Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is located in Yingxian, Shanxi province. People can
see a high pagoda towerring aloft in the area about 70 kilometers away from
Datong, that is called Yingxian WoodenPagoda, one of five ancient architectures
in Shanxi province.
Yingxian is in the north of Shanxi province, the wooden
pagoda is in the north-west of the county.Yingxian wooden pagoda is also called
Buddha Palace Mosque Shijia pagoda, which was set up in 2ndyear of Da Liao
Qingning(1056A.D.) Nearly 1000 years age, the Buddha Palace Mosque was a
magnificent mosque. After that, it was damaged during war. The wooden pagoda
named Shijia Pagoda has been towered aloft until nowadays.
The outside appearance of the pagoda is octagon, 67.3 meter high. The
diameter of ground floor is 30 meters. It has 5 floors and 6 eaves if you look
it from outside, In fact, every floor has inner layer, so , it has 5 floors
outside and 4 floors inside, 9 floors together. The image of Sakyamuni is in the
middle of first floor which looks grand and solemn, gives people mysterious
feeling. There are 6portraits of Buddha in the wall with proper proportion and
bright color. " Feitian" (one of fresco) beside the Buddha head look active and
plentiful, glowing with health and radiating vigor, it is a masterpiece among
fresco. There is a sitting Buddha who faces to four directions on the 3rd floor.
There is a sit image of Sakyamuni in the middle of 5th floor,8 Bodhisattva sit
around it. As there are no inner floors in the center of the pagoda, the image
looks more solemn and grand. All these used structure-gap well and designed very
scientifically.
There are sidewalks and surrounded railing for people leaning
on and enjoying a distant view from the 2nd to 5th floor. Especially, when
people mount on the top floor, they not only can see the whole county, but also
see the Heng Mountain in the distance dimly. According to the record of relative
historical documents, if people stand on the top floor, they can see the views
60 kilometers away. Therefore, the top of the pagoda can be used not only for
enjoying scenic beauty, but also be used as surveying stand for observing and
commanding struggle in ancient times.
One thing that is worth mentioning is
as follows: Except the 4-meter-high stone ground, the wooden pagoda did not use
any nail or rivet, all materials are wooden and connected by 50 kinds of
base-mat. Every floor was supported by wooden pillars from inside and outside,
about 60 kinds of inclined beams, wooden stumps and short pillars were used
between the wooden pillars, thus, formed a wooden structure of repeated beam.
So, the wooden pagoda looks solid and beautiful. This wooden structure pagoda
without any nail and rivet is a huge building project with high-degree
difficulty. According to the record of historical documents, Yingxian wooden
pagoda used 3500CBM wood. Itis said that the ruler of Liao Dynasty used
thousands of labour force from Heibei and Shanxi at that time. Pine and elm were
used widely because pine can not be out of shape and elm is very solid. Just
because lots pine and elm used in the wooden pagoda, it has still towered a loft
until now although passed 900 years and eroded by wind and rain, damaged by
earthquake and struggle. During 200 years from the wooden pagoda finished to the
years of Yuanshun emperor, it passed 7 times of strong earthquaked, but it still
kept well; During the war of Yan and Feng warlords in 1926, it shot by 200
shells, only 2 pillars was broken.
