East Asian hip-and-gable roof

The Longxing Temple — built in 1052 and located at present-day Zhengding, Hebei Province, China — has a hip-and-gable xieshan-style roof with double eaves.[1]

The East Asian hip-and-gable roof (Xiēshān (歇山) in Chinese, Paljakjibung (팔작지붕) in Korean and Irimoya (入母屋) in Japanese) also known as 'resting hill roof', consists of a hip roof that slopes down on all four sides and integrates a gable on two opposing sides.[2][3] It is usually constructed with two large sloping roof sections in the front and back respectively, while each of the two sides is usually constructed with a smaller roof section.[4]

The style is Chinese in origin,[dubious – discuss] and has spread across much of East and Continental Asia. The original Chinese style and similar styles are not only found in the traditional architectures of Japan and Korea but also other Continental Asian countries such as India, Vietnam, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Kalmykia. A similar, generally taller and originally thatched hip and gable style is also traditionally used in Southeast Asia such as in the Philippines and in Indonesia.

  1. ^ Chung, Anita (2004). Drawing boundaries : architectural images in Qing China. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Press. pp. 23–24. ISBN 9780824826635.
  2. ^ Guo, Qinghua (2010). The mingqi pottery buildings of Han Dynasty China, 206 BC-AD 220 : architectural representations and represented architecture. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. p. 138. ISBN 9781845193218.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference JAANUS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Deqi, Shan (25 August 2011). Chinese vernacular dwellings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 9780521186674.