Topographic and geologic constraints on the spatial persistence of Buddhist and Taoist temples in China

Buddhist and Taoist temples are long-lived cultural infrastructures whose present-day distributions may reflect aspects of long-term human-environment interaction and persistence. Using national records of 29,415 Buddhist and 8181 Taoist temples in China, this study examines associations between contemporary temple density and stable topographic and geologic settings. Within a unified 1-km framework, this study combines KDE, Ripley’s L ( d )– d , Moran’s I, LightGBM, and SHAP analyses. Both temple systems are strongly east-oriented and clustered, with major concentrations in eastern and southeastern China. Among the selected environmental variables, elevation and slope are the most important predictors. Buddhist temples are more spatially extensive, whereas Taoist temples are more regionally concentrated and more strongly associated with geologic background. SHAP analysis identifies approximate terrain-related transition zones and context-dependent river-distance responses. These findings suggest a long-term mountain-river template associated with the contemporary spatial expression of temple landscapes, rather than direct evidence of site-specific historical continuity or causality.