Shengde Temple Pagoda

Shengde Temple Pagoda

Shengde Temple Pagoda, initially known as "Shengyin pagoda", was later renamed "White Pagoda" because the pagoda was white with chalk powder, and its temple was also called "White Pagoda Temple". Baita temple, formerly known as Shengde temple, was built in the Tang Dynasty.

brief introduction

Shengde Temple Pagoda is a square brick Pagoda with 13 levels of dense eaves, with a height of 37.9 meters. The third layer of the pagoda is decorated with brick buildings, and the seventh layer is decorated with brick relic pagodas. The inner and outer columns, column forehead, Dougong, ang, diese and various caissons and niches of Shengde Temple Pagoda are of Song Dynasty style. The murals inside the pagoda are skillful in technique, gorgeous in color and strong in three-dimensional sense. It has the style of Tang Dynasty.

In 2006, Shengde Temple Pagoda was listed as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Construction history

Shengde temple was built in Tang Dynasty, and pagoda was built in Song Dynasty. Now there is no temple and the pagoda is still there. According to the records of Jianyang county records, Shengde temple was built in the Qianfu period (874-879 A.D.) of Tang Dynasty. There are three main halls at the entrance: Tianwang hall, Buddha Hall and Qianshou Guanyin hall. At the beginning, no tower was built. In the summer of the third year of Zong Qingyuan (1197) in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhang Fang and Huizu, the monk in Jianzhou, began to raise money to build the pagoda, which was completed in the autumn of the fourth year of Jiatai (1204). The completed tower is located on the central axis of Shengde temple, sitting West to East, square plane, with a height of 37.9 meters. The base of the tower covers an area of 125.5 square meters. It was originally named "Shengyin tower". In the mid autumn of the 1898 movement of emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty, he Bengui, a member of the county, donated money to advocate the maintenance, and it was completed in the autumn of guimao (1543). During the maintenance, eight iron wind bells were added to hang alternately with the original eight copper bells, and a tin tower brake weighing more than 30 jin was added to the top of the tower, and the tower body was painted gray. Hence the name of "white tower".

Architectural features

From the perspective of architectural art, the white tower of Shengde temple is unique. External architectural features: although its architectural age is 300 years later than that of Shengde temple, its square plane and layout characteristics on the central axis of the temple are rare in the Song Dynasty, which obviously has the style of the Tang Dynasty; the tower foundation with a height of five meters is also rare in China, which shows the evolution track of the tower foundation from low to majestic from before the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty; although the tower body is of dense eaves type, its shape is not obvious It is still in the style of a pavilion; the third level is surrounded by eight exquisite and beautiful Baoxia (Baoxia: the porch added in front of the house, also refers to the hut adjacent to the back, which is a kind of ancillary building). At present, there are only two pagodas in China. One is Haibao Pagoda in Yinchuan, Ningxia. The pagoda is built on the porch under the pagoda, which is equivalent to the entrance hall. However, the White Pagoda of Shengde temple is used instead of the column head to support the beams and eaves, which is the only one in China.) And the seventh level of the two stupas, only seen in China.

The internal structure features: there are four layers in the tower, the section of the tower body is a double-layer structure, the inner layer is a tower chamber, the outer layer is a thick wall, the middle is sandwiched with a corridor, the stone stairs are placed in the corridor, and the stairs are arranged as a "wall folding structure". There are niches, brackets and caissons of various shapes and sizes in each layer, and the overlapping arches are well arranged. The ingenious and varied architectural structure and details inside the tower are typical of Song Dynasty style.

Address: Jiancheng Town, Jianyang City, Sichuan Province

Longitude: 104.54889197695

Latitude: 30.39027201233

Chinese PinYin : Sheng De Si Ta