The Pagoda of Cishou Temple (), originally known as Yong'anwanshou Pagoda (), is a 16th-century stone and brick

Chinese pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

located in the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Cishou Temple of Balizhuang, a suburb of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

Description

This octagonal-shaped pagoda is roughly 50 m (164 ft) tall, with elaborate ornamental carvings, thirteen tiers of eaves, and a small steeple. The Cishou Pagoda was built in 1576 during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

(1368–1644), commissioned by Empress Dowager Li during the reign of the

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was th ...

(1572–1620). The Cishou Pagoda was modelled upon a similar pagoda at Tianning Temple outside Guang'anmen in Beijing. The style of eaves on the pagoda is similar to older

Liao dynasty The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...

and Jin dynasty pagodas. Although the surrounding Cishou Temple has been destroyed, the original Ming pagoda of Cishou has remained unharmed except for noticeable weathering damage to the carved

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s on its exterior facade. The brick base of the pagoda is shaped as a

sumeru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritu ...

pedestal and is decorated with relief carvings of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, lotus petals, and other designs. The upper portion of the pagoda features carved designs of

Chinese musical instruments Chinese musical instruments are traditionally grouped into eight categories known as (). The eight categories are silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and skin; other instruments considered traditional exist that may not fit these group ...

such as the

guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and Scholar-bureaucrats, literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinemen ...

. Stylistic ''

dougong ''Dougong'' () is a structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important in traditional Chinese architecture. The use of dougong first appeared in buildings of the late centuries BC and evolved into a structural net ...

'' supports—commonly found in wooden Chinese architecture—are carved in between the eaves of the pagoda.

External links

Cishou Temple Pagoda at China.org.cn
Buddhist temples in Beijing Chinese architectural history Pagodas in China Ming dynasty architecture Cishou Temple pagoda Religious buildings and structures completed in 1576 {{PRChina-religious-struct-stub

Description

See also

External links