Shangxian Fan’an Temple Pagoda

Shangxian Fan’an Temple Pagoda

Shangxian Fan’an Temple Pagoda is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Fan’an Temple Pagoda stands approximately 45 meters tall, with a base perimeter of 25 meters. It is a seven-story, eight-sided, octagonal, double-eaved brick pagoda with a hollow interior. Each level features arched stone spiral doors. The first-floor door faces south, and beneath it lies an underground chamber connected by a tunnel leading outside the pagoda. The lower several levels of the pagoda are built with large blue stone slabs, atop which the ancient red-brick pagoda stands—without a foundation or a top, making it quite unique. From the second floor upward, there are wooden staircases connecting the levels and leading to the top. The pagoda is a flat-top structure, and it originally had an internal staircase that went all the way to the top. Legend has it that there used to be a small temple on the top housing an iron Buddha, but both the Buddha and the staircase were destroyed after the Japanese invasion. Only the top inscription stele remains from the pagoda’s restoration record. According to the Provincial Cultural Relics Research Institute, this is currently the largest ancient pagoda without a foundation or a top, holding certain value for research in ancient architecture.

This pagoda has three peculiarities: first, it lacks a spire—most pagodas have one, but Fan’an does not; second, it has a temple built on its top, which is very rare; third, the over 40-meter-tall pagoda has no foundation and is entirely built on loess soil.

Legend has it that at some unknown time, a sage built a towering pagoda whose tip pierced the clouds and disturbed the heavens, angering the Celestial Master Zhang. In a fit of rage, he struck the pagoda with his whip, breaking it into three sections: the bottom section landed in Shangxian; the middle section fell in Shousheng Temple, north of Jicun Village in Fenyang; and the top section landed in Jianchang Village, east of Fenyang City. Hence the saying: “Shangxian holds the roots, Jicun the body, and Jianchang the tip.” That’s why neither the Shangxian nor the Jicun pagoda has a top—only the Jianchang Pagoda in Fenyang still has its tip.

In May 2013, Shangxian Fan’an Temple Pagoda was announced as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units