engineering

Tamaudun

Tamaudun is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tamaudun rather than just read about it. In short: Tamaudun (玉陵) is one of the three royal mausoleums of the Second Shō Dynasty of kings of the Ryukyu Kingdom, along with Urasoe yōdore at Urasoe Castle and Izena Tamaudun near Izena Castle in Izena, Okinawa. The mausoleum is located in Shuri, Okinawa, and was built in 1501 by King Shō Shin, the third king (reigned 1477–1527), to bury his father, King Shō En a short distance from Shuri Castle.

Key takeaways

Tamaudun belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tamaudun to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tamaudun from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tamaudun (玉陵) is one of the three royal mausoleums of the Second Shō Dynasty of kings of the Ryukyu Kingdom, along with Urasoe yōdore at Urasoe Castle and Izena Tamaudun near Izena Castle in Izena, Okinawa. The mausoleum is located in Shuri, Okinawa, and was built in 1501 by King Shō Shin, the third king (reigned 1477–1527), to bury his father, King Shō En a short distance from Shuri Castle. The Tamaudun complex was designated a National Historic Site in 1972. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 2, 2000, as a part of the site group Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu and a National Treasure in 2018.

Overview The Tamaudun site, covering an area of 2,442 m2, consists of two stone-walled enclosures and the north-facing mausoleum itself, made of three compartments and backed by a natural cliff to the south. A stone stele in the outer enclosure memorializes the construction of the mausoleum, which was finished in 1501, and lists the name of Shō Shin along with those of eight others involved in the construction. The three compartments of the mausoleum are laid out from east to west, with kings and queens of the Ryukyu Kingdom entombed in the eastern compartment and the princes and other members of the royal family in the western compartment. The third, central chamber was used for the Ryukyuan tradition of senkotsu; remains would only be kept here for a limited time to allow for decomposition, after which the bones were washed and placed in urns in the western or eastern chamber depending on the royal status of the deceased. The exterior of the structure is separated into an outer garden and a courtyard paved with coral fragments, surrounded by a stone wall. The shisa (stone lions) guarding the tomb are examples of traditional Ryūkyūan stone sculpture. The architectural style of the mausoleum represents that of the royal palace at the time, which was a stone structure with a wooden roof. Being located near the Japanese Supreme Commander's office during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, the mausoleum was caught in the crossfire of concentrated artillery bombardment along with Shuri Castle, suffering extensive damage, including the destruction of the east and west chambers. The ruins were subsequently looted, but the tombs and royal remains themselves remained intact, and much of the structure has since been restored. In 1992 Hiroshi Shō, the great-grandson of Shō Tai, the last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, donated Tamaudun and the royal gardens of Shikina-en to the City of Naha.

Burials Seventeen of the 19 kings of the Second Shō Dynasty who ruled between 1470 and 1879 are entombed at Tamaudun, along with various queens and royal children. The first person to be buried there was Shō En, for whom the mausoleum was constructed upon the orders of his son and successor, Shō Shin. However, for approximately 25 years, Shō En was not initially interred here, given that he died in 1476 and the mausoleum was not completed until 1501. Other monarchs not interred here include Shō Sen'i (1430–1477), who was not later re-interred here as his brother was, and Shō Nei (1564–1620) who chose to be interred separately in Urasoe yōdore in the aftermath of the Invasion of Ryukyu. The last interree was former Prince of Nakagusuku, Shō Ten, the son of the Ryūkyū Kingdom's last king, Shō Tai, who was entombed there in 1920 in accordance with traditional Ryūkyūan royal funerary rites, followed by his wife Shōko, Nodake Aji-ganashi, in 1931. Some of the identities of some corpses were still unknown, including a single corpse in Central Chamber that was speculated to be Mukuta Ufutuchi.

Gallery

See also List of Historic Sites of Japan (Okinawa) List of Important Cultural Properties of Japan (Okinawa: structures)

References

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Site Listing – Official Site (Japanese) 沖縄の世界遺産玉陵 (Tamaudun, World Heritage Site of Okinawa) Geographic data related to Tamaudun at OpenStreetMap

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tamaudun

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tamaudun claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tamaudun before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tamaudun ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tamaudun

In research: Tamaudun appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tamaudun in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tamaudun is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1501 establishments in Japan, Buildings and structures completed in 1501, Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tamaudun outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tamaudun in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tamaudun means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tamaudun out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tamaudun in simple terms?

Why does Tamaudun matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tamaudun?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tamaudun.