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ARCHITECTURE & ICONOGRAPHY

 

 

 

  miao minge

 

Thailand

Wooden name plaques over the entrances of Chinese or Chinese-style temples (fig.), ancestral shrines (fig.), city walls, and imperial palace halls in China are known as miao minge.

 

The name is either written vertically, i.e. from top to bottom, or inscribed horizontally, in which case the logograms should be read as they were traditionally written in ancient times, i.e. from right to left. This one is of the Kuan U Shrine in Bangkok's Chinatown and reads, from right to left: Guan di gu miao (廟古帝關), i.e. ‘Ancient temple of the god Guan’. The swastika on top of the roof is a symbol of the dhammachakka, and represents universal harmony and the balance of opposites.

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