Four Nations, each with their own widely diverse culture, environment, and history. But, one of them was almost brutally wiped off the face of the earth by the Fire Nation, and that was the Air Nomads. The crew in Avatar: The Last Airbender visit all four of the major Airbending Temples throughout the series, but there's a lot of hidden lore there that people may not know.

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Some of it has to do with previous Avatars, some with the Nomad's lifestyle, and even some that go into our own modern-day history.

10 The Air Temples Weren't Permanent Homes For Them

First up is a fact that seems like common sense, but plenty of people never put it together. This group of people wasn't called the Airbending Tribe or the Nation of Airbenders, no, they were Air Nomads. And, the definition of Nomad means that they travel from place to place with no permanent home.

So, these temples actually acted as away houses or temporary homes most of the time. They would all congregate in these beautiful structures for celebrations, holidays, rituals, or just to settle down for a while while they taught the newest batch of kids airbending basics.

9 Monks Ran Half The Temples While Nuns Ran The Other Half

Now the temples that were shown in AtLA were the ones of each cardinal direction, meaning the North, South, East, and West temples. Each one had a radically different theme and an individual purpose behind its creation. But, a fact that many people missed, and is only briefly talked about directly in artbooks and side series is the fact that these temples were typically not co-ed.

The Airbending Nuns such as Yangchen ran the East and West temples while the Monks like Gyatso were the heads of the North and South. This immediately makes it so much clearer as to why viewers saw so few female Airbenders in Aang's flashbacks.

8 The Style Of The Western Air Temple Is Based On Monasteries In Bhutan

The Western Air Temple is probably the most memorable looking out of the four and is also where one of Book 3's best episodes took place. It was built into the underside of a mountain and the way these buildings hung made them seem like they were built upside down.

But, these tiers and spires were actually inspired by the roofs of the monasteries in Bhutan, which is why they looked so different from the other Temples. The Western Air Temple actually had a lot of other neat little easter eggs as well, such as it enhancing Aang's airbending due to the constant wind, the Sky Bison obstacle course it is said to have, and the hall of statues viewers unfortunately never got to see.

7 The Eastern Air Temple Housed Many Statues Honoring Avatar Yangchen

Oddly enough, even though the great Avatar Yangchen was born in the Western Air Temple, there are bigger and better statues of her in the Eastern one. Fans might remember Aang and Guru Pathik meditating next to a giant Yangchen statue while he trained there to hone the Avatar State (since he wanted to be more careful using it).

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Funny how things work out because people might remember that Aang was originally sent to train at the Eastern Temple so that he wouldn't be distracted by Gyatso's fatherly care. Of course, Aang ran away before that happened, but it seems like it was fated to be, as he ending up training here anyway more than 100 years later.

6 The Statue Of Monk Gyatso At The Southern Airtemple And The Mystery Behind It

Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender standing in front of a statue of Monk Gyatso

The Southern Airtemple holds a lot of significance for Aang. It's where he grew up, where he found Monk Gyatso's remains, and where he finally accepted that he was the Avatar. But, there's a lot to this structure that is oddly unique. For one, it's the only one of the Four Air Temples that has blue spires rather than green ones.

Secondly, it has a statue of the famous Monk Gyatso at its entrance, but the only question is, when was this built? Fans know that Aang was the only Airbender to survive the war, so this statue wasn't built by Airbenders after Gyatso proved his hidden strength and sacrificed himself to take down a horde of Fire Benders. Was it built while he was alive? Sadly this question was never answered.

5 The Size Difference Between The Four Temples

Alright, let's finally talk about the elephant in the room, why were the Eastern and Western Air Temples so much bigger than the Northern and Southern ones? It's clear just seeing them from afar that these two temples were two to three times the size of the North and South structures, how did that happen?

The Western Air Temple in particular is basically a small town rather than a single temple, and the Eastern One is three separate buildings separated by bridges. Obviously, all of the temples are well designed and memorable, especially since they were restored thanks to the Air Acolytes that were introduced in the comics, it's just odd that two out of four of them are so much bigger, did the Nuns have a bit more architecture skill or something?

4 The Sky Bison Selection Ceremony Always Took Place In The East

Appa and Aang's relationship in AtLA is really something special. These two are the textbook example of how animals and humans should get along, and the Appa's Lost Days episode still makes fans tear up. But, how did these two meet?

Fans briefly get to see it in flashbacks where Aang and the other Airbending kids hold out apples and the bison that picks it is their new friend for life. But, did you know that this was actually always done at the Eastern Air Temple? Suddenly it makes sense that Gyatso wasn't here and that a Nun was in charge of handing out apples.

3 Yangchen's Background With The Western Air Temple

Let's dive a bit more into the beginnings of Avatar Yangchen and her time at the Western Air Temple. Yangchen was the Avatar that preceded Kuruk and also one of the most highly respected in history before Aang. She made significant contributions to peace and is most well-known for her intervention between the Earth Kingdom and the spirit of Old General Iron. While Yangchen learned pacifism from the Western Air Temple and met her lifelong companions Boma the Skybison and Pik & Pak (though not as cute as Momo) the lemurs here.

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Though she couldn't always follow this pacifism due to her duty as the Avatar, both the Eastern and Western temples honored her with many statues, though the ones in the Western Temple are a tad more hidden.

2 The Rarity Of Locations Outside The Temples "Claimed" By Air Nomads

Outside of the temples, not much is known about locations strictly tied to the Air Nomads. They were nomads after all, and part of Airbending philosophy is a loose grip on mortal possessions like property or money. The would customarily travel from place to place, and the only location fans saw outside of these temples was first shown in The Legend of Korra.

The Air Nomad Caves are where Zaheer and his group poison Korra with Mercury, but in happier times it was also where Airbenders from every temple would come to meditate and contemplate the universe itself. What a shame that such a place with such tranquil history was ruined by Zaheers unabated violence.

1 A Bit Of Background On Air Nomad Society

And finally, we'll end on a bit of lore on the Air Nomad societal structure. So, of course, there was very little politics or government in Air Nomad life, but each temple was run by a committee of Monks or Nuns. This is how decisions were made, and how it was decided to send Aang away for his Avatar training hundreds of years ago.

But, while obvious, it should be emphasized that Air Nomads were an insanely welcoming group who just named for tranquil and peaceful lives. They accepted anyone who wanted to join them, regardless of nation, race, or sexual orientation. Though this acceptance and way of freeing themselves from earthly attachments had some odd sides to it as well, considering Aang never met his birth parents due to the Air Nomad lifestyle.

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