket is equivalent to half of the column. It is strong and powerful, a typical Tang Dynasty style. It is the earliest existing hip-and-gable mountain gate in my country. The plaque "Dule Temple" hanging on the mountain gate is said to be written by Yan Song, an official in the Ming Dynasty. There are two tall statues of heavenly kings guarding the two sides of the mountain gate, commonly known as the two generals "Heng" and "Ha", which are precious Liao Dynasty colored sculptures. The ridge of the main gate of Dule Temple has a long tail that turns inward, like a pheasant flying, which is very vivid. It is the earliest ridge of the existing ancient buildings in my country. The main building Guanyin Pavilion is five bays wide and four bays deep. The plaque "Guanyin Pavilion" hangs high on the eaves of the pavilion, which is said to be written by Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty. Guanyin Pavilion is 23 meters high and made of wood. It is the culmination of my country's wooden structure buildings and the earliest existing wooden structure pavilion in China. Guanyin Pavilion looks like it has only two floors, but it is actually a three-story ancient wooden structure building. There is a dark layer built with waist eaves and flat railings between the upper and lower floors. There is a 16.27-meter-high statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva in the pavilion, which is a treasure of Liao Dynasty clay sculpture art and the largest Guanyin statue in China. The tall Guanyin statue stands on the Xumi pedestal in the center of the pavilion, passing through the second and third platforms upwards and directly into the octagonal caisson in the top bucket shape. The statue of Guanyin has kind eyes and a smile on her face, and she looks as close as if she were in the human world. To show the great power of Guanyin, the sculptor sculpted ten small Guanyins on top of her head, so she is also known as the "Eleven-faced Guanyin". On both sides of Guanyin stand two Bodhisattvas, with plump faces and graceful postures, which are in the same vein as the Tang Dynasty ladies' paintings. The four walls of Guanyin Pavilion are painted with colorful murals. On both sides of the south wall gate are four-armed and three-headed six-armed Mingwang statues, and on both sides of the north wall back door and the east and west walls are painted with the Sixteen Arhats. These are the essence of ancient art.