Minangkabau

minangkabau also known as rumah gadang. it's a "house with horn-like roof" are the traditional homes of the Minangkabau. The construction for internal and external decoration, and the functions of the house reflect the culture and values of Minangkabau. Function is to serve as a residence, a hall for family meetings, and for ceremonial activities. Women of the family who lives there. owns the house. The houses have dramatic curved roof structure with multi-tiered, upswept gables. Shuttered windows are built into walls incised with profuse painted floral carvings.

It is rectangular in plan, with multiple gables and up sweeping ridges, forming buffalo horn-like ends.
The Minangkabau royal palace at Pagaruyung has three roofs which rise in tiers; the first two rise laterally and the top room transversally. Extensions at either side add a further two roof forms.

Mandala

Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. These mandalas, concentric diagrams, have spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism.

In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a scared space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction.

Hinduism : yantra normally refers to Hindu contexts and practices, while mandala normally refers to Buddhist contexts and practices. Mandala is sometimes used as a cross-over term in Hindu contexts.

Buddhism : Tibetan for mandala in Vajrayana Buddhism usually depicts a landscape of the "Buddha -land" 

Christianity : forms which are evocative of mandalas are prevalent in Christianity: the celtic rose; the rosary; the halo; the aureole; oculi; the crown of thorns; rose windows; the Rosy Cross; and the dromenon on the floor of Chartres Chatedral.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia.

 

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture. The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple". Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara meaning capital or city. Wat is the Khmer word for temple.

Is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples, the later plan of concentric galleries, and influences from Orissa and the Chola of Tamil Nadu, India. Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture, the Angkor Wat style. The elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple.

The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that were sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity.

Borobudur Temple, Indonesia

"Borobudur is Borobudur", meaning that Borobudur Temple is very unique in her own way. Nieuwenkamp  (an artist) imaginated Borobudur as "a big lotus flower budready to bloom" which was "floating" on a lake.

Bara : sanskrit word,, "Vihara which means a monastery or a complex of temples

Budur : budur is from the Balinese term "Beduhur" which means "up high"

Thus, Borobudur means a monastery or a complex of temples perched on a hill

    Located 40 kilometers (25 mi) northwest of Yogyakarta, Borobudur,South of Magelang in the Province of Jawa Tengah (Central Java. Borobudur located in an elevated area between two twin volcanoes,  Sundoro-Sumbing and Merbabu-Merapi, and two rivers, the Progo and the Elo. According to local myth, the area known as Kedu Plain is a Javanese 'sacred palace' and has been dubbed 'the garden of Java' due to its high agricultural fertility. Nieuwenkamp, developed a theory that Kedu Plain was once a lake and Borobudur initially represented a lotus flower floating on the lake. Lotus flowers are found in almost every Buddhist work of art, often serving as a throne for buddhas and base for stupas. Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and when viewed from above. It takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the nature of mind. The foundation is a square, approximately 118 meters (387 ft) on each side. It has nine platforms, of which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular. 

The upper platform features seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is bell-shaped and pierced by numerous decorative openings. Statues of the Buddha sit inside the pierced enclosures.  

DESCRIPTION
The overall height was 42 meters, but was only 34.5 meters after restoration, and had the dimension of 123 x 123 meters (15,129 square meters). There were 10 floors. The first floor up to the sixth floor was square form, the seventh to the tenth floor were round form. Borobudur is facing to the East with a total of 1460 panels (2 meters wide each). Total size of the temple walls was 2500 square meters, full of relief. The total number of panels with relief was 1212. According to investigations, the total number of Buddha statue was 504 including the intact and damaged statues.

The relief of Borobudur temple started from the base of the temple up to the fourth platform. The relieves at the base contained the story of Karmawibhangga. Under the main panel and above the Karmawibhangga relief, a wide-sized relief was inscripted at the wall. According to Stutterheim, the overall form of Borobudur Temple is a combination of zigurat (middle Asian Pyramid) and Indian stupa. Stutterheim opinion was supported by the existence of this type of form in Ancient Javanese literature. 

Dougong

Dougong  is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important elements in traditional Chinesearchitecture.

The use of dougong first appeared in buildings of the late centuries BC and evolved into a structural network that joined pillars and columns to the frame of the roof. Dougong was widely used in the ancient Chinese during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) and developed into a complex set of interlocking parts by its peak in the Tang and Song periods. The pieces are fit together by joinery alone without glue or fasterners, due to the precision and quality of the carpentry.
After the Song Dynasty, brackets and bracket sets became more ornamental than structural when used in palatial structures and important religious buildings, no longer the traditional dougong.

Dougong is part of the network of wooden supports essential to the timber frame structure of traditional Chinese building because the walls in these structures are not load-bearing (curtain walls), sometimes made of latticework, mud or other delicate material. Walls functioned to delineate spaces in the structure rather than to support weight.
Multiple interlocking bracket sets are formed by placing a large wooden block (dou) on a column to provide a solid base for the bow-shaped brackets (gong) that support the beam or another gong above it. The function of dougong is to provide increased support for the weight of the horizontal beams that span the vertical columns or pillars by transferring the weight on horizontal beams over a larger area to the vertical columns. This process can be repeated many times, and rise many stories. Adding multiple sets of interlocking brackets or dougong reduces the amount of strain on the horizontal beams when transferring their weight to a column. Multiple dougong also allows structures to be elastic and to withstand damage from earthquakes.
During the Ming Dynasty an innovation occurred through the
invention of new wooden components that aided dougong in
supporting the roof. This allowed dougong to add a decorative
element to buildings in the traditional Chinese integration of
artistry and function, and bracket sets became smaller and more
numerous. Brackets could be hung under eaves, giving the
appearance of graceful baskets of flowers while also supporting
the roof.

Masjid Demak, Indonesia

Masjid Agung Demak (or the Great Demak Mosque) is one of the oldest mosquea in Indonesia, located inthe center town of Demak, Central Java Indonesia. The mosque isbelieved to be built by Sunan Kalijaga, one of the Wali Songo (nine Muslim saints) during the first Demak Sultanate.

THE SPATIAL CHARACTERISTIC MOSQUE IN INDONESIA

   

     The master column (saka guru) of the mosque usually four, but sometimes six and occasionally only one (saka tunggal) set up a powerful vertical axiality which is in counterpoint to the direction of approach and the orientation of the qibla as the people gather for prayer. The vertical focus of these soaring interiors is reflected and reinforced by concentric ranks of columns which provides structural support to the lower roofs. On the exterior, the upward sweep of the roofs terminates in an elaborates finial (melolo or mustaka) in place of the Hindu symbol of the flaming jewel at the summit of the cosmic tree( brahmamula). 

      The front wall of the mosque is inset with sixty-six porcelain tiles. These exquisite blue and white tiles are believed to derive from Champa in modern-day Vietnam, a kingdom with which Demak's former rival Majapahit had extensive trade contacts. The main entrance of Masjid Agung Demak consists of two doors carved with motifs of plants, vases, and crowns.

Mosque Features

  Masjid Agung Demak is the classic example of a traditional Javanese mosque. Unlike mosques in the Middle East it is built from timber. The tiered roof is supported by four enormous teak pillars. This means that the mosque is rather small when compared to many modern Indonesian mosques. The tiered roof shows many similarities with wooden religious structures from the Hindu-Buddhist civilizations of Java and Bali.