Fogong Monastery, Śākyamuni Pagoda  佛宮寺釋迦塔

Building Information

The Fogongsi Pagoda (佛宮寺塔) is also known as the Sakyamuni pagoda (Shijiata 釋迦塔) or the Yingxian timber pagoda (应县木塔) and is located in Yingxian, northern Shanxi Province. It was initiated by the Liao Emperor Daozong in the second year of the Qingning reign period (1056) at the location of his grandmother’s ancestral home. The pagoda is the oldest wooden pagoda still standing in China, resisting a multitude of earthquakes and wars. The pagoda structure stands on a 3.66 meter tall, 2-tiered platform made of stone. The pagoda has a 10 meter tall finial, and reaches a total height of 67.31 meters, towering above the town surrounding it. With five octagonal stories in the diantang (殿堂) structural style, the pagoda has a mezzanine level between each story supporting porch-like timber balconies (pingzuo 平座). Each floor is created with two rings of columns connected by beams that create an inner and outer aisle (Lin 2016, 121). The timber pagoda has fifty-four types of bracketing, the largest number of different bracket types of any Liao building (Steinhardt 1994, 13). Prominent features and artifacts in the pagoda include the Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddhas of the Four Directions, and the Vairocana and eight attendant Bodhisattvas (Shen 2001).1