Page 59 - JCAU-6-4

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Distribution and landscape patterns of cultural

heritage in monastic settlements on the Western
Sichuan plateau: A case study of Ganzi Tibetan

Autonomous Prefecture

Ziyi Zhang and Kangcai Nie*
Department of Urban and Rural Planning, School of Architecture, Southwest Minzu University,
Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Abstract

The cultural heritage of temples represents a visible achievement of civilization,
engraved on the Chinese land. The unique geographical and cultural resources
of the Western Sichuan plateau have given rise to numerous distinctive Tibetan
Buddhist temple communities. This study focuses on the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture as a representative case, defining the research scope, area, boundaries, and
landscape types based on land use and land cover data. Using ArcGIS and Fragstats,
the study analyzed the generation and distribution of temple-related cultural
*Corresponding author: heritage, as well as the composition characteristics of various landscape patches. The
Kangcai Nie landscape pattern indices were calculated to examine the spatial arrangement and
(23500003@swun.edu.can) relationships between different landscape patch types. Furthermore, the research
Citation: Zhang, Z. & Nie, K. explored the pattern and fundamental characteristics of the landscape associated
(2024). Distribution and landscape with temple communities. The findings offer theoretical insights into the protection,
patterns of cultural heritage in
monastic settlements on the development, and spatial management of temple cultural heritage on the Western
Western Sichuan plateau: A case Sichuan plateau.
study of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture. Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism, Keywords: Western Sichuan plateau; Monastic settlement; Distribution characteristics;
6(4), 2503.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2503 Landscape pattern
Received: December 21, 2023
Accepted: January 31, 2024
1. Introduction
Published Online: October 3, 2024
The cultural heritage of Tibetan temples is a visible achievement of civilization, deeply
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an open-access article embedded in the Chinese landscape. Throughout the course of Chinese civilization,
distributed under the terms of the Tibetan Buddhist temples scattered across the Western Sichuan plateau have served as
Creative Commons Attribution- centers of cultural production and spiritual life, contributing significantly to the spiritual
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all unity of the Chinese nation.
non-commercial use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, The unique geographic landscape and cultural resources of the Western Sichuan
provided the original work is plateau have fostered the development of numerous distinctive Tibetan Buddhist temple
properly cited. communities. Exploring the distribution patterns of these cultural heritage sites can
Publisher’s Note: AccScience reveal the influence of human activity and social development on the development of
Publishing remains neutral with these temple communities. Landscape pattern refers to the spatial arrangement and is
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional the result of the combination of different landscape patches. This pattern is inextricably
affiliations. related to cultural formation, settlement development, and industrial positioning.

Volume 6 Issue 4 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2503