China

Wooden Structures of Liao Dynasty

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The Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County is the oldest and the tallest multi-storey wooden structure in the world, and it highlights the human being’s creative spirit. Its appearance follows a clear digital proportional rule, and is a creative design based on comprehensive and detailed design on the plan, vertical effect, sections and internal space. The Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County is a typical Buddhist architecture with ceremony sites constructed along the vertical space, which shows the prosperity and creativity of the Buddhist architecture in the Liao Dynasty. The Main Hall of the Fengguo Monastery and its cultural relics are unique artistic and technical creation in the world. The Main Hall of the Fengguo Monastery and its sculptures and paintings preserve the cultural features and memory of traditional Buddhist architecture of the Liao Dynasty, and keeps the precious artistic and scientific information of the Tang Dynasty and Liao Dynasty. The Main Hall of the Fengguo Monastery is an outstanding example of wooden structure of single eave in China in 11th Century and an excellent example of the transformation from palatial hall style to the hall type.

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Wooden Structures of Liao Dynasty - Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County, Main Hall of Fengguo Monastery of Yixian County (ID: 5803)
Country
China
Status
On tentative list 2013 Site history
History of Wooden Structures of Liao Dynasty
2013: Added to Tentative List
Added to tentative list
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UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
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UNESCO.org

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First published: 12/03/19.

Zoë Sheng

Wooden Structures Of Liao Dynasty

Wooden Structures of Liao Dynasty (On tentative list)

Wooden Structures of Liao Dynasty by Zoë Sheng

I visited the "Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County" on a day trip to Yungang Grottoes starting from Datong. I know this seems like the opposite side of town but the morning is spent visiting the Hanging Temple in the south and then you only reach the northern grottoes in the afternoon. According to my photo timestamps we stopped here at 2pm. The tour guide told us we would normally only see this on a two-day trip but I am not so sure this is really true - yet some people changed bus so this seems to be some kind of meeting points for the tour organizers to exchange tourists going to different places. The name of the tower says "釋迦塔" but after some quick check the Wikipedia entry calls it the "The Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple". It claims to be the oldest wooden pagoda built in 1056. I strongly doubt all the inside parts of the pagoda are that old but the outer wooden section surely could. The inner statues are not that special but apparently they contained a few very important artifacts - not entirely related to listing the pagoda as WS though. I think this masterpiece of craftsmanship would do well on the WH list. If somebody can built a tower that lasted 1,000 years and MAINLY had to be repaired due to Japanese bullet fires I have to respect that. I haven't visited the hall in Yixian yet.

I didn't know this was the same …

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