Fujian Tourism | A Thousand-Year-Old Stone Pagoda in a Lesser-Known Temple - Putian Dongshan Bao'en Temple

Putian, formerly known as Xinghua Prefecture, includes the county town of Putian County. It is famously known as the 'Land of Culture and Literature' and 'Zou Lu by the Sea'. Dongshan Bao'en Dongyan Teaching Temple, commonly known as Dongshan Bao'en Temple, was founded in the first year of the Song Dynasty's Chunhua period (990 AD). The existing structures include the mountain gate, the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Mahavira Hall, the Guanyin Hall, the monks' quarters, and the climbing corridor, among which the Song Dynasty stone pagoda is the most precious. The stone pagoda was built during the Northern Song Dynasty's Shaosheng period (1094-1097), with an octagonal three-story structure, delicate and exquisite. The pagoda is about 13 meters high, with bas-relief carvings of lotuses looking upwards on the Sumeru base, and around the waist, there are 37 bas-relief carvings of lions in various poses; each level has four doors, with a pair of bas-relief Vajra warriors on each side of the doors on the ground floor. What's truly interesting about Dongyan Mountain are the layouts of these temples. The Bao'en Temple on the far right is nestled in the greenery, with several red halls of the Dongshan Mazu Palace to the left, followed closely by a group of buildings on the far left - the Dongshan Ancestral Hall of the Trinity Sect. The Dongshan Bao'en Temple, Dongshan Mazu Palace, and Dongshan Ancestral Hall are all squeezed onto the mountainside, surrounded by some newly built antique-style buildings, giving off a 'bustling and dazzling' vibe.