Longevity Pagoda

Longevity Pagoda

The Longevity Pagoda is a cultural relic protection unit of Huzhou City.

The Longevity Pagoda is located within Shiyuan Garden in Nan栅, Nanxun, Huzhou. The pagoda was built by Zhang Junheng, a wealthy merchant from Nanxun, to pray for his mother’s longevity and blessings, hence its name, which also translates as the Stone Pagoda or Sutra Pagoda. It was constructed in the second year of the Xuantong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1910) and completed in the eighth year of the Republic of China (1919). The pagoda has seven levels and six sides, standing 11.5 meters tall. Its Sumeru pedestal waist moldings and pagoda walls are inlaid with 48 stone steles, each 29.3 centimeters high and 58 centimeters long. The top of the pagoda bears an inscription reading “Longevity Precious Pagoda,” written by Wu Changshuo, a master of modern traditional Chinese painting. Below it is engraved a rubbing of the Diamond Sutra written by Liu Gongquan from the Dunhuang Grottoes. In March 1989, the Huzhou Municipal People’s Government designated the Longevity Pagoda as a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit.

Source: Huzhou Municipal People’s Government