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Tanzhe Temple, located in Mentougou District in the south east of Beijing, the name of Tanzhe is from its mountains and cudrania trees. Tanzhe Temple is the oldest temples in Beijing, 800 years earlier than
the Urban Construction of Beijing city. Tanzhe Temple was built in the Western Jin Dynasty period (265-316), with 1,700 years of history. There has been an old saying in Beijing: "first Tanzhe, after Youzhou (former Beijing)".
The existing buildings in the temple are from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today there are pagoda groups from various historical periods such as the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Legend has it that the two "Emperor trees" by the Hall of Three Sages were planted in the Liao Dynasty about 1,000 years ago.
Tanzhe Temple
The spacious and imposing buildings are arranged in three main northsouth axes, and is said to have provided a model for the layout of the Forbidden City. Along the central axis are the Archway, the Front Gate, Deveraja Hall, Mahavira Hall and Vairochana Pavilion.
The temple's central hall is its Mahavira Hall. 24 metres in length, 33 metres wide. Buddhist monks regularly perform religious ceremony here.
The temple is divided between the Hall of Abstinence, the Ordination Altar and the Hall to Guanyin. The latter has received fame because of its association with princess Miaoyan, daughter of Kublai Khan. The princess is said to have entered the nunnery here in the 13th century. The indentations can be found on the stone on which she always knelt and prayed within the hall. Supposedly she was also buried within the temple compound.
To the right of the main courtyard lies a rare stupa yard, with stone monuments built in different styles over a period of several centuries and housing the remains of eminent monks.
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