Page 65 - JCAU-6-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Cultural heritage in monastic settlements

Meanwhile, woodland and watershed landscapes serve natural resources, highlighting its reliance on rich natural
as connective elements that unify the entire monastic resources. The high AI for woodland, grassland, and
settlement. watershed landscapes suggests a centralized distribution
of natural resources around the monastery. In contrast,
5.1.3. Landscape pattern characteristics of Tangbo the arable land shows low AI and IJI, indicating that it is
temple: Temple-village type embedded within natural landscapes such as woodland
The landscape pattern characteristics of Tangbo Temple and water, which meet basic needs by relying on centralized
are shown in Table 3. The total analyzed area is 8,603.01 ha, natural resources for production. In the IJI, religious and
with 1,702 patches identified (Figure 4). Tangbo Temple is a construction site landscapes are the most widely connected
temple-village-type settlement, where woodland landscape with other types of patches. The temples serve as the core,
connecting surrounding villages, while the construction
accounts for 43.71% of the total area, grassland landscape sites are scattered around the temple, connecting with
accounts for 9.27%, and arable land accounts for 1.83%. various landscape elements. This observation reflects the
These findings indicate the temple’s strong connection to scattered distribution characteristic of village settlements.

5.1.4. Landscape pattern characteristics of Wuming
Buddhist College: Monastery-type
Wuming Buddhist College differs from the first three types
of temples in that there is no cultivated land around it, and
it serves solely as a religious institution without forming
relationships with neighboring villages or towns. This
difference makes it a distinct temple-type settlement. The
landscape pattern characteristics are outlined in Table 4. The
total area of the region is 7,055.83 ha, with 1,390 patches
identified (Figure 5). Grassland landscape accounts for
45.74% of the area, woodland landscape accounts for 7.77%,
and religious landscape accounts for 1.41%. These proportions
reflect the unique characteristics of Wuming Buddhist College
as a temple-type settlement, where religious land plays a
central role. The AI reflects that the religious, woodland, and
grassland landscapes are highly aggregated, emphasizing the
compactness of functional specificity of the Buddhist College.
Figure 4. Distribution of landscaped sites of Tangbo Temple In terms of the IJI, the religious, construction site, and
Source: Drawing by the authors. woodland landscapes are rarely connected to other types of

Table 3. Type‑level indices of landscape patterns for Tangbo Temple
No. Index Quantitative Size indicator Shape indicator Convergence
indicators and divergence
indicator
Patch type NP (Pieces) CA (ha) PD (Pieces/ PLAND AREAMN AWMPFD AI (%) IJI (%)
100 ha) (%)
1 Arable landscape 178 156.99 2.07 1.83 0.88 5.90 88.07 45.85
2 Woodland landscape 199 3,760.53 2.31 43.71 18.90 13.11 98.49 70.35
3 Grassland landscape 285 797.37 3.31 9.27 2.80 5.92 95.85 36.69
4 Watershed landscape 65 93.72 0.76 1.10 1.44 8.72 94.30 42.12
5 Religious landscape 23 5.72 0.27 0.07 0.25 1.66 89.54 77.93
6 Construction site landscape 234 19.89 2.72 0.23 0.09 2.00 80.26 75.27
7 Landscape of transport sites 669 24.96 7.78 0.29 0.04 14.84 41.69 64.00
8 Other land landscapes 49 51.79 0.57 0.60 1.06 2.92 92.15 51.87
Abbreviations: NP: Number of patches; PLAND, %: Percent of landscape; AWMPFD: Area-weighted mean patch fractal dimension; IJI: Interspersion
and juxtaposition index.

Volume 6 Issue 4 (2024) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2503