Temple and Mosque
cctv.com 09-02-2005 19:14
瀵 is a temple or mosque. 瀵哄簷 is usually a Buddhist temple. 娓呯湡瀵 is a mosque.
Tanzhe Temple is the oldest temple in the Beijing municipality. In fact, being founded in the 3rd century AD, it pre-dates the city of Beijing itself. When you visit the temple they tell you, first there was this temple, then there was a city. It's still quite a ways out of the urban area, but well worth visiting. Apart from the temple buildings and the beautiful mountain valley, I think one of the main attractions are the ancient trees inside the temple grounds, some almost 1000 years old.
One of the most famous temples in Beijing is 闆嶅拰瀹, sometimes called the Lama Temple in English, after the Tibetan Lamas that inhabit the temple. This is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of of Tibet. It also boasts the largest wooden buddha in the world, carved out of a single white sandalwood tree. The statue is 18m high and 3m wide, filling up a 3 or 4 story temple building.
Daoist temples are usually called 瑙 instead of 瀵. The main one in Beijing is the 鐧戒簯瑙, the white cloud temple. This is the main centre of Daoism in Northern China.
While in Beijing, you can also check out the main Confucian Temple 瀛斿簷, where countless scholars studied to pass the imperial exams.
There are also several Christian churches that date back to the Qing dynasty, and a 100-year old Islamic mosque in the 鐗涜 area. Something for just about everyone!
Editor:Liu Fengming Source:CCTV.com
