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Arid Land Geography ›› 2019, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 363-375.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2019.02.16

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Spatial distribution of the carrier of the folk religion and its influencing factors: A case study of Temple in Yuzhong County

SONG Zhou-ying1,YU Yang1,2,LIANG Long-wu1,2,MA Zhen-bang3   

  1. (1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable
    Development Modeling, CAS, Beijing 100101, China; 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
    100049, China; 3. College of Earth and Environment Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China)
  • Online:2019-03-25 Published:2019-03-07

Abstract: Geographical environment has a strong influence on the formation of regional culture. The temples in Yuzhong were taken as the research object considering the similarities of culture and folk religion in Longzhong area, Gansu Province, China in order to enrich the study of cultural geography. This paper discusses the spatial distribution of folk temples and its influencing factors. The research data were obtained through literature collection and field investigation, and the temple types were classified according to the types of beliefs. Kernel density analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze the spatial distribution and influencing factors of temples. The main findings are listed as follows: (1) Folk religion in Yuzhong County could be divided into natural belief, fairy belief and personality belief. The main types of the temple in Yuzhong were the water and ancestor worship belief. (2) Temples were mainly agglomerated at northwest area (along the banks of Yellow River), central area (on both sides of the Long-Hai Railway) and south scenic regions. The distribution of temples was greatly influenced by regional culture. (3) The spatial distribution of temples was also limited by the geographical conditions. The temples in Yuzhong County were mostly located in areas with low altitude, high population density and good traffic accessibility. The temples of the mountain god belief were near the mountain, while the temples of water god belief were close to the river. The influencing factors on the distribution of temples were discussed quantitatively by mathematical method on the basis of the collected data of temples. This paper hopes to provide some suggestions for the protection of traditional culture by revealing the characteristics of folk beliefs in the study area.

Key words: Yuzhong County, temple, folk belief, spatial distribution, impact factors, KDE, Logistic regression