Dingzhou Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda

Dingzhou Liaodi Pagoda, commonly known as 'Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda', is located inside Kaiyuan Temple on the east side of the South City Gate in Dingzhou City, Hebei Province. In the fourth year of Xianping of the Northern Song Dynasty (1001), Emperor Zhenzong of Song ordered the construction of the temple and pagoda to enshrine the Buddhist scriptures and relics brought back from ancient India by Monk Lingneng. The construction was completed in the second year of Zhihe of the Northern Song Dynasty (1055), taking 55 years. As Dingzhou was a military stronghold close to both the Liao and Song dynasties, the Song Dynasty used this pagoda to observe enemy movements, hence the name 'Liaodi Pagoda' (or 'Observation Tower'). The Dingzhou Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda is an octagonal tower building and is one of the tallest ancient brick towers in China. The tower is dignified and majestic, with eleven levels, each level shrinking in proportion from bottom to top. The internal structure of the tower is that the outer tower body surrounds the inner tower body, and the stairs spiral up from the heart of the inner tower body to the top of the tower. The tower body is connected from the inside to the outside, forming a unique structure of a tower within a tower. The Dingzhou Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda is a Buddhist pagoda that integrates architectural art, Buddhist culture, and calligraphy and painting art, and occupies an important position in the history of ancient Chinese architecture. Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda