Inner Mongolia Five Pagoda Temple, China

> China Travel Tour Guide > Attractions

Five Pagoda Temple

The Five Pagoda Temple is located in the old city of Hohhot at Inner Mongolia. It is a famous historic spot in Hohhot.

Built in the 10th Year of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty in 1731, the Five Pagoda Temple was originally a Lamaism temple. There is a straight and beautiful pagoda for Buddhist relics with Buddha's warrior seat, so it is commonly called "The Five Pagoda Temple".

Long ago in Ming Dynasty, there was a lotus lamp every several centimeters around the original temple. In every Lantern Festival all the lotus lamps are bright at the same time as if the flower lamps surrounded the temple, so this temple was called the Kind Lamp Temple early in Qing Dynasty.

Later due to long time and lack of repair, the other constructions in this temple collapsed one by one, only the pagoda for Buddhist relics with Buddha's warrior seat was still standing straight and intact in original place.

The pagoda for Buddhist relics with Buddha's warrior seat is as the bottom of Buddha's warrior seat, upper is composed with five square pagodas enshrined Buddhist relics, so it was also called "the Five Pagoda Temple".

The body of the pagoda is brick and stone, as high as 16.5 meters, it is a huge rectangle with beautiful modeling. There decorated with colored glaze bricks out of the pagoda body with inlayed full of white stones at the edges and corners. The bottom of the Buddha's warrior seat is like a protuberance, built on the one-centimeter-high base.

At the waist of the body there carved patterns and pictures such as lions and elephants. As to the Buddha's warrior seat, it has 7 layers at all, the first floor inlayed scripture written in Mongolian, Tibetan and Fan three kinds of characters with exquisite carving and graceful line.

From the second floor to the seventh eave, there are 1,119 gold-plating Buddha statues in various gestures. The statues' sizes are almost the same, while the looks are different with each other, but the faces are smiling auspiciously.

There is an arched door in the center of the Buddha's warrior seat with the Four Heavenly Kings' statues carved on both sides. There inlayed the white jade horizontal inscribed board written "the Pagoda for Buddhist Relics with Buddha's warrior Seat" in Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese three kinds of characters in the center of the door.

In the door there are palaces without crossbeams and in east and west sides there are ladders leading to the top of the Buddha's warrior seat. There is a 4-angle square pavilion there and in the pavilion there placed those five famous square Buddhist relics pagodas.

The central small pagoda has seven layers, as high as 6.62 meters, while the other four pagodas have five layers. The bodies of these five pagodas are inlayed statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva, the carving is exquisite and careful. The visitors often focus their attention on them and appreciate them carefully.

Related Readings

More Info on Inner Mongolia