工字形殿=Chinese character 工 shaped plan building; 重檐疊屋=paralleled-connected-eaves buildings; 越南佛教寺院=Vietnamese Buddhist temple; 中國佛教寺院=Chinese Buddhist temple
This paper is based on two earlier presented papers at the 2004 and 2005 "Annual Conference on Southeast Asia Area Study in Taiwan." The topic of the former paper relates to the layout of a temple building in Hue, in central Vietnam, and the other paper relates to the layout of a temple located around Hanoi, in the northern part of Vietnam. Results of an analysis of the two papers are: the main building of temples in and around Hanoi are designed like Chinese character '工' shaped architectural plan. In contrast, the temple's main building in Hue is formed with two paralleled connected buildings-adjacent eaves buildings. The difference of the layout between the middle and northern Vietnamese building is found not only with temple design, but also the design of community halls, 'dinh', in traditional Vietnamese villages. That is to say, while the building with the Chinese character '工' shaped architectural plan is the common building type in the northern part of Vietnam, building layout in central Vietnam is arranged as two paralleled eaves structures-connected eaves buildings are common in central Vietnam. Depending on the stone inscription and the building type of those traditional 'dinh', the following results are：temples with a Chinese character '工' shaped plan have appeared at least 300 years ago. In contrast, temples that are arranged as two paralleled, connected buildings were built about 100 years ago. Furthermore, referring to the Palace of Nguyen, the last empire of Vietnam, built in 1802, this building type surely would have appeared more than 200 years ago.
