Temple of Heaven

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TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

• The Temple of Heaven, or the Altar of Heaven is a religious building in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It has been regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese heaven worship.

HISTORY• The temple was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during

the reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The complex was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the 16th century. The Jiajing Emperor also built three other prominent temples in Beijing, the Temple of Sun (日壇 ) in the east, the Temple of Earth (地壇 ) in the north, and the Temple of Moon (月壇 ) in the west. The Temple of Heaven was renovated in the 18th century under the Qianlong Emperor. Due to the state budget, this became the last large-scale renovation of the temple in the imperial time.

Interesting Facts• The Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a

UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was described as "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations" as the "symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries."

Art Value:• One of the temple is The Hall of Prayer for Good

Harvests (祈年殿 ), Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇 ), and The Circular Mound Altar (圜丘坛 ). The inside of Hall of Prayer is decorated built on three levels with marbled of stone base, where the Emperor prayed.The building is completely wooden, with no nails. The Imperial Vault is surrounded by a smooth circular wall, the Echo Wall, that can transmit sounds over large distances.Mound Altar is decorated with marbled floor and neatly carved dragons.

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祈年殿• The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, is a

magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 36 meters in diameter and 38 meters tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The original building was burned down by a fire caused by lightning in 1889. The current building was re-built several years after the incident.

皇穹宇• The Imperial Vault of Heaven is a single-gabled

circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base. It is located south of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and resembles it, but is smaller. It is surrounded by a smooth circular wall, the Echo Wall, that can transmit sounds over large distances. The Imperial Vault is connected to the Hall of Prayer by the Vermilion Steps Bridge, a 360-metre-long (1,180 ft) raised walkway that slowly ascends from the Vault to the Hall of Prayer.

圜丘坛• The Circular Mound Altar, is the altar proper, located

south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, each decorated by lavishly carved dragons. The numbers of various elements of the Altar, including its balusters and steps, are either the sacred number nine or its nonuples. The center of the altar is a round slate called the Heart of Heaven(天心石 ) or the Supreme Yang(太阳石 ), where the Emperor prayed for favorable weather. Thanks to the design of the altar, the sound of the prayer will be reflected by the guardrail, creating significant resonance, which was supposed to help the prayer communicate with the Heaven. The Altar was built in 1530 by the Jiajing Emperor and rebuilt in 1740.

CULTURAL VALUE

Chinese culture

• The Temple of Heaven is also one of the culture in China. This temple is when the emperors pray for the good harvest or lucky weathers to come. This temple is also used for spiritual event. It is known for a Taoist temple, but also for public.

BELIEF VALUE

• Chinese folk beliefs are based in a large part on the worship of various aspects of Nature, particularly the heaven, earth, sun, and moon. The Temple of Heaven is a sacred temple in Beijing where the emperor made sacrifices to heaven. Its outer wall is round, symbolizing heaven, and the inner wall is square, symbolizing earth. This embodies the ancient Chinese cosmological principle that heaven (the natural world) is round and earth (human experience and concepts of order) is square.

VALUEHISTORICA

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• The Temple of Heaven is an arrangement of Circular Mound Altar to the south open to the sky with the roofed Imperial Vault of Heaven facing to its north. This is linked by a raised sacred way to the circular, three-tiered, roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests further to the north. Here at these places the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties which is believed beyond humankind pray for good harvest. In the west is the Hall of Abstinence where the emperor fasted after making sacrifice. The whole is surrounded by a double-walled, pine-treed enclosure. Between the inner and outer walls to the west are the Divine Music Administration hall and the building that was the Stables for Sacrificial Animals. Within the complex there are a total of 92 ancient buildings with 600 rooms. It is the most complete existing imperial sacrificial building complex in China and the world's largest existing building complex for offering sacrifice to heaven.