Five wheel tower

Five wheel tower

It is also known as the five wheel tower of Dharma Realm. It is made up of five stacked wheels. The five parts represent the five elements of the universe: air, wind, water, fire and earth.

The significance of five wheel tower

From top to bottom:

Pearl (for the sky) half moon (for the wind)

Triangle (for fire)

Circle (for water)

Square (representative)

Five wheels can also represent head, face, chest, abdomen and foot.

Wulun tower in Yuelu Mountain

Built in 1927 by Tang Shengzhi, the Wulun Pagoda in Yuelu Mountain is the highest Pagoda in Buddhism, which is also called the memorial pagoda of the soldiers killed in the northern expedition. On February 13, 1927, Tang Shengzhi, commander in chief of the West Road of the National Revolutionary Army, commander in chief of the Eighth Army and chairman of Hunan provincial government, deployed people from all walks of life in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, to commemorate the soldiers killed in the northern expedition at the five wheel pagoda. On February 14, 1927, Hunan Ta Kung Pao and national daily gave detailed reports on the grand occasion at that time.

On the front of the five wheel pagoda, the three characters "five wheel pagoda" were originally engraved, and later changed to "martyr's bright". In front of the pagoda, there is a stone archway with a plaque saying: "great mercy saves people and saves the world.". After the pagoda, there is a sutra hall. Five or six feet later, it is the main entrance to the pagoda, with the words "memorial tower of the soldiers who died in the Northern Expedition" on the forehead.

The tower was destroyed during the cultural revolution, but most of its components are still in the original site. In 2002, it was restored according to its original appearance. The difference is that the stone archway in front of the tower has been moved to 100 meters below the southeast of the tower. The couplet on both sides of the five wheel pagoda reads: "if you want to succeed, the golden wheel will always shine, and the view will be free. When the water reaches the canal, the lotus will always open, and it will be wonderful and auspicious." "In the study of heaven, human beings are of one mind, corresponding to the changes of the past and the present, keeping pace with the times."

The Wulun tower covers an area of more than 400 square meters, with a height of 11.18 meters. It is divided into five layers. It is composed of five geometric figures, including square, circle, triangle, semicircle and dot. The shape of the tower is unique and spectacular. Each layer of the tower has Sanskrit. The five wheels refer to the earth, water, fire, wind and air, and their shapes are place, water circle, fire triangle, wind half moon and air dot. It means that the world is made up of earth, water, fire, wind and air, which shows the simple materialist thought that the world is made up of materials. The tower is the miniature world, which is a miniature of the world. The five wheels symbolize the human body, which is a miniature of the human body. The world and the human body are displayed with five wheels, which shows that the five wheel tower is the tower of the unity of heaven and man.

This form of pagoda is only one of the most important attractions in Chinese mainland, Mount Yuelu. A few years ago, Chen Jianmin, a Tibetan scholar in Youxian County, Hunan Province, built one in Jinshan, Taiwan, but his momentum, Dharma, Sanskrit and context were not as good as Yuelu.

The five wheel pagoda is the embodiment of the Buddhist thought that "the world is made up of earth, water, fire, wind and space". Japan began to use the five wheel pagoda as the support tower and tombstone after the middle period of Heian Era (from the end of the 8th century to the end of the 12th century). It's rarely seen outside Japan. Japan's Nara National Museum and Quanyong temple, located in Dongshan District of Jingdu City, said on the 24th that X-ray photography confirmed that a five wheel pagoda containing Buddhist relics was found inside the seated statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva, known as "Yang Guifei Guanyin", which was introduced into Quanyong temple from the Southern Song Dynasty.

Address: Yuelu Mountain Scenic Spot

Longitude: 112.9398806

Latitude: 28.17936918

Tel: 0731-88825011

Chinese PinYin : Wu Lun Ta