Tanzhe Temple
Tanzhe Temple | |
---|---|
潭柘 | |
![]() An entrance into the Tanzhe Temple | |
Religion | |
Affiliation | Buddhism |
Location | |
Location | Tanzhesi Town, Mentougou District, Beijing |
Country | China |
Geographic coordinates | 39°54′14″N 116°01′27″E / 39.904016°N 116.024133°E |
Architecture | |
Style | Chinese architecture |
Date established | 307 |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Tanzhetemplepic4.jpg/220px-Tanzhetemplepic4.jpg)
The Tanzhe Temple (Chinese: 潭柘
Built in the Jin Dynasty (266–420), it has an age of around 1,700 years. Tanzhe Temple is one of the oldest temples in Beijing. The area of the entire temple is 100 mu (6.8 hectares), and its arrangement of halls is akin to that found in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
History
[edit]Tanzhe Temple was first established in the 1st year of Yongjia period (307) in Western Jin dynasty (265-317) with the name of Jiafu Temple (
Tanzhe Temple entered the most glorious period in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), four emperors, namely Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722), Yongzheng Emperor (1723-1735), Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795) and Jiaqing Emperor (1796-1820) all came to Tanzhe Temple to worship Buddha, which elevated its position and attracted more people to the temple.[1]
Architecture
[edit]Most of the existing buildings in the temple are from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and there are pagodas from various historical periods such as the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The over 900 rooms and 638 halls still maintain in the style of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911).[1] The two "Emperor trees" by the Hall of Three Sages were planted during the Liao Dynasty (907-1125) about 1,000 years ago.
The spacious and imposing buildings are arranged in three main northsouth axes. Along the central axis are the Archway, the shanmen, Deveraja Hall, Mahavira Hall and Vairochana Pavilion.
The temple's central hall is its Mahavira Hall. 24 m (79 ft) in length, 33 m (108 ft) wide. Buddhist monks regularly perform religious ceremony here.
The temple is divided between the Hall of Abstinence, the Ordination Altar and the Hall of Guanyin. The latter has received fame because of its association with Princess Miaoyan, daughter of Kublai Khan. The princess is said to have entered nunnery here in the 13th century. The indentations can be found on the stone on which she always knelt and prayed within the hall. Supposedly she was also buried within the temple compound.
To the right of the main courtyard lies a separate yard containing stone monuments built in different styles over a period of several centuries and housing the remains of eminent monks.
Mahavira Hall
[edit]The Mahavira Hall has double-eave hip roofs (
Yigan Pavilion
[edit]The Yigan Pavilion (猗玕
Pagoda Forest
[edit]Tanzhe Temple has a large scale of tomb pagodas built near it. Now near 70 pagodas built in different dynasties are entirely preserved. They are of various types, such as stone column pagodas (