Monk Yuansheng Pagoda

Monk Yuansheng Pagoda

Monk Yuansheng Pagoda is a cultural tourism attraction.

Monk Yuansheng Pagoda is located in Mentougou District. Built in the sixth year of the Huangtong era during the Jin Dynasty, the brick pagoda has a hexagonal floor plan and stands over 10 meters tall. The waisted base is 2.5 meters high and is adorned with nearly a hundred lotus petals carved from blue bricks. The pagoda body sits atop this base, with four ruyi-shaped carvings on each of its upper sides. The pagoda body features three tiers of corbelled eaves, above which rises a finial composed of a inverted bowl supporting a thirteen-tiered wheel. The wheel tapers to a point, topped with a hollow iron sphere over a foot in diameter. Protruding from the sphere is an iron rod over two meters high, serving as the steeple. Other decorative elements have been lost. The inscription on the pagoda was composed by the eminent Jin Dynasty monk Xibian. This pagoda is a rare and valuable example of the architectural transition from the dense-eave style to the inverted-bowl style in Chinese pagoda design, and is seldom seen in China.