Avatar Temple



Avatar Temples are shrines built in honor of the Avatar. These buildings bear a spiritual connection with the Avatar Spirit and all of its past incarnations, and as such are regarded as sacrosanct dwellings.

Each nation has at least one Avatar Temple, though Avatar Roku destroyed the Fire Temple while manifesting himself through the body of Avatar Aang.

Avatar Roku's recession
Around the winter of 58 BSC, Roku spent five months on Crescent Island's Fire Temple when he was attempting to master the Avatar State with the help of the Fire Sages. Under the guidance of Fire Sage Kaja, Roku tried a variety of meditation exercises in an attempt to develop control over the state. However, despite his efforts, the Avatar struggled to concentrate and exclaimed that mastery over the state through meditation was impossible.



In hopes of speeding up the process, Roku decided to use the spiritual energy from the sun on the winter solstice to push himself into the state. He triggered it immediately, however, he found himself unable to control his abilities, and ended up destroying the upper portions of the temple, as well as accidentally sparking the eruption of a small volcano before Kaja managed to free him from the Avatar State.

Roku eventually mastered the Avatar State and rebuilt the temple pagodas. He went on to carve passageways in the island's magma underneath the temple.

The return of Avatar Aang
In the winter of 100 ASC, Avatar Aang returned to the Southern Air Temple to reunite with the Air Nomads after being encased in an iceberg for a century. Upon arriving with Katara and Sokka, Aang was slightly surprised to find the temple desolate, as it was once a lively place bustling with activity.



At the heart of the temple, he arrived at the air temple sanctuary. Inside, there were statues of all the past Avatars, aligned in a circular pattern and reaching all the way up to the ceiling. Aang felt a sense of familiarity to the statues, especially to the statue of Avatar Roku, his immediate predecessor.

While examining the statues, the group came across a winged lemur. Enthralled by the sight of the animal, Aang and Sokka immediately pursued it. The chase led them to a part of the temple largely affected by the Fire Nation attacks nearly a century ago. Here, Aang discovered the corpse of Monk Gyatso, his nomadic mentor. The sight of his master's remains caused Aang to trigger the Avatar State. Simultaneously, the eyes of the statues in the inner sanctum, as well as those of the statues and tapestries in the other Avatar Temples, lit up, signaling the return of the Avatar.

The Winter Solstice
When Aang entered the Spirit World for the first time, Avatar Roku sent out his dragon, Fang, who led Aang on a spirit journey to Crescent Island, where he had to go prior to the winter solstice's arrival.

Aang arrived at the temple on time, but was surprised to find that the Fire Sages were attempting to apprehend him. Fire Sage Shyu, the only loyal Fire Sage left, aided the Avatar and his friends by guiding them through the temple's secret passageways and explained that Aang's apparent disappearance prompted the sages to pledge allegiance only to the Fire Lord. The sages, with the help of Prince Zuko, did their best to stop Aang from meeting with Roku, though their efforts ultimately failed as Aang was able to enter the sanctuary and Avatar Roku instantaneously sealed the doors shut.



Inside the sanctuary stood a statue of Avatar Roku, and as the light of the winter solstice reached its eyes, Aang was able to communicate with his predecessor. Roku explained to Aang that he must end the Hundred Year War before Sozin's Comet's arrival, as the consequences of Aang's failure would be devastating to the world's balance.

Meanwhile, Commander Zhao arrived and readied himself to apprehend the young Avatar with the help of his soldiers and the Fire Sages the moment he would emerge from the sanctuary. However, Avatar Roku had sensed the looming danger and provided protection for Aang; the doors of the sanctuary opened to reveal Avatar Roku, manifested in Aang's body. Roku exhibited his firebending prowess, defeating the opposing forces and freeing Zhao's captives from the chains that bound them. He then destroyed the temple permanently by summoning the lava from underneath the building. As the winter solstice passed, the connection between Aang and Roku was broken, and Team Avatar escaped while the temple was consumed by the lava.

Water Tribe Avatar Temple
After Republic City was saved, Korra and her friends traveled to the Southern Water Tribe compound to see if Katara would be able to restore Korra's bending. After being unable to restore Korra's connection to water, earth, and firebending, Avatar Aang's spirit appeared to Korra and gave her bending back to her. The knowledge of energybending was also transferred to Korra at this time. Later, Korra was seen restoring Lin Beifong's earthbending outside of an Avatar Temple located near the South Pole.

Trivia

 * In the canonical online game "Escape from the Spirit World", the choices for the question "Where did Aang, along with his friends Katara and Sokka, first learn about the past Avatars?" included the Western Water Fortress and the Northeastern Earth Mound. It is confirmed that the aforementioned names are the titles of the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom Avatar Temples, respectively.
 * The Water Tribe Avatar Temple shown at the end of The Legend of Korra episode "Endgame", is very similar to, but not the same as, the Western Water Fortress.