Brief information on Wooden Pagoda  

Standing 65.86 meters high, the Wooden Pagoda is not only the tallest but also the oldest wooden pagoda in China today. Compared with the renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, the Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County is 115 years older and 11.36 meters taller. In the 1950s, this pagoda became a cultural heritage and received a first-class protection.

The Wooden Pagoda with its unique architectural, religious and historical values is located at the Fogong (Buddha’s Palace) Temple in Shanxi’s Yingxian County, 380 kilometers (236 miles) southwest of Beijing.

It was built in 1056 during Liao Dynasty, which ruled North China from 916 to 1125. It is the 953rd anniversary of the pagoda on Sept. 5, 2010.

The Wooden Pagoda was made entirely of wooden parts joined by innumerable mortises and tenons in a complicated structure of brackets, without using any nails. It measures 67.31 meters in height similar to the height of a 20-storied building and 30.27 meters in diameter at the base.

It is an octagonal structure of nine stories, with five stories visible from outside and four hidden inside. The Buddhist statues in all stories and paintings on the inner walls of the first storey are the works of the Liao Dynasty.

During a renovation of the pagoda in 1974, a number of sutras were found of which some were hand-written and others block printed. They provided with important materials to study the religion and printing technology of the Liao Dynasty as well as the political, economic and cultural developments of that period.

Although the pagoda faced numerous tests in the centuries before including earthquakes, storms, lightening strikes and wars, it still survives. 

*You can download the bilingual note to show it to a taxi driver or someone else to find your way to Wooden Pagoda if you plan to visit Wooden Pagoda and have language problems.

   

Chinese Pinyin: Mu Ta
Opening Times: 7:00-19:00
Ticket Price: CNY 60
Address: Fogong Temple, Yingxian County
How to Get to: Take coach from Datong Railway Station.
Phone:0349-5035244