Luoba Pagoda

Luoba Pagoda

Luoba Pagoda is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

Luoba Pagoda is located atop Luobadong Hill in Luoba Village, Wenlong Town, approximately 25 kilometers from Longnan County, hence its name. It is a feng shui pagoda collectively funded and built by the Cai family of Luoba Village, Wenlong Town.

Luoba Village is situated in a small basin formed by the alluvial deposits of the Luoxi River, which originates from Kuimei Mountain. After meandering for dozens of miles from its source at Kuimei Mountain, the Luoxi River reaches the valley entrance of Luobadong Hill, where it makes a turn and flows into neighboring Lipu Village, before eventually joining the Wo River at Shuikou in Lintang Township.

Aside from residents with the surnames Qiu and Li, the majority of people in Luoba Village are descendants of the Cai family. The founding ancestor of the Luoba Cai clan, Cai Qilang, originally migrated from Fujian’s Changting to Shanghang. His great-grandsons, Cai Bin and Cai Xing, along with their mother Lady Liu, relocated to Anyuan during the seventh year of the Jingtai era of the Ming Dynasty (1456), then moved on to Xunwu before finally settling in Luoba, Longnan. To date, the clan has passed down over 20 generations.

According to the Cai family genealogy, ancestors Cai Bin and Cai Xing assessed the yin and yang, observed the flow of springs, and built a ancestral hall for the Cai clan in Luoba, with its entrance facing the mouth of the Luoxi River. To complete the feng shui balance, Cai clan descendants such as Xun Qing proposed building a pagoda at the river mouth to compensate for the orientation of the ancestral hall’s main gate. Many contributed funds, and within a few months, the project was completed. Luoba Pagoda stands like a sharp peak dominating the mouth of the Luoxi River. Its striking form shelters the area, while the ancestral hall seems to reach for the sky, enhancing the feng shui of the Luoba terrain.

Luoba Pagoda is a seven-story, hexagonal brick-and-stone structure, entirely coated with lime paint, giving it a grayish-white appearance. Each level features one arched doorway. The pagoda stands 21 meters tall and was built in the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign during the Qing Dynasty (1729). It has never been repaired and remains in excellent condition.

In the thirteenth year of the Qianlong reign (1767), descendants of the Luoba Cai clan renovated the ancestral hall. On the left wall of the central hall, they embedded a stone tablet inscribed with “Record of the Luoxi Ancestral Hall and Pagoda” authored by Shi Guan, and on the right wall, they placed a tablet inscribed with the “Cai Clan Family Precepts.” These were intended to inspire and admonish future generations to uphold the clan’s virtues—patriotism, kindness, benevolence, righteousness, filial piety, loyalty, a commitment to farming and learning, perseverance, and unyielding progress—in order to build a harmonious and happy homeland.

Luoba Village: Located in the northwest of Wenlong Town, Luoba Village comprises 19 villager groups, with a total of 841 households, including 36 specialized farming households; the population is 3,238, of which 2,200 are migrant workers, 84 are on subsistence allowances, 10 are facing family planning difficulties, 4 are entitled to preferential treatment, and 44 are Communist Party members (including 10 female members). The village covers an area of 3,900 mu, including 1,800 mu of arable land and 2,100 mu of mountainous land. In 2010, the per capita annual income of farmers was 3,980 yuan. In addition to income from rice and navel orange cultivation, pollution-free vegetable farming, and other sources, labor… More details about Luoba Village++

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Jiangxi Province

· The Four Pagodas of Longnan