White Elephant Pagoda: Astonishing artifacts unearthed after 900 years of weathering!

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, successive kings of Wuyue had a deep faith in Buddhism. Throughout their rule over Zhejiang, they built numerous pagodas, carved Buddhist scriptures, and constructed a countless number of temples and precious pagodas within their territory. In the Song Dynasty, Wenzhou leapt to prominence as an important commercial and trade city along the southeastern coast, rivaling the prosperity of Hangzhou, which was known as a paradise on earth. At this time, Buddhism also entered a golden age, "Narayana and his eight hundred disciples dwelled in the country of Chenla; now five hundred reside in Tiantai, and three hundred in Yandang." Many Buddhist practitioners followed in the footsteps of Indian monks to come to Wenzhou to practice and cultivate, and many famous monks emerged, making Wenzhou a major Buddhist center in the southeast. As the most important carriers of Buddhism, Buddhist architectures such as the Jingguang Temple Pagoda, White Elephant Pagoda, Huiguang Pagoda, Guo'an Temple Stone Pagoda, and the twin pagodas on Jiangxin Isle sprang up like bamboo shoots after a rain, with over two hundred Buddhist pagodas standing tall on the land of Dong'ou. The White Elephant Pagoda is located on Tanghe riverside in Bai Xiang Street, Ouhai District, Wenzhou City. It was first constructed in the third year of Chongning during the Northern Song Dynasty (1104) and completed in the fifth year of Zhenghe (1115). The pagoda body has experienced 900 years of weathering and was nearly collapsing. In 1965, due to severe tilting of the pagoda, it was dismantled with the approval of the provincial government. During the demolition, cultural relic workers excavated a variety of iron, copper, porcelain, and wooden objects from the pagoda, as well as a large number of scriptures, paintings, sculptures, stone carvings, and other Northern Song Dynasty artifacts, totaling over a thousand items unearthed. Among them, the most numerous were Northern Song Dynasty painted clay Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, warriors, musicians, and offering stars, followed by Northern Song lacquerware, brick carvings, wood carvings, celadon, bronzeware, printed scriptures, handwritten scriptures, paintings, and Tang and Song Dynasty coins. The underground palace was empty, likely having been looted long ago. Among them, the 42 Northern Song Dynasty painted clay Buddhist statues unearthed from the niches in the pagoda body are the most valuable artistic treasures among the artifacts.