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PAAL-EN-KLEI. (Afrikaans). See under WATTLE-AND-DAUB.

PACAYATANA. (Indian). The five-temples (shrine, support, above, resting place). In architecture, a temple that has a central shrine surrounded by four others.

Palelo. (seTswana). Roof batten.

PALLIPPADAI. (Indian). In south India, a temple that serves partially as a commemorative funerarymonument for a deceased royal personage but is, at the same time, also dedicated to a deity.

PACA MAKARA. (Indian). Also referred to as the five "m's". In Hindu Tantric practices, the enjoyment of the company of women (mudra), the drinking of wine (mada), the eating of flesh (mamsa), the eating of fish (matsya), and sexual intercourse (maithuna). They are so called because in Sanskrit all the names of these things begin with the letter m. Some lists substitute human sacrifice, the use of the human skull as a drinking vessel, and the singing of lusty songs for some of the practices. Although the five m's are not specifically mentioned as a group in Buddhist texts, the same practices occur in Tantric Buddhism.

PANCARATHA. (Indian). "Five-ratha"; the side of a pedestal or a building that is offset so that its length is divided into five sections.

PANCAYATANA. “Five temple shrine, support, abode or resting place”. In architecture it is a temple that has a central shrine surrounded by four others.

PANEEL. (Afrikaans). See under PANEL.

PANEELRUITER. (Afrikaans). See under BOLECTION MOULDING.

PANEL. A compartment, sunk or raised, to be found in walls, doors and ceilings. (Afrikaans: paneel).

PAN TILES. Clay roof tiles, curved so that when laid upon a roof, each overlaps the edge of adjacent tiles and prevents moisture penetration. (Afrikaans: dakpanne).

PARALLEL ROOF HOUSE. Rectangular structure two rooms deep, each row being roofed separately thereby giving the building its characteristic M-profile. (Afrikaans: M-dak huis).

PARAPET WALL. From the Latin parare, meaning to protect and pectus, meaning breast. The portion of wall above the roof gutter or roof surface. Also applied to the same feature, rising breast-high, in balconies, platforms and bridges. (Afrikaans: borsweringmuur).

PARGETING. Also called Parge-work; the exterior plastering of a wall, usually moulded into designs of a geometrical or foliated nature. (Afrikaans: sierpleistering).

PARIKRAMA. (Indian). Meaning circumambulation or roaming about. The walking about in a circle about a deity or a religious structure, performed as part of religious practice. When circumambulation is performed with the object of veneration to the right of the devotee, that is to say with the devotee moving in a clockwise direction, the circumambulation is called pradaksina; when the object is to the left and the worshipper moves in a counterclockwise direction, it is called prasavya. Clockwise movement is considered to be auspicious; counterclockwise movement is inauspicious, and generally associated with death.

PARIVARALAYA. (Indian). A shrine for a parivara deity.

PARNAGHATA. (Indian). Vase-of-plenty.

PARSVA DEVATA. (Indian). A side-deity; secondary deities of an iconographic program, usually placed in subsidiary niches in a temple.

PASTORIE. (Afrikaans). See under MANSE.

PEAK. See under PINNACLE. (Afrikaans: spits).

PEDI. Sotho/Tswana speaking group inhabiting the Sekhukhuneland region of the central and northern Transvaal. They are more correctly known as the baPedi, their language as sePedi, their country as boPedi. They are also sometimes referred to by anthropologists as the Northern Sotho.

PEDIMENT. A low-pitched gable above a portico, a door or a window opening. See also BROKEN PEDIMENT and OPEN BED PEDIMENT.

PENDANT. A hanging ornament.

PEW. Fixed wooden seat in a church. (Afrikaans: kerkbank).

PFAMO. (tshiVenda). Term for a chief's dwelling.

PHAMSANA. (Indian). A peaked, pyramidal roof rising from a square base.

PIDHA. (Indian). Horizontal, platform-like, divisions or courses of the superstructure over the jagamohan (mandapa) of an Orissan temple.

PIER. From the Latin petra meaning rock. The load-bearing brickwork in a building between openings. Is built on one or both sides of a wall, in which case it is known as a pilaster. (Afrikaans: pilaar or pyler).

PIERCED DECORATION. Fretwork pattern cut in a timber barge board. (Afrikaans: steekversiering).
PILAAR. (Afrikaans). See under PIER.

PILOTIS. From the French, meaning stilts. A post or column projecting through an open ground floor space to carry the structure above. Also could be interpreted to mean a pile or stake.
Pinagare. (seTswana). A center post used during roof construction, when it carries the greater part of the thatcher’s live load. After the roof has been completed, it is cut off immediately below the cross-brace. Should the roof require subsequent maintenance or re-thatching, a new center post is inserted immediately below it as a temporary prop. In many larger Tswana dwellings the center post is not removed.

PINNACLE. The raised end in the ridge surrounding a gable and point of a hip. Also a small turret or tall ornament, usually tapering towards the top. (Afrikaans: spitstorinkie).

PISTA. (Indian). In Orissan architecture, the platform or base comprising the lower portion of a temple.

PITHA. (Indian). Seat or throne. The pedestal of an image or linga.

PLAFONBALK. (Afrikaans). See under CEILING JOIST.

PLAT GRAFSTEEN. (Afrikaans). See under LEDGER.

PLINT. (Afrikaans). See under PLINTH.

PLINTH. The projecting base, stepped or moulded, of any building. Also applied to the lowest square member of the base of a column. (Afrikaans: plint).

PLOUGHED-AND-GROOVED. Method of panelling, also called feather jointing, similar to modern tongue-and-grooved. (Afrikaans: tong-en-groef).

PORCH. From the Latin porticus. A covered entrance to a building. (Afrikaans: buiteportaal).

POST. A main vertical support of a building frame or a partition or a sub-frame. (Afrikaans: styl).

PRADAKSINAPATHA. (Indian). A passageway or walkway for circumambulation surrounding an image, shrine, or building. In Western literature, the term is used generically to refer to all circum-ambulatory passageways. However, since the term pradaksina implies only clockwise movement, the name may be inappropriate for some forms of circumambulation which are performed in a counterclockwise (prasavya) direction.

PRAKARA. (Indian). An enclosure wall, or the enclosure wall and the compound created by the wall in a south Indian temple: or a covered walkway that serves as an enclosure boundary in a south Indian temple.

PRASTARA. (Indian). A flat surface; a flat top; a level. In architecture, the entablature above the wall of a structure.

PREFABRICATED BUILDINGS. The concept of prefabricating buildings within a factory environment appears to have begun in Britain during the early years of the nineteenth century when colonial expansion created a ready market for high quality transportable housing. Although these structures were initially in timber, the subsequent introduction of industrialised building elements such as corrugated sheeting and cast iron trims served to enlarge and enrich the range of textures and forms possible under such a system of construction.

PULATA. (tshiVenda). From the Afrikaans plat, meaning flat. Term used in Venda to describe a mono-pitch roofed, square plan dwelling.

PURLIN. A horizontal timber piece or beam in a roof, at right angles to the principal rafters or trusses, and carried on them. It carries the common rafters, if any, or the corrugated sheet. (Afrikaans: kaplat).

PURLIN ROOF. A roof for small houses, in which the purlins are carried on the gables or the cross walls, rather than on a system of trusses. (Afrikaans: kaplatdak).

PYLER. (Afrikaans). See under PIER.

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