Enter this magical land

There are many ancient towers all over Chaoyang, Liaoning, but this one is the most easily overlooked. Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province is the "Ancient Capital of the Three Yan States". During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, it was the site of the Dragon City of the Murong Xianbei, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties it was Yingzhou City, and during the Liao and Jin Dynasties it was Xingzhong Prefecture.
Chaoyang was the political and cultural core of the Liao and Jin dynasties, and the two generations of upper-level rulers were devout Buddhists, so many Buddhist cultural relics were left in Chaoyang. There are 14 existing Liao and Jin pagodas in Chaoyang, of which eight are listed as national key cultural relics protection sites and six are provincial cultural relics protection sites.
The Big Pagoda located at the foot of Phoenix Mountain is one of them. The Big Pagoda is located in the "Wangtuzigou" village, two kilometers southeast of Chaoyang City, across the mountain from the famous Yunjie Temple Pagoda. Although it is close to the city, many locals are unaware of its existence, and the rugged road makes it quite difficult to reach.
The tower is a square, hollow, thirteen-story, dense-eaves brick building with a remaining height of about 17 meters. The middle part of the tower base is waisted and carved with patterns of lotus, flames, musicians, etc. There were originally 24 groups on each side, and 14 groups remain now, each group is different.
The Big Pagoda is one of the five existing Liao Dynasty square pagodas. Compared with the other five Liao Dynasty square pagodas, it is smaller in size. The tower inherits the square tower style of the Tang Dynasty and has the characteristics of the Liao Dynasty.
The width of the eaves on the first floor is moderate, while the eaves on the second floor are sharply tapered. The widths of the eaves from the second to the thirteenth floors are basically the same, straight up and down, with no obvious taper, which is significantly different from the other four Liao Dynasty square towers.

Post by Genevieve_109 | Mar 8, 2025