Folk buddhist temples on the land of Quang: a review on constructional history, architecture and worship

Abstract

There exists two types of traditional Viet Namese temples on the land of Quảng (former Quang Nam - Da Nang province): temples of monks and nuns, and temples of the people. The first type is called the “official Buddhist temples” in the sense of being the important and universal basis of Buddhism. The second one is called the “unofficial/folk Buddhist temples” in the sense of non-mainstream meaning, which is typical of Viet Namese folklore. In order to provide basic knowledge about the Viet Namese temples in general and folk temples in particular on the land of Quãng, and in order to identify one of the special aspects of Buddhism in this land, the paper focuses on the systematically comprehensive review of the folk temples through analyzing the constructional history, restoration and embellishment, architecture, and worship within the timeframe from the 17th century to 1945.