The thesis starts with the study of a Miao village in China, which is known as the center of the Miao culture. In Miao settlement landscape history, there is one feature that can be found in many cultures. The Fengshui Lin, also known as the Sacred Grove, protects the village. The ancient songs and tales of Miao show that the Fengshui Lin can be seen as the spirits of the ancestors (Wang, X. 2015). Since ancient times, Miao people have a tradition of respect for nature, and Fengshui Lin is the most important landscape element for them. It is not only part of the natural flexible border, but also associated with many social activities. Sacred groves are created and evolved through human acts and the long span of human history (Jackson J. B. 1980). They play an important role in many different cultures around the world. Sacred groves may reflect the culture of society as settings for specific functions, or serve as objects of worship for people to purify their souls and refresh their spirits. In burial grounds, there also are sacred groves which could be a place for praying and commemorating. Since sacred groves are seen as spirits of life, it is necessary to think about the relationship between sacred groves and burial grounds. The thesis focuses on the issue of what is sacred? How to make a grove sacred or create a sacred grove in burial grounds? What kind of scenario for the design? With the inspiration of the Fengshui Lin in Miao village, the project aims to create a sacred space with trees for people who lost their family or friends in local communities. My thesis addressed these questions through a design project for sacred groves in the local parks of Arlington, Virginia. With design criteria derived from case studies and literature review, my goal is to create neighborhood cemeteries in the local parks to bring people closer to life as well as death and to let people get the experience of mortality. / Master of Landscape Architecture / In many ancient societies, sacred groves were an essential aspect of life. In some cases, these groves encompass a large territory; in other cases they may be a few trees. These groves originated in the time following the introduction of agriculture. When societies evolving, sacred groves became not a piece of nature, but an institution that depending on custom, agriculture, and even the cycles of life. Sacred groves are a legacy for everyone. These sacred groves may reflect the culture of society, they are not merely symbols but dynamic and complex landscapes created as settings for specific functions. These sacred groves serve not only as totems of worship, but as moments or places where people purify their souls. Sacred groves surrounding or covering burial grounds have existed widely throughout the world (Tuan, Y. 1977). In many burial sites, sacred groves dominate the landscape. They serve the spiritual needs of the living as well as keep alive memories of the dead. This thesis will discuss the method to make a grove sacred and develop a landscape to provide an opportunity for people to get a sense of their life and culture. The concept is to reinstate the connection between burial grounds and neighborhoods by creating neighborhood cemeteries in the local parks of Arlington, Virginia. Through thoughtful site selection and design, sacred groves can hold precious information about the history of communities for generations.

Religion (and misunderstanding of religion) plays a large role in the current state of global social unrest. In parcitular, tension between practitioners of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity seems to be unavoidably high. Not only that, but populations declaring themselves as followers of these three organized religions are expected to increase significantly over the next 50 years. This thesis aims to address the underlying tensions between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity through the use of architecture. It is an experimentation with architectural forms, spaces, and elements that can be seen as potentially relatable and understandable to all three religions. At the same time, the thesis also searches for the sublime (as tends to be the case with religious architecture). It is an experimentation with ineffable space, space that communicates deeply with human emotion and aspiration. The design is meant to provide a 'window to the sacred.' In this way, contemporary religious architecture can act as a catalyst for education and unification in the hopes of the banishment of ignorance and hatred and the prosperity of peace and understanding. / Master of Architecture

No description available.

In the pre-Christian Sámi era places in the nature were believed to be sacred and connected to different gods or the spirit world. The sacred places often had a sacred place name and several of the sacred place names are still here today. One of the sacred places were sáiva-lakes which were believed to be sacred lakes that had two lakebeds, where the second or lower lakebed were considered connected to the spirit world. Sáiva-lakes were considered to be great fishing lakes but there were some rules that the fisherman had to obey to such as there had to be complete silence while fishing otherwise the fish would disappear down to the second lakebed. The sáiva-lakes were also connected to sacrificial practises, there were both sacrifices to the lakes or to sieidi stones on the lake shore for fishing luck or as a thank you for the fishes received. There were also sometimes bigger sacrificial places with different animal bones, sieidi stones and sometimes metal objects.Little is known or written about sáiva-lakes and most descriptions of sáiva-lakes comes from historic sources. The aim of this thesis is to research and contribute to more knowledge about sáiva-lakes and sacred traditions by lakes and watercourses in Northern Scandinavia. The main focus is to study sáiva-lakes both from a sacred and a nature perspective as well as to analyse how sáiva-lakes relate to archaeological sites and other sacred places and place names in their surroundings.The theoretic perspective applied on the thesis is mainly new animism and phenomenology which is applied to give a perspective on the landscape and nature. The study is based on archaeological material, historic sources, field excavations done by the author and a GIS analysis. The study shows that sáiva-lakes were connected to sacrificial practises and that sáiva-lakes often have other sacred places and places names in areas around the lakes. In a larger perspective the study of sáiva-lakes shows the perspective of a cultural landscape, and the aspect of sacred traditions by lakes and watercourses.

