Buddhism building shopping mall Chongfu Temple Tower

Buddhism building shopping mall Chongfu Temple Tower

Chongfu Temple Tower, also known as Baita and Beita, is located in the No.1 Middle School of Shangcheng County, Xinyang City, and is a cultural relic protection unit in Henan Province.

The tower of Chongfu Temple is in the backyard of the original Chongfu Temple, and it is named after the temple. There is an ancient poem that praises: "The ancient temple is majestic and the pagoda is towering into the sky." Surrounded by Mount Ta of Chongfu Temple, Pingchuan, "Independent King Kong Buddha is the crown of Yilan, and there are blessings in the land."

Chongfu Temple was founded in the Tang Dynasty. Ming Jiajing's "Shangcheng County Records" contains: "Chongfu Temple, formerly known as Longquan Temple, has been abandoned for a long time, and the temple foundation still exists. Built in the sixteenth year of Chenghua, it was renamed Chongfu Temple and set up a monk association department. " The inscription on the wall of the East Tower on the first floor is "Meng Dong in the second year of Chongzhen" and the name of the person who supervised the construction of the ancient tower of Chongfu Temple. 19 14, the Bailang army captured the shopping mall, and half of the temples and school buildings were reduced to ashes, but the pagodas still existed.

The plane of Chongfu Temple Tower is hexagonal, and it is a pavilion-style brick tower. It has seven floors, consisting of tower foundation, tower body and tower brake, with a total height of 22.3 meters and a bottom length of 3.05 meters. The first floor of the tower is higher, and the height of the above floors gradually decreases, showing a soft arc. The outer wall is covered with a layer of white ash, and the top is closed with an iron gourd-shaped hall, which has a beautiful image.

The tower foundation is hexagonal, with a side length of 3.36m and a height of 1.2m, and is made of ochre into Sumitomo shape. The square is embossed with auspicious animals such as dragon, unicorn, swimming fish and deer, and designs such as ganoderma lucidum, pine, bamboo and plum. Shang Xiao carved precious lotus patterns, girded the waist and reduced the ground, embossed flowers such as peony, and carved Buddhist Wan Ziwen in folding columns and corner columns. Most of the lower carvings have fallen off and blurred, and the lower owl carvings are covered with lotus flowers. The whole sculpture of Xumishan Mountain has exquisite patterns, smooth lines and vivid modeling image, which is likely to come out of the wall.

The first floor of the tower is equipped with arched doors in the west, the second floor is northeast and southeast, the third floor is west, the fourth floor is east, the fifth floor is southwest, the sixth floor is northeast, the seventh floor is east and southwest respectively, and the rest surfaces are built with false windows.

Chongfu Temple Tower, known as the first tower in southern Henan, is one of the ancient buildings with large volume and high value in southern Henan. This tower is one of the representatives of the pavilion-style brick tower in the early Ming Dynasty. It is exquisite, majestic, beautiful and solemn from the modeling of the tower body to the decoration of the abutment, and has obvious characteristics of the times. The stone carving of tower brick has fine technology, smooth lines and rich patterns, which has high artistic value.

Tower eaves structure (provided by Li Dongsheng)

Tower top (provided by Li Dongsheng)

Panorama (provided by Li Dongsheng)