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Bazaar, which is rooted in Middle Persian wāzār and Armenian vačaṟ, has acquired three different meanings: the market as a whole, a market day, and the marketplace. The bazaar as a place is an assemblage of workshops and stores where various goods and services are offered.

Primitive forms of shops and trade centres existed in early civilizations in the Near East, such as Sialk, Tepe in Kashan, Çatal Hüyük, Jerico, and Susa. After the 4th millennium BC, the population grew and villages gradually joined together to shape new cities, resulting in trade even with the remote areas as well as the acceleration of the population in towns. The advancement of trade and accumulation of wealth necessitated the creation of trade centres. Trade, and consequently marketplaces, worked as the main driving force in connecting separate civilizations, while fostering a division of labour, the diffusion of technological innovations, methods of intercultural communication, political and economic management, and techniques of farming and industrial production....

[Lang ShiningLang Shih-ning]

(b Milan, Jul 19, 1688; d Beijing, Jul 16, 1766).

Italian painter, architect, and Jesuit lay brother, active also in Portugal and China. Castiglione is one of the few Western artists to be included in the Chinese imperial collections. In the catalogue raisonné of the Imperial Collection of Paintings published in the Jiaqing reign (1796–1820) are listed forty-seven titles and fifty-six pieces by Castiglione.

Castiglione entered the Society of Jesus in 1707 after having received full training as a painter in Milan. While in Milan he studied late 17th-century painting techniques and later identified himself as a pupil of Andrea Pozzo, also a lay brother, who is best known for his decoration of the ceiling of the Jesuit church of St. Ignazio in Rome. A group of large paintings from Genoa commissioned for the refectory and church of the local Jesuit noviciate indicate that Castiglione’s style was competent if not innovative. Documentary evidence also attest commissions received in Portugal for frescoes of the life of St. Ignatius Loyola that decorated the chapel of the Jesuit Novitiate in Coimbra, Portugal, now part of the ...

[sku ’bum (‘a thousand images’)Chin. Taer si]

Monastery complex c. 26 km north-east of Xining, Qinghai Province, China. Kumbum is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, as it marks the birthplace of Tsong Khapa (1357–1419), who founded the sect. Construction of a small monastery called Shardzong on this spot took place between 1560 and 1577. The original monastery underwent several enlargements in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the more recent buildings spreading around the ancient nucleus to cover an area of c. 44 ha. The buildings of the monastery display a harmonious combination of Tibetan and Chinese architectural features; Chinese-style glazed-tile roofs mingle with Tibetan-style flat roofs and gilded sheet-metal roofs (see Tibet §V 6., (ii)). The numerous structures, which rest on solid foundations, include chanting and assembly halls, verandahs and annexe halls, chortens, or stupas, and living quarters for monks. At the front of the lamasery are eight white chortens called the Eight Tathagata Stupas (h. 6 m; built ...

A category of buildings designed to house retail and shopping. It includes arcades, department stores, shopping malls, strip centres, and big-box stores. Retail architecture exists in small towns, big cities, and suburbs: anywhere people congregate. It is as ubiquitous in time and space as the organized exchange of goods for money. It is distinguished from commercial architecture, which, in real estate and architectural practice, can refer more generally to any property that produces income for its investors or owners but does not refer to a building’s architectural function (i.e. retail).

Buildings housing commercial activity have existed since antiquity. Anthropologists have described exchange halls and commercial structures in many cultures, including Roman, Aztec, Tang dynasty China, and Mesopotamian. During the medieval and Renaissance periods, market halls and exchanges were built in cities such as Antwerp, Bruges, London, and Venice, sheltering trading activities at ground level and municipal government functions above (...

Chinese, 18th century, male.

Born c. 1690, in Jiangdu (Jiangsu); died 1724.

Painter. Landscapes, architectural views, flowers.

Qing dynasty.

A landscape painter who was particularly well known for his paintings of buildings, Yuan Jiang was active at court during the Yongzheng era (1723-1735). He was the figure at the source of what would later be known as the Yuan School, which would continue his style, seeking decorative ef- fects in the court painting tradition. He himself was influenced by the Northern Song masters Li Cheng and Guo Xi by way of the Yuan and Ming masters. He also painted flowers....

Chinese, 18th century, male.

Active c. 1746-1780.

Born in Jiangdu (Jiangsu).

Painter. Landscapes, landscapes with figures, architectural views.

Qing dynasty.

Yuan Yao was a painter at the imperial court and the nephew of Yuan Jiang. Like his uncle, he is known for his paintings of buildings....

Chinese, 18th century, male.

Active during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796).

Painter.

Zhang Tingyan was a court painter who specialised in figures and architecture.

Boston: Palace by a River in the Snow (signed)