The magnificent Temple of Heaven

September 17, 2011

 The magnificent and colourful Temple of Heaven (TianTan) was where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would make offerings to heaven and pray for good harvests.
I visited the Temple of Heaven with Yulia (left) and Karen (right). We took the speed train to Beijing, then the subway a few blocks away from the temple. It was not hard to find once we learned how to read a map. Fortunately, a passer-by, who spoke English, took pity on us and told us we were heading in the right direction. What we thought would take us an hour to walk through, lasted three hours and a half.

Once we finished our tour, we met up with Stephen Elderhorst (left). Stephen and I went to high school together in London. It was 27 years since I last saw him. How great it was to meet a dear old friend and have dinner and catch up. Stephen was gracious enough to take us out for dinner. He gave us a bit of a back street view of Beijing. Meeting Stephen again gave me a sense of being home. For a moment, I didn’t feel so far away. We planned to get together again the following week.

History: The Temple of Heaven was constructed between 1406 and 1420 during the reign of Ming Emperor YongLe (reign: 1403-1424), who also oversaw the creation of the Forbidden City during the same period. The Temple of Heaven was originally established as the Temple of Heaven and Earth, but was given its current name during the reign of Ming Emperor JiaJing (reign: 1522-1567), who built separate complexes for the earth, sun and moon.

The Temple of Earth (DiTan) can be found in north Beijing. The temples of the sun and moon are in the east and west of Beijing. The emperor's primary imperial palace (Forbidden City) lies not just in the center of the city, but also between the temples of earth and heaven, symbolising the role of the emperor connection to heavenly rule. One will notice the representation of heaven as round and the earth as square in the layout and design. One approaches the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests along a long raised walkway that almost imperceptibly increases in height.

At the winter solstice offerings were made to heaven. And in the spring, prayers for a good harvest. It was one of the emperor's most important tasks to choose the dates for sowing seeds and bringing in the harvest.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a strikingly beautful building; round, three-tiered and with blue tiled roofs (as it is essentially a Taoist temple). It is 38 meters tall and sits on a three-tier marble terrace. The cleverly constructed building relies only on carpentry, with no nails employed. This design, what we see today, was commissioned by Qing dynasty emperor QianLong (reign: 1736-1795) in 1751. For you math people, you will notice the numbers 3 and 9, in particular, recurring in the layout and design; these are important or 'lucky' numbers in Chinese numerology. The number 9, being the highest value digit is associated with the emperor. Its square root, 3, has a natural resonance in terms of beginning, middle and end; introduction, development and conclusion.

The three main constructions of the Temple of Heaven lie on a central north-south axis and are surrounded by trees and gardens. Some of the trees here, mostly cypress, are many hundreds of years old. The gardens are alive with locals practicing tai chi, jian zi, wu shu, playing instruments, singing and dancing, board games, kite flying, badminton and more.