Tianshan Mountain Temple

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The Tianshan Mountain Temple is located at the top of the Mt. Tianshan about 60km from the north of today’s Hami City. It was built in the Tang Dynasty, and it was famous for building Guandi Temple at the top of the Mt. Tianshan in the 51st year(1786) of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. With an elevation being over 2,700m, the mountain peak nearly touching the cloud and the path being narrow, this place has been the only way from Hami in the eastern Tianshan area to Barkol and Yiwu since ancient times and a throat crossroad of the new north road of the Silk Road. Before the construction of the temple, this place was known as “Dark Purple Ridge”.When Hou Junji pacified Gaochang in the 14th year (640) of Tang Emperor Zhenguan, Left Tunwei General Jiang Hangben,a vice manager of the march, manufactured siege weapons here. After the event,a memorial tablet about his contribution was set up on the Mt. Tianshan, and it was called “Tablet Figure”Mountain(Stele Mountain in Mongolian) in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

There are only three empty houses made of bricks and wood and a broken stele in today’s Tianshan Mountain Temple. The road in the Mt. Tianshan is meandering, having thirty six twists. Walking along the meandering mountain road to climb to the top of the Tianshan Mountain Temple, the tourists willsuddenly see the light. Looking down from the mountain, the tourist can only see luxuriant and immense forest and bright snow, with viewing a bright moon in the sky for a while, heavy cloud and fog for a while and then a heavy snowfall for a while. Therefore, most tourists stop here to enjoy the fantastic scenery of the nature.