Perching on the South Cliff, Nanyan Temple (Nanyan gong) is known as the place where Emperor Zhen Wu found Taoism and flew to heaven. The whole structure - hall-pillars, beams, arches, gates and windows - is created out of rock.
The temple is enshrined with gilded bronze statues of several dozen Taoist deities, including the God of Prime Origin and the North God. There are also 500 gilded iron statues of the heavenly officials on the cliffs, each about 30 cm tall. With their well-balanced proportions, they are amazingly lifelike.
Nanyan Temple is considered the most spectacular of Wudangshan's three famous temples, the other two being the Purple Cloud Temple (Zixiao gong) and the Golden Hall (Jindian). The temple was officially appointed an Important Relic Preserving Unit in 1996.
Famous quotes containing the word temple:
“Thou shalt make thy house
The temple of a nation’s vows.
Spirits of a higher strain
Who sought thee once shall seek again.
I detected many a god
Forth already on the road,
Ancestors of beauty come
In thy breast to make a home.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)