How Movement Shapes Ritual Experience: Observations from Fieldwork

The on-site worship route of the Guan Di Temple follows what can be described as an extended path design. The entrance is deliberately positioned at a distance from the temple’s central halls, requiring worshippers to follow a longer and more circuitous route before reaching the core ritual spaces. From a spatial management perspective, this design helps disperse the flow of visitors, easing congestion in key areas during peak periods and maintaining an orderly movement through the site.

For local devotees, who are already familiar with the sequence of halls and ritual procedures, this extended route rarely poses a problem. Their embodied knowledge of the temple allows them to navigate the space intuitively, even when the entrance location or walking path changes. However, for visitors from outside the area, the winding route can be disorienting. Difficulty in locating specific halls or statues may interrupt the continuity of worship, breaking the rhythm of ritual actions and weakening the overall experience.

Religious rituals are often understood as mechanisms that guide participants into a particular spiritual state through structured movement, repetition, and immersion. When ritual flow is coherent, it supports a sense of orientation, belonging, and shared identity. Conversely, when this flow is disrupted, participants may experience confusion or detachment, which can undermine the perceived sacredness of the ritual and its capacity to foster spiritual and communal identification.

In response to these observations, I plan to design a conceptual application, which I have named GuandiSphere, to reconstruct the traditional worship route of the Guan Di Temple. This reconstruction draws on personal memories, family narratives, and long-term familiarity with local ritual practices. As shown in the diagram, the redesigned route differs from the extended on-site path by shortening the overall journey and clarifying the sequence of worship. Connections between deities are made more explicit, allowing rituals to unfold in a clearer and more coherent order. Through this design, the app seeks to restore continuity and rhythm to the worship process, enabling devotees， especially those unfamiliar with the physical site, to engage with the ritual in a more intuitive and meaningful way.