The Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Yingxian County is located in Fogong Temple in the northwest of Yingxian County, Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province. It is commonly known as Yingxian Wooden Pagoda. It was built in the second year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty (1056 A.D.), and was completed in the sixth year of Mutachang in Yingxian County (1195 A.D.), one of the three great pagodas in the Jinming world. It is the tallest and oldest wooden tower building in China and the only wooden pavilion tower. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Yingxian Wooden Tower, together with the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is known as the world's three largest towers. In 1961, the Sakyamuni Pagoda became the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In November 2012, the Sakyamuni Pagoda was included in the World Cultural Heritage Preparatory List.

The wooden pagoda is located between the mountain gate and the main hall on the north-south central axis of the temple, and belongs to the layout of "front pagoda and back hall". The tower is built on a four-meter-high platform, with a height of 67.31 meters and a diameter of 30.27 meters at the bottom, in a plane octagonal shape. The facade of the first floor has double eaves, and the upper floors have single eaves. There are five floors and six eaves in total. There are hidden floors between each floor, which is actually nine floors. Because the ground floor has double eaves and a corridor, the appearance of the tower is six-story eaves.

Each floor is supported by inner and outer circles of wooden columns. There are 24 columns on the outside of each floor and eight inside. Many diagonal braces, beams, squares and short columns are used between the wooden columns to form a compound beam wooden frame in different directions. . According to some calculations, the entire wooden tower uses 3,000 cubic meters of red pine wood, weighing about 2,600 tons. The overall proportion is appropriate, the building is magnificent, the art is exquisite, and the appearance is stable and solemn.

There are two doors in the north and south of the bottom of the tower body, flat railings are set around the second floor and above, and wooden stairs are installed on each floor. Visitors can climb up to the top step by step. There are four doors on each floor from the second to fifth floors, all of which are equipped with wooden partitions, with sufficient light. When you go out, you can lean on the railing and overlook the Hengyue. Refreshing. There are statues of Buddha on each floor of the pagoda. On the first floor is Sakyamuni, 11 meters high, with a dignified face and a pleasant expression. There is a beautiful and gorgeous algae well on the top. , the murals are brightly colored and the characters are lifelike.

The altar base on the second floor is square and cannot be climbed on. The top of the pagoda is made of octagonal pointed shape, and the iron brake is erected on it. It is exquisitely made and coordinated with the pagoda, which makes the wooden pagoda even more magnificent. There are wind chimes under the eaves of each floor of the tower. The breeze blows and the tinkling sounds are very pleasant.

The plaque on the fifth floor "Junji Shengong" was written by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. The plaque on the fourth floor "Wonders of the World" was written by Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. The plaque on the third floor reads "Sakyamuni Pagoda", which is the name of the wooden pagoda in Ying County. The second layer of plaques read "Tiangong Gaosheng" and "Integrity". The plaque on the double eaves of the first floor reads "Tianzhu Dixie", and the plaque on the lower eaves reads "Eternal Views"

The design of the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda boldly inherited the heavy building form with national characteristics since the Han and Tang Dynasties, made full use of traditional architectural techniques, and widely used bucket arch structures. The whole pagoda shares 54 types of bucket arches, and each bucket arch has a certain combination form. Some combine beams, squares, and columns into a whole, and each layer forms an octagonal hollow structure layer. The design is scientific and rigorous, the structure is perfect, and the workmanship is superb. It is a building with both national style and national characteristics and religious requirements. It can be said to have reached the highest level in ancient Chinese architectural art, and it has high research value even in modern times.

The tower brake system is composed of cast iron parts. Stop the brick lotus base. The brake is 9.91 meters high, with Yanglian, Fubo, Xianglun, Lupan, Yangyue and Baozhu. Eight iron chains are tied to the lower end of the ridge, which have been weathered for a long time and are intact.

Since the wooden pagoda was built, celebrities of past dynasties have hung plaques and inscriptions with couplets, which have profound meaning and strong writing skills, which have added a lot to the wooden pagoda. Among them: in the fourth year of Yongle (AD 1406), Ming Chengzu Zhu Di led his army to the Northern Expedition and stationed in Yingzhou. In Yanghe (Yanggao County, Shanxi) and Yingzhou, the little Tatar prince who defeated the invaders, when he climbed the wooden pagoda to entertain the meritorious generals, he wrote the title "Wonders of the World". There are 54 plaques and couplets of the Ming, Qing and Republic of China in the tower. There are also excellent works of couplets, such as "Pull up the sky and arch a pillar with clouds and mountains on all sides, ride the wind and walk on the moon and the fireworks of thousands of families meet the sky"; The first emerald peak is low".

Taking photos of Yingxian Wooden Pagoda from the gate opening of the "Futu Pagoda" archway

From south to north, walk for ten minutes, cross the archway in front of the tower, and enter the wide square in front of the tower. The square is full of green grass, and in the center there is a white marble statue of Empress Dowager Xiao standing in a clear pool. According to legend, the emperor of the Liao Dynasty built it for his mother, Empress Dowager Xiao. The weather was cold these few days, so people put scarlet cloaks on the statue, one for celebration and two for keeping out the cold. Later, the local people thought it was a statue of a Bodhisattva.

The gate of Fogong Temple is majestic, with a pair of big iron lions squatting in front of it. It was cast in 1594 (the 22nd year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty). The iron lion has a bell around its neck, tassels on its chest, curly hair and wide-open eyes. It is vivid and lifelike. The mountain gate and the Tianwang hall are built together. The Hall of Heavenly Kings is five rooms wide and two rooms deep. Inside are statues of Maitreya Buddha, Four Heavenly Kings and Weituo Bodhisattva.

After passing the Tianwang Hall and entering the pagoda courtyard, you can see the bell towers and drum towers on both sides of the main hall in the courtyard, facing each other from east to west.

The entire central axis of the Buddhist palace and temple is followed by the Shanmen, the Sakyamuni Pagoda, and the Daxiong Palace. There is a second floor of bells and drums in the front of the temple, and there are Daxiong Hall, Guanyin Hall and Dizang Hall in the back. Except for the Sakyamuni Pagoda, which was built in the Liao Dynasty, the Fogong Temple is all built after the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Grand Hall of Fogong Temple

On the top of the main hall of Fogong Temple, there are three Bodhisattvas, Guanyin, Manjusri and Samantabhadra, and three animals, the green lion and the white elephant, bear a lotus-shaped kiss beast on their backs. This is the only isolated example in Chinese temples.