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China - The Middle Kingdom The Temple of Heaven |
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| The Temple of Heaven - The Ming emperor built this celestial temple to make annual sacrifices to the gods during the lunar new year, summer solstice and winter solstice. This is now a park and covers 273 hectares. There are three main temples (Circular Altar, Imperial Vault of Heaven, and Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests). No women or commoners were allowed to watch the emperor's procession to the temples. Tourist now come here year round to pay admission and get a chance to speak to the heavens. How things have change. | God's Marble Walkway - This marble walkway was reserved for gods, not even the emperor could tread on it, however since we paid admission we now get to take a heavenly stroll to the the temples. Notice how the center arch is closed. It was never opened because it was reserved for gods only. Please note that the god here is not the same as the Judah-Christian version, but the Chinese version. The processions would include all the Imperial officials and military. Elephants and horses would be part of this procession with sacrificial animals - cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, etc. along with silk, jade, fruit, wine and incense burning. |
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| Wheel of Fortune - The Circular Altar has a marble disk in the center where the emperor would perform his rituals and sacrifices to his ancestors and the gods in exchange for some divine intervention. This is where the main event of ritual sacrifices would be performed by the Emperor. I asked the heavens for a nice brunette 5'6" measuring 36-26-36, but it never happened. | Lucky Numbers - You can see the enormous size of this park with the two remaining temples in the background. The 3 level marble terrace used numerology which was a physical representation of the Chinese view of heaven. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 were the lucky numbers and 45 was the magic number. The game Keno came from China, which is more or less the same as many weekly lottery systems. |
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| God's Bank Vault - The Imperial Vault of Heaven is where the stone tablets of the emperor's ancestors, gods of the basic elements, and gods of natural phenomena would be stored here when not in use at the Circular Altar. This courtyard has natural harmonics and everyone was trying to hear echo effects, but with everyone shouting and clapping the frequencies were canceling each other out. There were also bullet holes in this vault probably from the 1880s when the British and French invaded Beijing during the First Opium War. The Imperialist powers probably thought there was gold here only to be disappointed by ancient stone tablets. This structure was built using only crossbeams and pillars. | Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - A lot of natural disasters occurred floods, drought, and pestilence. These disasters would translate into peasant uprisings. The emperor would come here and perform sacrifices to the gods to try to prevent the gods wrath on earth. The temple was built using no nails or mortar. Using just the general principle of dynamics the structure stands firm with 28 pillars with supporting wood bars, laths, and brackets and of course the gods blessings. |
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© 2002-2005 Stanley Yee |
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