Together with the Torre Pendente in Italy and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Pagoda of Fogong Temple is known as one of the "Three Miraculous Towers in the World." Located in Ying County, Shuozhou, Shanxi Province, the pagoda was built in the second year of Liao Qing Ning Dynasty (1056 AD). It is the oldest and tallest existing purely wooden structure of the pavilion type, a treasure of ancient Chinese architecture, and a model of wooden structures worldwide. The pagoda stands on a four-meter-high platform, reaching a height of 67.31 meters, with a base diameter of 30.27 meters in an octagonal plan. The height of the pagoda is approximately 2.2 times the diameter of its base, creating a sturdy yet dignified appearance that firmly anchors the pagoda to the earth. Constructed with 3,000 cubic meters of red pine timber, weighing over 2,600 tons, the pagoda is entirely made of wood without the use of nails or rivets, standing tall and proud through thousands of years of storms and earthquakes. Valuable Liao Dynasty artifacts have been discovered within the pagoda, including Buddhist scriptures in both handwritten and wooden block-printed forms. Some scrolls exceed 30 meters in length, a rarity in China, particularly the Liao Dynasty color-printed scriptures, which fill a gap in Chinese printing history. These artifacts provide invaluable insights into the political, economic, and cultural aspects of the Liao Dynasty. The pagoda also houses two sacred relics highly revered in the Buddhist world: Buddha"s tooth relics, confirmed through research to be remnants of Shakyamuni Buddha"s relics.
For more information: http://wlt.shanxi.gov.cn/zxw/zh/sourcefiles/html/attractions/1771.shtml