Justin O'Jack
Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space, University of California - Santa Barbara, USA

This presentation will introduce new spatial data and preliminary findings from current fieldwork and ongoing data acquisition in China conducted by Professor William Powell and Justin O'Jack of the Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space (CASS) in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Their project entitled, "The Cultural Production of Space in China: A Spatial Analysis of Religious Sites, Routes and Boundaries," which is funded by a Pacific Rim Research Grant, explores the relationship between Chinese religious geography and the social and political structures of Chinese society. The project takes advantage of technologies in Geographic Information Science in order to create datasets of sufficient breadth and complexity and to adequately assess regional and trans-regional constructions of space.

The study consists of two integral components: the first is a period of data collection in several regions of China. The second component will be organized around collaborative use and analysis of the field data by a group scholars and graduate students to evaluate its relevance to understandings of sacred geography and its relationship to social and political institutions, as well as to the natural landscape. They will also consider the extent to which it is possible to generalize about systems of Chinese spatial logic across regional and sectarian boundaries.

It is the results from the first stages of this data collection period that will be presented in Shanghai. In this presentation, a GIS representation of four networks of site complexes, including the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens and the Ten Greater Grotto-heavens [produced in consultation with Professor Franciscus Verellen and based on localizations listed in his article, "The Beyond Within: Grotto-heavens (dongtian) in Taoist Ritual and Cosmology,"] will be represented against several small-scale GIS datasets produced under the direction of Lawrence W. Crissman at The Australian Centre of the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN), Griffith University. One of these complexes, the Seventh Lesser Grotto-heaven (Emei shan ), will be represented against several large-scale vector and DEM datasets produced by East View Cartographic, Minneapolis.

The purpose of doing so is to identify the spatial correspondence between Chinese religious geography, administrative boundaries, and watersheds through scientific visualization. The four networks will be shown in relationship to Tang administrative boundaries and to navigable waterways, which were not only sources of water but in many cases functioned as routes, barriers and boundaries themselves. The spatial relationship between individual sites within the example complex and local watersheds will also be shown.

Related URL: Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space, UCSB

International Workshop on Historical GIS Fudan University, Shanghai, August 23-25, 2001