Pure Land Temple Pagoda

Pure Land Temple Pagoda

Jingtu Temple Pagoda in Gaoyou City, Jiangsu Province, also known as Dongmen pagoda. The tower was built in 1606, the 34th year of emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty. In 1906 (during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), it was overhauled once. In the 34th year of the Republic of China, a corner was damaged by gunfire and repaired the next year. In 1963, Zhu Guangrong, a student of Gaoyou middle school, climbed up to the top of the pagoda and took some cultural relics from the pagoda and handed them to the cultural center.

Among them, there are more than 40 volumes of Dafang Guangfo Huayan Sutra, Vajra Prajna paramita Sutra and so on in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, which are now in Nanjing Museum. The original floor and escalator in the tower can be climbed and then gradually destroyed. In 1957, the people's Government of Jiangsu Province announced that the tower was a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province. It is 47.46 meters high, brick, octagonal. In 1957, it was listed as a cultural relic protection unit at the provincial level.

Historical evolution

It was built in 1606, the 34th year of emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty. In 1906 (during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), it was overhauled once. In the 34th year of the Republic of China, a corner was damaged by gunfire and repaired the next year. From 2005 to 2006, Gaoyou municipal government overhauled the Pure Land Temple Pagoda.

On June 5, 2006, it was awarded as a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province. It is an ancient building.

Over the years, Gao You's insightful people have recorded in the book "Legend of Pearl Lake" collected and sorted out by the Folk: "collection of tower men and tower women", "Legend of Gaoyou pagoda", "Zhang slovenly climbing pagoda" and other folk legends. When repairing the Pure Land Temple Pagoda (commonly known as Dongmen pagoda), three unexploded shells were found and taken out of the pagoda, which once again aroused the attention of the general public. For many years, Dongmen pagoda is not only one of the landmark historical and cultural buildings in Gaoyou, but also accompanied by many legends and mysteries. In the process of repairing the East Gate pagoda, the author approached it more than once with curiosity and exploration, looking for its history and perceiving its vicissitudes. While consulting a large number of historical records about it, we also learned some little-known stories about the Dongmen pagoda. Take this opportunity to make it clear to readers.

Pure Land Temple Tower Square

On April 17, 2014, as the key urban construction project of Gaoyou county's 20th anniversary, the pure land pagoda square was opened.

The project starts from Wenyou road in the East, dieyuan road in the west, Jingtu temple tower in the north and mayitang River in the south, with a planning area of 10.5 hectares (158 mu). The reporter found at the scene that the living water project around the pure land temple tower has been completed, which makes the pure land temple tower more spiritual; all kinds of trees, flowers and plants have been planted on the earth hills on the south side of the tower; the glass wall like ancillary buildings built on the square are refreshing.

The construction of Pure Land Temple Tower Square project, including about 1300 square meters of classical garden buildings, is composed of Junlin garden, Wenmei hall, bamboo secluded residence, Boya hall, corridor Pavilion, etc. the square is scattered with three steel glass houses, one dry spray, two water spray, one piano key floor, and one wind chime sculpture. In addition, the square also has three small bridges, two rockeries and a water diversion river around the tower.

characteristic

Highlights

1、 Among the existing pagodas in China, the brick Pagoda with seven levels and eight sides is a better preserved one among the similar brick pagodas. There are two pagodas with the same name in China, and the other one is in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province.

2、 Witness the Gaoyou campaign, the last battle of the Chinese army against the Japanese aggressors. When Gaoyou city was liberated for the first time in 1945, the southeast corner of the tower was damaged by artillery fire and restored the next year. In 2005, the workers who repaired the tower successively found and took out three unexploded and well preserved shells from the southeast corner of the tower, and confirmed that the shells were left by the New Fourth Army during the siege of Gaoyou during the Anti Japanese war.

The shells found in the pure land temple tower are shrapnel shells. The shell is 28 cm long and 6.8 cm in diameter. The distance between the two shells is about 50 cm. One shell is inserted obliquely in the wall, only the tail of the shell is exposed, and the other shell is half submerged in the wall. The two shells are in the second wall in the southeast corner, about 10 meters above the ground. According to the old man who took part in the battle of Gaoyou 60 years ago, a group of puppet troops stationed at the commanding height of the pure land temple tower and refused to surrender. The new fourth army launched artillery bombardment. Because of the firm structure of the ancient tower, it could not be knocked down. The shells may have been left by the attack of the tower that year.

The cultural protection unit of Gaoyou City started to repair the Pure Land Temple Pagoda (commonly known as the East Gate pagoda) located in the east of Pipa road. After the completion of the repair, it will be officially opened to the public. At that time, citizens and tourists can get a bird's-eye view of Gaoyou from the top of the pagoda.

Tower structure

The wall thickness of the whole tower body is more than 2 meters.

Tasha is the crown of the whole tower, and also the highlight of the pagoda. The Tasha is composed of six parts, from bottom to top, covering bowl, Baozhu, dew pan, Xianglun, Fenggai and Baoping. Except for the Baoping on the top, all the other parts are cast iron.

The bottom layer, like two large iron pots, is called the covering bowl. Its diameter is nearly 2 meters, and there are exquisite decorative flower patterns carved on the outside of the periphery. It is arranged in an orderly way. The seven level phase wheels are arranged from bottom to top. The largest circle is 1.9 meters in diameter, each circle is about 20 cm high, and the thickness of the iron circle is 2 cm. On top of it, the Phoenix cover extends its lifelike dragon head in eight different directions from the inside out. The top copper vase is 1.5 meters high, and the largest diameter of the middle "belly" part is 1.4 meters. It is installed in three stages.

From the fifth floor up to the top of the tower is a Phoebe column with a height of 20 meters and a diameter of about 60 cm. Its weight and height make it hard to imagine how the craftsmen 400 years ago put them in place. On the west side of the pillar is still clearly engraved with such a vertical typesetting: "the officials of the digging camp are waiting here.". After textual research, the word "dig Gang Ying" refers to the coastal defense system of the Qing Dynasty army, and "dig Gang" is a place name. In Rudong, Jiangsu Province, it is now called "dig Gang Town". This word was left in 1646, the third year of Shunzhi. That is to say, 40 years after the completion of the tower, naval officials stationed in Rudong County will visit here. It can be seen that the pure land pagoda has long been a place of interest in Gaoyou. As for the installation of this column, according to the engineering and technical personnel responsible for the maintenance of the East Tower, the thick and heavy brake column was probably placed in the middle of the tower when the first layer was built, and the four sides of the brake column were tightened with ropes and so on, and then slowly raised upward; there is also a speculation that the brake column was placed in the tower when the first layer was built, and when it was built to the fifth layer, it was used with ropes or similar slips at one time Another way to speculate is to use the most traditional method, that is, to use the soil around the tower as a scaffold, and then transport and install it from the scaffold up the slope. This is just like the pyramid architecture in ancient Egypt, which has left many mysteries for later generations.

geographical position

Pure Land Temple Tower is located in Gaoyou town, Gaoyou City, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

Address: no.340, Wenyou Middle Road, Gaoyou, Yangzhou

Longitude: 119.44844182607

Latitude: 32.773320814362

Ticket information: no ticket required.

Chinese PinYin : Jing Tu Si Ta