Angelica Huynh's 4.10 Long Essay

It can be seen across cultures that art and architecture when used in the name of religion are designed to make the worshipper feel closer to what they define as the “heavens;” a mystical realm above the earthly plane. For Buddhists, it’s the Great Wild Goose Pagoda and for Catholics it’s the Reims Cathedral. Both can be seen as ways of reaching that sort of limbo away earth.

         The Great Wild Goose Pagoda follows the traditional wooden architectural layout of the traditional pagoda. It was said that the design of the pagoda was made so that Buddhists or Daoists could approach the heavens and communicate with the spirits. Usually built in areas secluded and embedded in nature, these temples came to represent the naturalistic view of its spiritualistic religion. The temples were generally built from brick, stone or wood in accordance with the view that nature is embodied in spirits. Built in Xi’an in 652 CE, this pagoda is regarded as one of the oldest stone pagodas in history. The seventh story was a change made later to the temple that only stood as a testament to further the attempt to communicate with the spirits of nature by reaching for the heavens.

          The Reims Cathedral in Reims, France is a classic example of how the worshippers could ascend into a limbo not yet in heaven but a mystical place of peace. Built in honor of the catholic kings and queens of France, it was built with a cruciform plan. Jean d’Orbais, the architect, had it designed so that the parts were in perfect balance as to depict the stability and perfection of the state from the thirteenth century and onwards. The stained glass windows of the Reims Cathedral is one of the most remarkable features about this cathedral and during service when the sun would hit the glass, it would illuminate the church in a myriad of colors. The images they lit up would make the cathedral seem like a mystical realm and it often invoked worshippers to meditate and pray.