Dai Temple (Temple of the God of Mount Tai)岱庙

Type: Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
Location: China · Shandong · Tai'an · Daimiao North Street, Taishan District, Tai'an, on the southern foot of Mount Tai
Coordinates: 36.1946, 117.124 Map ↗
School: Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
First built: Han dynasty (one account: Qin) · Present layout established during the Dazhongxiangfu era of the Song; rebuilt in the Ming and Qing
Heritage status: Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (1988)Component of the Mount Tai UNESCO World Heritage Site (1987)

Overview

Dai Temple is the principal shrine for the sacrifice to the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak (the god of Mount Tai), the site where successive emperors held the grand Feng and Shan ceremonies and sacrificed to the god of Mount Tai, and the largest and most complete complex of ancient buildings on Mount Tai. Its layout imitates an imperial palace city, running about 400 meters north to south, with corner towers at its four corners. The main hall, Tiankuang Hall, was built in the second year of the Dazhongxiangfu era of the Song (1009); it spans nine bays under a double-eaved hip roof, and is counted, together with the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City and the Dacheng Hall at Qufu, among "China's Three Great Palace-Style Buildings." Inside is preserved the Song-dynasty mural The Mount Tai God's Procession, some 62 meters long. The temple holds nearly two hundred steles, including the surviving fragment of the Qin Mount Tai Inscription Stone, the Han Hengfang Stele, and the Zhangqian Stele, along with cypresses from the Han and locust trees from the Tang of great age. It was presided over by Daoist priests throughout the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, with Longmen Quanzhen priests long managing temple affairs, and it remains a site of Daoist activity today.

Highlights

Tiankuang Hall
Song-Dynasty Mural The God's Procession
Qin Mount Tai Inscription Stone
Han Cypress Courtyard
Bronze Pavilion and Iron Pagoda

References