Air temple sanctuaries

The Air Temple Sanctuaries are ancient, large chambers located in the Southern and Northern Air Temples. It is likely that more of these sanctuaries are also located in the Eastern and Western Air Temples. It is unknown how old the sanctuaries are.

The sanctuaries could only be opened with Airbending. They were considered important to the Air Nomads as a place where knowledge of the Avatar and the Avatar's previous incarnations was kept.

History


A century before the start of the series, Monk Gyatso, Avatar Aang's mentor, informed him that when he is ready, he will meet someone very special in the Air Temple Sanctuary that will guide him on his Avatar journey. However, Aang fled the Southern Air Temple before this could occur.

A century later, when the Avatar awoke from the iceberg he was trapped in, he traveled with his friends to the Southern Air Temple. Remembering what Gyatso told him, Aang opened the sanctuary doors with Airbending. Instead of finding a master to teach him, he came across a long line of statues of previous Avatars. He then saw his future pet lemur, Momo, in the doorway behind them. Aang and Sokka race to catch Momo, with Aang wanting to befriend him and Sokka wanting to eat him. Aang then accidentally stumbled upon Gyatso's corpse. His rage and grief caused him to enter the Avatar State. While in the Avatar State, the eyes on the statues of the previous Avatars all around the world began to glow, including those in the sanctuary. When Aang calmed down, he and his friends returned to the sanctuary. Momo brought Sokka food as a gesture of friendship, and officially joining Team Avatar later.

Team Avatar came across another one of these sanctuaries when they traveled to the Northern Air Temple. At first, Aang was unhappy with the changes the Mechanist made to the temple, but after he saw how spirited the people who lives there are, he decided to open the sanctuary doors for Teo. When he opened them, however, he finds nothing but only Fire Nation weaponry.

It is likely that the Northern Air Temple's sanctuary has been removed of all its Fire Nation weapons now that Qin is no longer blackmailing The Mechanist.

Southern Sanctuary
The sanctuary in the Southern Air Temple consists of a very tall, circular room. A statue of every single Avatar that came before Aang circles the room in a large swirl, in the fashion of the Air Nomad insignia. The sanctuary door is large and made of thick wood, and can only be opened with Airbending. The statues of all the Avatars are lined up according to the Avatar Cycle.

Though, Aang, Sokka, Katara and Momo are the only known visitors, it is almost certain many other people have entered this room, considering that a statue is built after every Avatar dies.

Northern Sanctuary
Located inside the Air Temple, this great hall was originally built as a spiritual place where only the elder monks and the Avatar were allowed. Only a master Airbender can open the door to the sanctum. Because of this, Aang thought it was the only part of the temple that was untouched. But as it turns out, the mechanist ingeniously used physics and clever mechanics to open it. Since then, the Mechanist has been using the sanctuary as his secret weapons laboratory.

Trivia

 * The Fire Temple on the Crescent Island also had a sanctuary door, and it could only be opened with Firebending, just as the Air Sanctuary doors could only be opened using Airbending.