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This thesis explores the embodied topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the conditions of liminality – the nature of different kinds of boundaries and intermediate zones within it. Mount Athos is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination in this study highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places advocating also for a deeper understanding of the boundaries in it. The thesis seeks to convey a more primary insight into the phenomena found there, examining also how ritual and pre-reflective embodied movements explore the topography in a meaningful way. Combining elements of different disciplines (philosophy, theology, anthropology, and architectural history and theory) with primary sources from archives and fieldwork, the thesis constitutes an original contribution to both Athonian studies and sacred topography scholarship. By focusing on the spatial, temporal and aural boundaries and intermediate zones as perceptual phenomena of an embodied topography, it suggests an alternative to the usual art-historical, objectifying examination of the case study. Liminality refers to the intermediate zones between two or more components of a sacred place. It allows the reciprocal communication between them, carrying the character of both departure and return. In using liminality as a focus of investigation, the thesis provides a new understanding of the way religious places are interconnected through cyclical rituals, the strangers’ travel and silent meditation. Following the archetype of the journey, these movements are also studied according to their particular power to “map” places in a more primary way than the modern cartographic method. Starting from the periphery of Athos, the study presents a variety of in-between zones, the passage through which contributes to the sensual realization of a multi-layered meaningful topography. Annual pilgrimages to the peak of the mountain, silent meditation in isolated caves, wandering asceticism and walking along the footpaths provide different ways to narrate the natural landscape of the peninsula. Moreover, ritual choreographies being inscribed in the courtyard and church of a coenobitic monastery, meals and death services ritually perform the place. Through their investigation, this study illuminates important aspects of the topography, such as its multi-sensual aural environment in which silence plays a key role. The analysis concludes that the different liminal zones of Mount Athos are always undergoing a condition of penetration, alteration, and even violation, allowing the integrity of the topography to be enacted.

No description available.

No description available.

To the Southern Paiutes, the Spring Mountains are the center of Creation. They believe that they, as a people, were created in these mountains at the beginning of time. Southern Paiutes believe that the Spring Mountains constitute a living being that has a zoomorphic shape. This being has a head which is found at the northern end of the range at Mount Sterling, a tail located at Mount Potosi, and in the center at Mount Charleston, a womb which created life. Mount Charleston is the geographic and cultural center of the Spring Mountains. The Spring Mountains are located within the traditional Pahrump and Las Vegas districts of the Southern Paiute Nation. The mountains, today, serve as a boundary between the cities of Las Vegas and Pahrump, Nevada. In 2003, the United States Forest Service (USFS) funded an applied ethnographic study that focused on a cultural landscape assessment of the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The project examined the traditional, religious, and cultural values of Southern Paiute people inherent in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada. The study design required that Richard Stoffle and his research team from the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology work with tribal representatives to prepare a map through a rapid assessment to identify sites, areas, and landscapes that are of cultural and religious importance to the Southern Paiute people. The second task was to provide the USFS with an overview essay summarizing the ethnographic archival field notes and literature relevant to Southern Paiute cultural values of the Spring Mountains. The third task required field visits and interviews with tribal members that focused on the overall cultural importance of the Spring Mountains and individual places visited throughout the mountain range. This work served as the ethnographic core of the overall report and the basis for USFS management decisions and tribal consultation.

Cymatic Revelations is a multi-media composition that aims to artistically reveal the power of vibration through the synchronous use of cymatic pattern imaging, real-time video projection, and live music. When musical vibrations are channeled through a malleable medium such as a liquid, the vibrations cause the medium to arrange itself into visible geometries known as cymatic patterns. Being that these patterns are created by the sounds themselves, the projected visual elements are used to visually connect the audience to what they hear. While incorporating archetypal elements of light, reflection, and symmetry, Cymatic Revelations utilizes cutting-edge music technologies to expose this common thread of vibration in the world around us. The piece combines the real-time generation of cymatic events, videos, and slideshows, with a live ensemble that features both electronic and acoustic instruments. / Mary Pappert School of Music; / Music Technology / MM; / Thesis;