Heritage Journal

Feng Shui & Fortune

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Form School and Compass School: How Feng Shui Actually Works

Form School and Compass School: How Feng Shui Actually Works

Four working methods, two great traditions, and a compass with dozens of rings — the mechanics of classical feng shui, explained as the craft it always was.
The Books and Masters of Feng Shui: from Guo Pu to Yang Yunsong

The Books and Masters of Feng Shui: from Guo Pu to Yang Yunsong
Feng Shui 101: The Ancient Art of Placement

Feng Shui 101: The Ancient Art of Placement
How to Feng Shui Every Room in Your Home

How to Feng Shui Every Room in Your Home
Reading Feng Shui Symbols: the Bagua, Double Dragons and the Wealth Bowl

Reading Feng Shui Symbols: the Bagua, Double Dragons and the Wealth Bowl

Stone Sculptures

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Gilt-bronze seated Maitreya with crossed ankles, Northern Wei dynasty, ca. 470-80. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before the Tang: the Chinese Buddha the World Fell in Love With

The works that stop visitors in the world's great museums are almost all carved before 618. A short tour of the pre-Tang Chinese Buddha — Gandhara's heir, the Northern Wei smile, the Nort...
Standing Buddha with remnants of polychrome and gilding, Northern Qi dynasty (550-577), Longxing Temple hoard, Qingzhou, displayed at the Qingzhou Museum

The Qingzhou Smile: a Buried Hoard That Rewrote the History of Buddhist Sculpture
How the Buddha Came to China: from Gandhara to the Yungang Caves

How the Buddha Came to China: from Gandhara to the Yungang Caves
Longmen and the Golden Age of Tang Sculpture

Longmen and the Golden Age of Tang Sculpture
World Heritage and the Living Craft: the Two Arts Today

World Heritage and the Living Craft: the Two Arts Today

Ink Rubbings

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The Invention of Ink Rubbing: How Stone Learned to Travel

The Invention of Ink Rubbing: How Stone Learned to Travel

Long before photography or printing, China invented a way to copy any carving exactly: the ink rubbing. Its oldest surviving example was hidden at Dunhuang for a thousand years.
When Rubbing Became Scholarship: Jinshixue, the Study of Metal and Stone

When Rubbing Became Scholarship: Jinshixue, the Study of Metal and Stone

Thangkas

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A contemporary painter grinding mineral pigments for a hand-painted thangka

What Is a Thangka? A Temple You Can Carry

A thangka (also spelled tangka or thanka) is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cloth — a scroll picture that rolls up like a map and unrolls into a universe. The word comes from the Tibetan ...