Temple

Temple

Judaism

(also Temple Mount) The central place of Jewish worship in ancient times. The first Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. It was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BCE, and the fast of 9 Av was instituted to commemorate the event. It was rebuilt after the return from exile under the leadership of Zerubbabel (Haggai 2) and was greatly enlarged and improved by King Herod the Great (1st cent. BCE). Within the walls lay the Temple Court open even to gentiles; at the east end beyond the Gate Beautiful was the Court of Women which lay inside the consecrated area. Beyond this lay the Court of the Israelites, open to all male Jews, from which the sacrifices performed on the altar in the Court of Priests could be viewed. Up further steps was the Temple proper, consisting of the porch, the sanctuary which was furnished with the altar of incense, the table of shewbread, and the golden menorah, and finally the Holy of Holies. Temple ritual is described in the Mishnaic tractates, Tamid, Middot, and Yoma. The building was destroyed by the Romans (again on 9 Av) in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Hinduism

See ART.

Jainism

Although there has been occasional dissent among Jains (e.g. the Terapanth), the majority of Jains have regarded the building of temples and the revering of the fordmakers in them as meritorious; and they would describe themselves as murtipujakas, ‘image-worshippers’. Jain temples reflect early descriptions of the first preaching hall of Mahāvīra, and usually include a tower said to represent Jain cosmography, but perhaps absorbed from Mount Meru as the axis mundi.

Japanese Religion

(Jap., tera, ji) Centres for institutionalized Buddhist practice in Japan. Japanese Buddhist temples, both architecturally and religiously, were heavily influenced initially (6th–8th cents. CE) by the Chinese and Korean temple systems. Later, Japan adopted these systems to their own practices and developing sectarian movements.

Temples generally belong to one or another of the many sects of Japanese Buddhism, including some of the Buddhist ‘new religions’ of Japan. As such, they represent Japanese Buddhism in its sectarian and institutionalized form.