Forbidden City - Temple of Heaven

As I forged through the city's commercial streets, I welcomed entering another landscaped park where an avenue led to the UNESCO-listed Temple of Heaven, known as "Tiantan" in Chinese. It is one of China's most iconic and well-preserved examples of imperial architecture and one of its most important religious sites. Construction began in 1406 during Zhu Di's reign, who was also responsible for building the Forbidden City and the first mausoleum at the Ming Tombs.

The temple was visited annually by emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for good harvests and divine blessings. These rituals were very important because emperors were seen as the intermediary between heaven and earth. The emperor and his entourage would camp within the complex twice a year, wearing ceremonial attire and refraining from meat consumption. The procession from the Forbidden City to the temple complex, along with the subsequent ceremony, was not open to the general public, and the execution of the rituals had to be precise and perfect. It was believed that even the smallest errors would bring misfortune to the country in the coming year.

Within the complex are a number of buildings, each with its own symbolic significance. The most notable is The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a triple-gabled circular building atop a triple-level marble stone base with intricate wooden carvings and a distinctive blue-tiled roof. Just like the Long Gallery at the Summer Palace, the hall's interior is highly ornate, with every inch of its roofline painted in exquisite detail and the red support columns covered in gold leaf.

South of The Hall of Prayer is a smaller building resembling it, called the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is a single-level, single-gabled circular building surrounded by the Echo Wall that transmits sounds a long way.

Not far from the Imperial Vault is the Circular Mound Altar, a large, circular marble platform with three tiers of balustrades decorated with carved dragons. An interesting aspect of the Altar's design is the incorporation of fences and steps in multiples of nine. In ancient China, odd numbers were considered positive, with nine being the most positive value and symbolising imperial authority. Each level contains nine concentric circles of fan-shaped stones. These circles progressively expand outward, each with nine more stones than the previous one. At the centre of the Altar is a round slate called the Heart of Heaven. If you stand on it and shout, the sound waves will clearly echo. This is where the emperor would pray for fair weather, hoping the sound of his prayer would reach up to the heavens.

The colour scheme of the whole complex is also symbolic, with the main colour being blue, which is meant to represent the heavens. One fine example is the Hall of Prayer, where specific dark blue roof tiles symbolise the connection between the emperor and the divine.

The complex is nestled within a park consisting of more than 60,000 trees, including one known as the grandfather tree, a 500-year-old Nine-Dragon Cypress with branches resembling dragons intertwining with one another.
 

Taking my time to explore this serene temple complex, my next and final destination is the legendary Forbidden City.



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