Songye Temple Pagoda

The Songyue Temple Pagoda was first built in the fourth year of Zhengguang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (523 AD). After more than 1,400 years of wind and rain erosion, it still stands tall. It is the earliest existing brick pagoda in China and the only example among the ancient pagodas in the country. The Songyue Temple Pagoda is a brick-built dense-eaves pagoda. It is also a twelve-sided pagoda. Its nearly circular plane and the tower body divided into upper and lower sections are quite similar to the Indian "stupa", which is an early form of dense-eaves pagoda. It retains the characteristics of the pagodas of the Ashoka period in India. At present, the pagodas of this period cannot be found in India. Many scholars and experts who study the pagodas of the Ashoka period in India must come to the Songyue Temple Pagoda. The Songyue Temple Pagoda is 37.6 meters high, with a bottom diameter of 10.16 meters, an inner diameter of more than 5 meters, and a wall thickness of 2.5 meters. It consists of a base, a tower body, 15 layers of stacked brick eaves and a pagoda. The base of the tower is built in a twelve-sided shape along with the tower body. There is a Voucher door on each of the four sides, east, west, south and north, leading to the tower's core chamber. The four front Voucher doors are connected to the lower doorway. There is an Indian-style flame Voucher lintel on the Voucher doors. A single-story square tower-shaped niche is built on each of the other eight sides, and pilasters are built at each corner. The middle part is a 15-story densely stacked double eaves, built with brick stacking. The eaves width is gradually reduced, and the outer contour is a parabola. Its design is obviously derived from the Chinese double-story building. The interior is a large brick-built hollow tube with several layers of wooden floor boards. There is a brick-built pagoda top at the top, which is 4.75 meters high and made of stone. Its form is a lotus-covered bowl placed on a simple pedestal, with a waist and an upturned lotus, and then seven layers of phase wheels and a precious bead. The tower's core chamber is a 9-story internal stacked brick eaves. Except for the bottom plane, which is a twelve-sided shape, the rest are all octagonal. There is also an underground palace under the tower.