Temple
For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation).
A
temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites (as in masonry). It is a general term for a house of
worship.
The majority of the main temples, along the major
religions, are aligned in the
cardinal directions, especially in a east-west axis which symbolically represents the
sun's path, the "donor of
life".
The word is derived from the both more and less specific
Latin word
templum ("sacred place"). Initially, the templum was a section (from Greek
temnein â€" to cut or divide) carved out of the heavens, used by the augurs for divination â€" see
Roman temple. It is interesting to note that this spatial division has its temporal equivalent with
tempus (the time) deriving from the same
temnein origin, as a division of the duration.
Some religions using the term temple, exclusively or alongside specific synonym(s):
*
Hinduism (
Mandir)
*
Buddhism (
Shaolin)
*
Temple at Uppsala*
Greek temple*
Temple in Jerusalem*
Mormon temple*
Roman temple*
Reform Judaism's
synagogues.
Some religions refer to their temples by a unique word of their own:
*In
ancient Rome, only the native deities of
Roman mythology had a
templum; any equivalent structure for a foreign deity was called a
fanum.
*In
Christianity, God is not believed to live in a church but is omnipresent. As 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 says Christians are the temple of God, considered equivalent to the Temple in Jerusalem. Usually the building is called a
church, but may sometimes be called a temple.
**In Western Christianity, some "private" temples are called
chapels, while major public ones are designated by a term reflecting its ecclesiastical status, such as
cathedral (i.e. seat of a diocesan bishop),
basilica, or
minster, and/or proper to a cultural tradition, e.g.
kirk (Scotts, cognate with church) or
Dom (Dutch and (German, English cognate
Dome only used in architecture).
**In
Orthodox Christianity (both
Eastern and
Oriental) a temple is a
church with a base shaped like a
Greek cross. See
Orthodox temple.
**
Protestant denominations installed in
France in the early modern era use the word "temple" (as opposed to "church," supposed to be
Roman Catholic); some more recently installed Christian denominations use "church."
**The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) uses both "church" and "temple" to denote different types of buildings. Normal worship services are held in churches while
Mormon temples are reserved for special
ordinances.
*A
Jain temple is called a
derasar.
*A
Hindu temple is variously called a
mandir (
Hindi), a
Kovil (
Tamil), and a
gudi/
devalayam/
kovela (
Telugu).
*An
Islamic temple is called a
mosque (
masjid in
Arabic)
*In
Judaism, the
Temple in Jerusalem (
Hebrew: בית ×"מק×"ש,
Beit ha Mikdash, literally "House of the Temple") on
Temple Mount in
Jerusalem was the center of ancient
Judaism and the most important
holy site in the religion. The
First Temple was built in the
10th century BCE under
King Solomon to replace the
Tabernacle and was destroyed by the
Babylonians under
Nebuchadnezzar in
586 BCE, marking the beginning of the
Babylonian exile. The
Second Temple was constructed after the return from the Babylonian exile, from around
536 BCE to
515 BCE.
Herod's Temple was a massive expansion of the Second Temple begun under
Herod the Great around
19 BCE. It was almost entirely destroyed by Roman troops under
Titus in
70 CE during the
siege of Jerusalem of the
First Jewish-Roman War, leaving only the
Western Wall. Some
synagogues, especially
Reform synagogues, are called temples (as in
Temple Emanu-El;
Temple Beth-El), but
Orthodox Judaism considers this inappropriate as they do not consider synagogues a replacement for the
Temple in Jerusalem.
|
Hindu temples have the principal shrine facing the rising sun and the entrance facing east. Shown here is the Tirupati temple, the most visited temple in the world and the second richest religious shrine after the Vatican. |
*A
Sikh temple is called a
gurdwara.
*A
Zoroastrian temple is called a
fire temple.
*In
Cambodia and
Thailand, both Hindu and Buddhist temples are known as
wats.
*
Bahá'à Temples are known as
"Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs"* A
Shintoist temple is called a
jinja, or in English a
shrine, as opposed to temples (-tera, -dera) as in Buddhism.
* Various Far Eastern temples are called
pagoda in western languages
* Numerous sects, syncretisms and other non-mainstream religious cults also have temples
Parareligious traditions
*
Masonic temples are meeting places for
Freemasons, who, though not members of a church, follow some religious practices. However, precisely to avoid confusion with religious temples, the
Shriners renamed their temples "Shrine Centers".
|
The Angkor Wat Hindu temple in Cambodia, with the entrance facing west, is the largest temple in the world (early 12th century). |
|
Longshan Temple in Taipei City with the entrance facing west; an example of architecture with southern Chinese influences commonly seen in older buildings in Taiwan (1738). |
In various historical periods, specific architectural styles were maintained strictly for major religious structures. These temple structures, along with military and palace structures, have often been the main surviving studied examples of certain kinds of architecture.
In particular, Greek and Roman temple architecture has been a major influence in Western public architecture. See
list of ancient temple structures.
In
Republic of China (
Taiwan ) for non-Buddhist worship:
*
Long-shan Temple (é¾å±±å¯º, Long Shan Si)
*
Bao-an Temple (大é¾å³'ä¿å®‰å®®)
*
Xanthos, a
Greek temple*
Meenakshi Temple, famous temple in
Madurai,
India*
Edakkunni Temple, most famous of the 108
durga temples built by
Parasurama; known for
Kshipra prasadini (i.e. you get whatever you prayed for if you pray daily)In China:
*
The Temple of Heaven, a famous Taoist temple in
BeijingIn
Japan:
*
HÅryÅ«-ji*
Kihryuzan Senjo-ji temple
*
SensÅ-ji*
RyÅan-jiHani, Jean,
Le symbolisme du temple chrétien, G. Trédaniel (editor); [2. éd.] edition (1978), 207 p., ISBN 2857070306
*
List of Buddhist temples*
List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints*
Temple â€" Christian rock band*
Etymology online â€" distinct for the religious and anatomical terms*
The Hindu Temple â€" Where Man Becomes God by Sri Nitin Kumar.
*
The Temple of Love*
South Indian Temples History and Images*
Indian Hindu Temples.*
Temple Elephants in India â€" A short video in Quicktime format.
