Temple of Heaven

Jul 15, 2012 - Age Correspondent

The Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple in Beijing, China. This was constructed in the 14th century by Emperor Yongle of Ming Dynasty (who also built the Forbidden City) as his personal temple, where he would pray for a good harvest and atone for the sins of his people.

The temple, which was originally established as the Temple of Heaven and Earth, was given its current name during the reign of Ming Emperor JiaJing, who built separate complexes for the earth, sun and moon.
The emperor's primary imperial palace (Forbidden City) lies in the centre of the city. One will notice the representation of heaven as round, and the earth as square in the layout and design which reflects an ancient Chinese thought. The northern part of the temple is higher than the southern part showing that heaven is high and the earth is low.
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 civilisations...”

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