Fahua Chan'an Pagoda

Fahua Chan'an Pagoda

Fahua Chan'an Pagoda is a cultural relic protection unit of Anhui Province.

Fahua Chan'an Pagoda

Also known as Xingci Treasure Pagoda, it is located on the mountainside of Daheng Mountain in Hengshan Township, Mingguang City. The Supplement to the Chuzhou Annals records: “Daheng Mountain spans both Chuzhou and Dingyuan counties, with a circumference of twenty li. The eastern half belongs to Chuzhou and hosts the Banshan Temple.” The Banshan Temple, also called Fahua Chan'an, is the origin of the pagoda's name. Fahua Chan'an Pagoda was first built in the 10th year of the Zhizheng era during the Yuan Dynasty (1350), and is a brick pagoda modeled after a wooden pavilion-style structure. About 160 meters to its southwest lies a smaller pagoda, commonly known as the “Little Treasure Pagoda,” which is a pavilion-style brick-and-stone structure with a hexagonal floor plan and seven visible stories. This smaller pagoda has no inscribed stele or recorded date of construction. The Xingci Treasure Pagoda is a Yuan Dynasty Buddhist pagoda—the only one of its kind discovered in the province to date—and provides valuable physical evidence for the study of Yuan Dynasty architectural style. In 1986, it was designated as a provincial-level key cultural relic protection unit by the Anhui Provincial Government.