Chinese Temples

It is unknown about how many temples there are spread out through China. Temple literally means any place that holds religious meaning, so this increases th enumber greatly. Temples in China are mainly of Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism. These religions have deep cultural influence on China and also on its politics and philosophy.

The largest temple is the Tibetan Buddhist Drepung Monastery, which is the largest and richest monastery, and it covers over 200,000 square meters.

This is the largest Taoist temple in China.(right)

There are also much smaller temples, such as back-alley Taoist huts.

Each religion has its own style and architecture to its temples. Buddhist Chinese architecture is very interesting, and it strictly follows the rules of symmetry. The Pagoda is an important aspect of these temples. Now the highest Pagoda is 40 meters high and has been standing for over 1400 years. There are many differnt kinds of Pagodas, including wood, brick, stone, bronze and iron. Overall, there are more than 3000 of them in China today. Throughout history, Pagodas continually became more and more decorative. Though there are many different kinds of Pagodas, they all have a common underground structure. This is usually refered to as "the underground palace." The most famous underground palace is at the Famen Temple in Xian, Shaanxi.(below)

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