Three Pagodas Park
Three pagodas can date back to the 9th and 10th century kingdoms that reigned the area during that time. They are built from bricks in a symmetric triangle. The tallest is almost 70 meters high and the smaller ones, which are built about 100 years later, stand just over 40 meters high. The outside naves are decorated with many Buddha statues carved out of marble. There is a huge temple complex behind the pagoda’s which is actually newly build and we did not visit it because it’s more of the same like other temples we have seen and its just new.
Three Pagodas, full name of Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple, situated at about 1 km. northwest of the ancient city of Dali. Being one of the oldest and grandest Buddhist architectures in south china three pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple is always related to ancient culture of Yunan, and they were designated as the national preserved antic spots in 1961 among the first list. In front of the Three pagodas , you can see the 3pagodas are made of brick and covered with white mud, as its name implies. The 3pagodas comprise three independent pagodas forming a symmetric triangle. The elegant, balanced and style is unique in china’s ancient Buddhist architectures, so Three pagodas become a must—see in the tour of dali. The main pagoda, known as Qianxuan pagoda built around 850ad in Tang dynasty, is 69.13ms(23feet) height and is one of the highest pagodas in china’s history. The pagoda is square shaped. The qianxun pagodas is composed of 16 stories, with a typical multi—eaves structure. Obviously, the two smaller pagodas are different from the qianxun pagoda. They are octagonal with ten stories of 43 meters high. On the summit of the Qianxun ps, each corner used to hang a golden wing bird cast by copper, but unfortunately, in 1925, the birds fell down in a terrible earthquake. In each story, there are Buddhist sculpture on each east and west shrines. The other 2shrines are the windows for the pagoda. Along stairs inside, you can reach the top, from there, one can have a wonderful bird view of cangshan mountain and erhai lake. See from several miles away, the three pagodas form a beautiful triangle. Which has been a landmark of dali city. What is more, in 1978, more than 700 Buddhist antiques, including sculptures made of gold, silver jade wood or crystal and documents were found in the body of the pg during a major repairing work. The structure is laid out along 3 axis, 7 platforms, 8 entrances and 11layers. The major buildings are the golden bird square, the heavenly kings hall, the meetings and guiding hall, and the Great Hero hall.
