庙

• Pinyin: miào
• Hanzi breakdown: 庙 = 广 (building radical) + 朝 (court, facing) — a sheltered hall for ritual audience with gods or ancestors

Meaning

Temple; shrine. A place of worship dedicated to gods, ancestors, or revered historical figures in Chinese folk religion or Taoism.

In Chinese culture, 庙 encompasses a wide range of sacred spaces: ancestral halls (祠庙), city god temples (城隍庙), and Taoist shrines. Unlike 寺 (Buddhist monastery) or 教堂 (Christian church), 庙 is associated with folk religion. Common in idioms: 庙堂 (halls of power), 小庙容不下大菩萨 (a small temple cannot hold a great bodhisattva — a talented person is out of place in a small organisation).

Examples

1. 每逢春节前后，村里那座供奉土地神的小庙便香火鼎盛，周边十里八乡的村民纷纷赶来上香祈福，场面热闹而虔诚。 Around the Lunar New Year, the small village shrine dedicated to the Earth God is bustling with incense offerings; villagers from miles around come to burn incense and pray for blessings, creating a lively yet devout scene.
2. 这座建于明代的城隍庙历经数百年风雨侵蚀，建筑虽已多次修缮，但其飞檐翘角的整体格局和精美的木雕装饰至今保存完好。 Built in the Ming dynasty, this City God Temple has weathered hundreds of years of wind and rain; though it has been repaired many times, its upturned eaves, overall layout, and exquisite wood carvings remain well preserved.
3. 文化学者指出，散布于中国各地乡间的各类庙宇不仅是宗教信仰的载体，也是记录地方历史、维系社区凝聚力的重要文化空间。 Cultural scholars point out that the many kinds of temples scattered across rural China are not only vessels of religious belief but also important cultural spaces for recording local history and sustaining community cohesion.

Usage Guide

Context: religion, culture, history, tourism, folk traditions

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 考古团队发现一处汉代祭祀遗址，初步判断是供奉地方水神的庙宇。(The archaeological team found a Han dynasty ritual site and initially judged it to be a temple dedicated to the local water deity.)
• 这位历史学家长期致力于记录闽南地区散落乡间的小型庙宇，认为这些看似不起眼的民间信仰场所蕴含着大量无法在正史中找到的地方社会史料。(This historian has long been committed to documenting the small temples scattered across rural southern Fujian, arguing that these seemingly unassuming folk-faith sites contain a wealth of local social history that cannot be found in official historical records.)

Don't Say

• 将'庙'与'寺'或'教堂'混用 — 庙主要指供奉神灵、土地、城隍、祖先的中国传统民间宗教场所，寺多指佛教僧侣居住修行的寺院，教堂则专指基督教礼拜场所，三者在建筑形制、宗教功能与文化内涵上均有本质区别 (Do not use 庙 interchangeably with 寺 or 教堂 — 庙 refers to Chinese folk-religion spaces for gods, earth deities, and ancestors; 寺 refers to Buddhist monasteries; 教堂 to Christian churches; the three differ fundamentally in architecture, religious function, and cultural meaning)

Origin & History

庙 = 广 (shelter/building radical) + 朝 (court/facing) — a sheltered hall for ritual audience with the divine or ancestors. The oracle bone character showed a building where ancestral rites were performed.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal