Symbolic meaning of architecture and ornaments in the 19th century’s Taoist temple among temple committee in the Klang Valley, Malaysia
Taoist temple is a specific religious and cultural landmark that carries symbolic meaning. The ornaments and architecture buildings serve as a conventional system and perpetual symbols, mainly to pass down to the next generation. Nevertheless, research has demonstrated that the younger generation...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/105469/1/YEONG%20YIN%20MEI%20-%20IR.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/105469/ |
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| Summary: | Taoist temple is a specific religious and cultural landmark that carries symbolic
meaning. The ornaments and architecture buildings serve as a conventional
system and perpetual symbols, mainly to pass down to the next generation.
Nevertheless, research has demonstrated that the younger generation in Malaysia
hardly understood the symbolic meanings of the architecture and ornaments in the
Taoist Temples. This research aims to identify the symbolic meaning of the
architecture and ornaments, subsequently to assess the Temple Committee’s
understanding of the symbolic meaning of the architecture and ornaments of the
Taoist temples constructed in the 19th century in Klang Valley, and lastly to
recommend a framework of the symbolic meaning of Taoist architecture and
ornaments for knowledge dissemination. Site observational study and semistructured
interviews with the Temple Committee in ten Taoist Temples revealed
the understanding of the temples physical attributes of the architecture and
ornaments. In this study, architectural drawings, sketches, photographs of the
samples, and voice recordings facilitated the Descriptive Analysis process. The
findings show that the evolutionarily constructed architectural attributes of the
samples built in the 19th century embraced less Royal symbolic meaning for the
upper section. Nevertheless, it was discovered that the roof of the foyer carries a
royal symbolic meaning and the upper section of the main hall depicted the Malay
vernacular architecture features such the ventilated roof, which is signifying a
Sino-Malay character, reflecting the man-made production during the 19th
century, which was dedicated to the Chinese diaspora. Additionally, most of the
ornaments discovered applied in the figural form to express the folklore tales in
the theory of Theism. This study also reveals that the respondents were able to
describe the simple keywords of the symbolic meaning, in religious approach and
clueless for the royal symbolic meaning. Furthermore, they could not
comprehensively explain the symbolic meaning of the architecture and ornaments
due to the limitation of knowledge. Therefore, the recommended framework for
knowledge dissemination is to synthesize the power of relevant stakeholders with joint efforts in a multidisciplinary capacity in order to promulgate the Chinese legacy to the future generation. |
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