The Other Two Pagodas of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔

One of the Other Two Pagodas of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔

One of the Other Two Pagodas of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔

Once you see the Three Pagodas you can be forgiven if you forgot there were two others after visiting Qianxun Pagoda. The Qianxun Pagoda is by far the most magnificent of the three and it is so far the one that is different. The Qianxun Pagoda has a square layout all the way to the top. I was surprised to see how different the other two pagodas are knowing the pains they took to built the three pagodas. The three pagodas are laid out on the vertices of an equilateral triangle, that is, all the three sides of the triangle have the same length. It is thus curious that the other two pagodas do not look like the Qianxun Pagoda.

Closer Look at the Other Pagoda of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔

Closer Look at the Other Pagoda of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 崇圣寺三塔

It is funny that the two pagodas seem to be just as afterhought, that they didn’t even have their own names, at least I couldn’t find any, so I just call them “the other two pagodas”. The other two pagodas look quite different from the Qianxun pagoda particularly with their shape. The two pagodas have a octagonal plan much like traditional pagodas. They are also shorter with only ten stories each. The Qianxun Pagoda is hollow from the bottom to the middle but the other two pagodas are hollow all the way. Make no mistake that the other two pagodas are ugly, they are nice it is just that the Qianxun Pagoda gets all the attention.

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