Three Pagodas
| Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple | |
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Three Pagodas of Chong Sheng Temple
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 Location in Yunnan
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| Basic information | |
| Geographic coordinates | 25°42′31″N 100°08′50″E / 25.708725°N 100.147236°ECoordinates: 25°42′31″N 100°08′50″E / 25.708725°N 100.147236°E |
| Affiliation | Buddhism |
| Country | China |
The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple (Chinese: ) are an ensemble of three independent pagoda towers arranged on the corners of an equilateral triangle, near the town of Dali, Yunnan province, China, dating from the time of the Kingdom of Nanzhao and Kingdom of Dali in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Three Pagodas are located about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) north of scenic Dali, Yunnan province. They are at the east foot of the tenth peak of the massive Cangshan Mountains and face the west shore of the Erhai Lake of ancient Dali.
The Three Pagodas are made of brick and covered with white mud. As its name implies, the Three Pagodas comprise three independent pagodas forming a symmetric triangle. The elegant, balanced and stately style is unique in China’s ancient Buddhist architectures, which makes it a must-see in the tour of Dali. The Three Pagodas, visible from miles away, has been a landmark of Dali City and selected as a national treasure meriting preservation in China.
The main pagoda, known as Qianxun Pagoda (pinyin Qian Xun Ta), reportedly built during 823-840 AD by king Quan Fengyou (劝丰佑) of the Nanzhao state, is 69.6 meters (227 feet) high and is one of the tallest pagodas in China’s history. The central pagoda is square shaped and composed of sixteen stories; each story has multiple tiers of upturned eaves. There is a carved shrine containing a white marble sitting Buddha statue at the center of each façade of every story. The body of the pagoda is hollow from the first to the eighth story, surrounded with 3.3 meters (10 feet) thick walls. In 1978, more than 700 Buddhist antiques, including sculptures made of gold, silver, wood or crystal and documents, were found in the body during a major repairing work. The designers of the pagoda are supposed to have come from Chang'an (present-day Xi’an), the capital of Tang Dynasty at that time and the location of another pagoda, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which shares the similar style but is one hundred years older.
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Wikipedia