#ditan

 The Temple of Earth was constructed in 1530 during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor, ex-Emperor Shizhong, of the Ming Dynasty. The Temple of Earth fell into disuse in the early 20th century but it reopened in 1925 during the Republic of China (1912-1949) period.   All of the buildings of the Temple of Earth have distinctive engravings that depict dragons and phoenixes and which serve, in this context, as representations of the yin and the yang.  All of the structures within Temple of Earth Park were erected in accordance with ancient Chinese Taoist principles concerning the interaction of the 5 elements: earth, water, fire, metal, wood (the “cosmological” temples of Beijing are decidedly Taoist/ Daoist inspired).

At the main entrance to the park is a tall stone archway in the facade-like style of stone archways throughout China. This type of archway is not designed to provide pathway access though a building, but is simply an impressive, towering, facade-like gate that marks an entrance (to my mind, the towering, facade-like stone archway is as quintessentially ancient Chinese as is the upturned eave!).

Deeper within the temple complex is a sacrificial altar, Fangze Tan (“Square Altar”). Again, it is no coincidence that the altar is square, since this is the altar for performing sacrifices to the God of Earth, given that the symbol for the earth is a square. The raised, two-tiered platform of the altar is made of marble, each tier standing 2 meters in height.

This post is the last extract of my mother’s travel journal written during a tour of China in 2013.

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Con unos cuantos compañeros hemos conversado respecto a la irrealidad de todo esto. Sí, la verdad es que para mí esto es como un sueño, algo muy por lejos alejado de toda la realidad. No hay responsabilidades, todos tienen dinero, comemos fuera cuando nos da la gana, salimos de fiesta, conocemos gente, todos tiran con todo el mundo. . . como una realidad alternativa donde cada quién vive como más…