Southern Air Temple


 * This article is about the location. For the titular episode, see "The Southern Air Temple". For the location in the film, see .

The Southern Air Temple, located in the remote Patola Mountain Range, is one of the four original Air Nomad temples and one of the two that exclusively housed male airbenders, the other being the Northern Air Temple. Although it was believed to be accessible only via flying bison, the Fire Nation managed to wipe out the temple's population during the Air Nomad Genocide, abruptly ending millennia of use by monks and nuns. However, many years later, the temple was restored to its former glory and began housing Air Acolytes.

History
The Southern Air Temple was the childhood home of Avatar Aang and his chief mentor, Monk Gyatso. It was also home to Avatar Roku when he needed a place to master the art of airbending.



The temple was raided during Fire Lord Sozin's genocide on the Air Nomads and instigated the Hundred Year War. The sole known survivor of the massacre was the very person the Fire Nation sought to kill in its quest for supremacy: the twelve-year-old airbender and Avatar, Aang, who had ran away from the Southern Air Temple shortly before the War began, and became trapped in suspended animation. He has since been revived and begun a quest to restore balance and peace to the warring nations.

One hundred years later, the temple was revisited by Aang, with his friends Katara and Sokka. There, he met one of the last winged lemurs in existence, which he named Momo. While there, Aang discovered the fate of the Air Temple and its people, including Gyatso, causing him to realize that all the Air Nomads were wiped out and that he, Appa and Momo were all that remained.

In 171 ASC, Tenzin planned to visit the Southern Air Temple with his family and the Avatar, desiring to spend more time with his family and hoping to deepen Korra's spiritual connection. Plans changed, however, and Korra did not accompany the airbender family to Aang's home temple. As soon as Oogi landed in the temple's gardens, the family was greeted by a delegation of Air Acolytes led by Abbot Shung. Bumi and Kya, who had tagged along, were also greeted with reverence by a female Acolyte, as she believed they too were airbenders. However, when she learned that they were not, she apologized and left them be.



Tenzin and his children visited the statue room; Ikki and Meelo occupied themselves with an air scooter race through the sanctuary as opposed to listening to their father's lecture. They crashed into statue, however, causing Tenzin to leave Jinora. She found Aang's statue among the others and became connected to it, similarly to how Aang had been connected to Roku's. That night, the children slept in beds that had been provided, but Jinora awoke to revisit the statue room, where she found a statue that was different from the others. While pondering over the identity of the mysterious Avatar, the statue began to glow, as Korra opened the spirit portal in the Southern Water Tribe at the same time.

Description


Prior to the Hundred Year War, the temple was large and peaceful, has an airball arena, and is also where the "air scooter" was invented by Aang. Additionally, the massive facility features a sanctuary in which reside numerous statues of past Avatars. The temple itself primarily served as a training ground for airbender students. Once inhabited by flying bison and winged lemurs in the days of the monks, it was left empty and lifeless after the Fire Nation murdered its populace. As a result of being built for and by the monks, several of the temples' doors and mechanisms are operable only through means of airbending. A statue of Monk Gyatso stands at the entrance to the temple. Unlike the other three temples, the Southern Temple boasts blue, elaborately decorated spires rather than green, plainly decorated ones.



By 171 ASC, the temple had been returned to its former glory, and was being led by Abbot Shung. It was full of ring-tailed winged lemurs, similar to the winged lemurs that had inhabited the temple before the Air Nomad Genocide. The statue room had been remade, and now included a statue of Avatar Aang. In addition, the statue room had one statue of an unknown Avatar that glowed upon Korra opening the spirit portal in the Southern Water Tribe.

Trivia

 * The Southern Air Temple is the only original air temple with a blue roof instead of a green one.
 * This air temple is featured in the second book of The Legend of Korra, and it appears to be restored to its former beauty.
 * In early previews of "The Southern Air Temple", Aang referred to this structure as the Jongmu Air Temple.
 * Furthermore, The Lost Scrolls: Air, page 212 of The Lost Scrolls Collection, states that Momo originated from the Jongmu Air Temple. Considering the fact that the information in The Lost Scrolls series is taken from episode screenplays, the Southern Air Temple was still titled "Jongmu" up to that stage of production. Page 232 uses "Jongmu Temple" (instead of "Jongmu Air Temple") in place of "Southern Air Temple", as does the final page of The Lost Scrolls: Air.
 * Along with the other three ancient air temples, the Southern Air Temple was restored to its former glory by Avatar Aang after the Hundred Year War.

Notable figures

 * Avatar Aang
 * Monk Gyatso
 * Monk Pasang
 * Monk Tashi
 * Jinju
 * Older Air Nomad boy
 * Momo