Dense eaves tower

pagoda of the multi-eaveed type

synonym

Close eaves tower generally refers to close eaves tower

The close eaves pagoda is one of the main types of Chinese pagodas. It can be said that it is a new type of pagoda evolved from the pavilion pagoda, mostly of masonry structure.

Development history

There are many such pagodas with dense eaves left in Tang Dynasty, such as Xiaoyan Pagoda in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province (built in 707 AD), Qianxun Pagoda in Chongsheng temple, Dali, Yunnan Province (built in 824-839 AD), Fawang Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng, Henan Province. This kind of tower is mostly made of brick and empty tube shape, in which each floor is set up with floor, and there are wooden ladders for up and down.

There is also a magical legend about the little wild goose pagoda: in the 1487 earthquake, the pagoda cracked from top to bottom, and the gap was more than a foot wide. In the 1521 earthquake, the gap closed again. The Xiaoyan pagoda lasted more than a thousand years. After more than 70 earthquakes, the top two floors were destroyed, leaving only 13 floors of the original 15 storey eaves.

In song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, this kind of pagoda with dense eaves was popular in the north, but its form was different from that of Tang Dynasty. Tianning Temple Pagoda in Beijing can be said to be the representative of this kind of pagoda. Tianning Temple Pagoda is made of brick and octagonal in plane. The base and xumizuo are at the bottom of the pagoda, and the upper part is the body of the pagoda. There are doors and windows, statues of Bodhisattvas and gods on the body of the pagoda. Above the body of the pagoda, there are 13 layers of dense eaves protruded from the bucket arch, and the inside of the pagoda is solid. The decoration of xumizuo on the surface of the tower, the door and window details and statues of the tower, the ridge of the dense eaves, the tiles, the beast kissing and the brake on the tower are all carved with bricks. The whole tower seems to be a large-scale Buddhist sculpture made of bricks. The octagonal solid brick Pagoda with high xumizuo and tower body became the typical image of the dense eaves Pagoda in the North during this period. The Jueshan Temple Pagoda in Lingqiu County of Shanxi Province, the White Pagoda in Liaoyang of Liaoning Province and the double pagodas in Chongxing temple in Beizhen of Liaoning Province all belong to this type.

Whether it is a square Pagoda with dense eaves in Tang Dynasty or a solid octagonal Pagoda with dense eaves in Liao Dynasty, in addition to paying attention to the detail decoration of the pagoda's appearance, it also pays special attention to the shaping of the overall shape. The shape of the tower at the lower part is correct. The dense eaves above the tower, which account for most of the whole tower, decrease the depth of each layer of eaves with the height, making the shape of the tower become a flexible parabola until the top of the tower ends with a towering tower brake. After this kind of careful modeling treatment, the slender tower is tall but not sharp, and the thick tower is strong but not clumsy.

Features of scenic spots

The brick pavilion type tower is completely built with bricks in accordance with the form of wood structure. The eaves, beams, columns, walls and doors and windows of each layer are made on the outside of the tower. In the tower, the stairs are also built with bricks, which can ascend each layer. In some brick towers, the floors of each layer are made of wood, and the wooden stairs can be used to ascend and descend.

However, the appearance of this kind of brick tower has gradually changed, that is, the size of the bottom layer of the pavilion has been increased, while the height of the above layers has been reduced, so that the eaves of each layer are closely overlapped, and there are no doors and windows between the eaves, so that the whole tower is divided into three parts: the tower body, the dense eaves and the tower brake.

Moreover, the more the tower body shrinks, the more quickly it shrinks, forming a very elastic contour curve.

The dense eaves pagoda began in the Eastern Han Dynasty or the northern and Southern Dynasties, flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and matured in the Liao and Jin Dynasties. It evolved from the pavilion style wooden pagoda to the masonry structure.

The first floor of this kind of tower is very tall, but the height of each floor above the first floor is very small, and the eaves of each floor are closely overlapped.

The dense eaves pagoda formed its own unique style in the development, and became the main type of pagodas in Tang Dynasty and Liao Dynasty, most of which were quadrangular, hexagonal and octagonal.

Because most of the pagodas with dense eaves are solid, Buddha statues are usually carved on the outside of the pagoda.

There are also the Liao Dynasty Pagoda in tazhao village, the Liao Dynasty Jade Emperor Pagoda in the north of Gaozhuang village, the Liao Dynasty whip Pagoda in gujishan, the Ming Dynasty Yao Guangxiao tombstone Pagoda in changlesi village, the Yuan Dynasty linggong monk relic Pagoda in Wanfo hall, and the Yuan Dynasty Yinggong elder longevity Pagoda in the north of Tiankai village.

Famous Pagoda with dense eaves

Famous pagodas with dense eaves include Songyue Pagoda in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, Xiaoyan Pagoda in Xi'an, Qianxun pagoda among the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali, Yunnan Province, and Tianning Pagoda in Beijing.

Among them, the Songyue Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng, Henan Province (as shown in the picture) is the earliest of its kind. It was built in the fourth year of Zhengguang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 523). The height of the pagoda is about 41 meters. The outside of the pagoda is in a dodecagonal shape, and the inside is octagonal.

The second floor of the tower body accounts for about one-third of the total height, above which there are 15 layers of dense eaves, and the top of the tower is made of stone.

It is strange that such a twelve sided Pagoda with dense eaves has not been found in other places and has become an isolated example in China.

Address: 500 meters south of Wayao Village, Wangzuo Township

Longitude: 116.10848199992

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Chinese PinYin : Mi Yan Ta