Stele on a Tortoise at the Dai Temple 岱庙
I wasn’t really expecting the Dai Temple to be this old. Most of the places I have visited in this trip come relatively recently as in the last 500 years. The Dai Temple, however, blows them all away. It is in amazingly good shape and highly accessible to visitors. The fact that it is not overrun by hordes of tourists is also amazing. A random walk through the Dai Temple complex reveals a trove of very old pieces of history.
Tang Pagoda Embracing Her Child
There were a number of stelae in the Dai Temple complex and most of them were mounted on a tortoise’s back. One significant stele is called the Dongyue Imperial stele, this is the earliest known stele dating back to the year 1013 AD. There were characters on the stele but it isn’t really very readable now. There were also rock formations given interesting names. Another was a cypress tree given the name Tang Pagoda Embraces Her Child. I don’t see the paogda nor the child, but it is always the casse with these types of places.
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