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Tianning Temple West Pagoda
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Tianning Temple West Pagoda
CHINA, Zhejiang, Ningbo
This used to be one of two pagodas situated in Tianning Temple. However, both the temple and the east pagoda are no longer extant. According to an inscription on this west pagoda, it was built in 863 during the Xiantong period (860-873) of the Tang dynasty. Therefore, it is also known as the Xiantong Pagoda. It was listed as a National Cultural Heritage Site in 2006.
The five-story, square, brick pagoda is 12 m high. The interior is hollow without any decorations. There are arched doorways on all four sides of the first story but only the one in the west is real. From the second story upwards there are empty niches on all four sides. The eaves consist of courses of dogtooth bricks which have a very slight downward curve, a style often seen in multi-story pagodas of the early Tang period. Above the fifth story there is reverse corbeling forming a pyramidal roof. |
