The White Pagoda
The White Pagoda is also called Wanbu Huayanjing Pagoda (meaning ten-thousand-volume Huayan Scripture Tower). It is located in Baita Village, 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) away from the downtown area of Hohhot. Built in the Liao Dynasty (916 - 1125), the pagoda was a stupa for sutra storage in a Buddhist temple. It was originally a tower of Buddhist temple where the Buddhist scripture was collected and preserved. The octagonal tower, a brick-wood building painted with chalk, is characterized by the architectural style of the Liao Dynasty.
The White Pagoda is an octagonal structure built of brick and wood. It is approximately 50 meters (164 feet) high with seven stories. Its base is shaped like lotus flower petals. On the surface of the tower are carved the exquisite relief sculptures of Buddha, Bodhisattva, heavenly kings and dragons, which are all true to life and pleasing in form. Six tablets of the Jin Dynasty and more than 200 scriptures written in quite a few languages are all well preserved on the walls inside the tower. All this records the history and customs of the ancient town called Fengzhou. As this tower is one of the most exquisite towers of the Liao Dynasty in China, it was appointed to be a unit under the key protection and preservation by the State Council in 1982.The first and second stories were embedded with brick statue carvings of Buddha, Bodhisattva, the Heavenly Kings and Hercules. A finely made spiral staircase inside the pagoda enables visitors to climb to the top, from where they can enjoy the enchanting surrounding scenery.
The outside of the pagoda also has exquisite brick carvings. On every storey, there are words left by tourists of the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Besides words written in Chinese characters, some of them are written in letters of Qidan, Nuzhen, Mongolian and ancient Persian.
A spiral staircase connects the stories together and leads to the top of the pagoda. Bronze mirrors are embedded under the eaves of each side of the pagoda. Wind bells hang on the ceiling of the corner of each story and on the rafter of the seventh tier. Approaching the pagoda, tourists can see the bronze mirrors gleaming under the sun and hear the euphonious sound of the wind bells.
Each story of the pagoda has two gates. On the door head of the south gate of the first story is embedded a plaque with the inscription, 'Wanbu Huayanjing Pagoda'. Originally, nine Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) steles were preserved on the first floor. Only six remain extant today. Inside the pagoda are also preserved some inscriptions of the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties which are written in Chinese or languages of other ethnic minorities.
Source: chinats.com
Editor: Wang Moyan
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