Golden Temple (Jindian) is located on Mingfeng Hill 7 km northeast of Kunming, Yunnan. The Golden Temple was first built in 1602 in the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and is also known as Taihe Palace (the Hall of Supreme Harmony) and Tongwa Temple (the Bronze Tile Temple).
The history of the Golden Temple starts during the Ming Dynasty and the reign of the Emperor Wanli in 1602. At that time the governor of Yunnan Province was a devout Taoist who built this temple to honor the Taoist hero-god Zishi. According to legend, Zishi had a golden palace in the northernmost extremity of the universe. But the Golden Temple didn't stay in its original place for very long. Just 35 years later, in 1637, the entire original temple was moved to Jizu (Chicken Foot) Mountain in western Yunnan. Three decades later in 1671 during the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui, the governor of Yunnan Province, built an exact duplicate of the original temple. The temple is 6.7 meters high, both the width and length measurements are 7.8 meters, in the courtyard are ancient camellia trees. At the back is the 29-meter-high Bell Tower, where a 14-ton bronze bell hung on the third floor, cast in 1423.
The Golden Temple is the largest copper temple in China. It was undisturbed for almost two hundred years until the Muslim rebellion of 1857, during which the Golden Temple suffered some damages. The Qing Emperor Guangxu ordered its complete repair and in 1890, using 250 tons of solid bronze, the entire temple was again rebuilt. Except for the staircases, floor, and balustrades, which are made of marble, the walls, columns, rafters, roof tiles, windows, altars, Buddha statues, curling dragons, wall decorations and the tablet near the gate tower are all made of copper. The burnished copper gleamed like gold and that is why people named it the Golden Temple. Since its last renovation, this beloved copper temple on the top of Mingfeng Hill has been well cared and has become the most famous Taoist shrine in Yunnan Province. |
