dian (殿)

Chinese for ‘palace hall’, but also often translated as ‘temple’, besides the use of several synonyms and other terms, such as the frequently used miao (庙), which besides ‘temple’ may also mean ‘ancestral shrine’ and ‘great imperial hall’, among other translations, in addition to gong (宫), which likewise translates as both ‘temple’ and ‘palace’, amongst others [including even the at first glance somewhat unrelated meaning of ‘castration’ (as corporal punishment), though the relevance may here perhaps be searched for in the palace eunuchs and the celibate lifestyle of monks]. The Mandarin pronunciation is is reminiscent of the Chinese word Tian (天), which means both ‘god’, ‘heaven’ and ‘sky’, and is often found subscribed on temples, especially on the miao minge. The Mandarin pronunciation of the Vietnamese term den may also likely derive from dian. 回