Slogan of tower project

Pagoda is a very memorable ancient Indian Buddhist building, which was originally used to worship and bury the remains of Sakyamuni. According to legend, after the extinction of the Buddha, the Buddhist Ashoka built 84,000 pagodas in Buddhist temples around the world on the same day to commemorate the remains of Sakyamuni, which is also the origin of pagodas.

China ancient scholars and architectural engineers used their wisdom to effectively integrate the excellent cultural and artistic styles of ancient China with the characteristics of temples, pavilions and Indian pagodas in ancient China, and created pagodas with various materials and architectural styles in China.

And through the combination of various transformations and the connotation of China's cultural and artistic architecture, the tower is endowed with new features in the field of China architecture. The tower's architecture gradually appears in other buildings in China, creating a unique China Tower with unique architectural elements in China.

One of the most distinctive is our Kaibao Temple Tower, which is the highest in the world.

1. Background of the tower building: The bumpy and difficult experience has given it a profound historical background. According to legend, King Ashoka divided the Buddha's relic of Sakyamuni into 84,000 pieces, transported them all over the world and enshrined them in stupas. Some of them were introduced to ancient China, where they were enshrined in Asoka Temple in Ningbo, Zhejiang. With the changes of history, in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the relics were occupied by Zhejiang at that time, and King wuyue, as king, welcomed them to Hangzhou to worship.

Later, Yue surrendered to the regime of Zhao and Song Dynasties, offered Buddhist relics to him in Zifu Hall in Tokyo (now Kaifeng City, Henan Province), and specially arranged personnel to build a 13-storey Buddhist wooden tower in Fusheng Hospital of Kaibao Temple in Tokyo.

At that time, this 13-story Buddhist wooden pagoda was named as "the crown of Beijing" and dedicated to Buddhist relics, which is also a very famous Kaibao Temple stupa in China history.

The wooden tower that was successfully built at the beginning leans to the northwest, which can be called the leaning tower. The design of the leaning tower was put forward by Yu Hao, a craftsman who was good at building towers at that time. He thinks there are not enough peaks in Kaifeng, and there are many winds in the northwest. The pagoda of Kaibao Temple is close to the Yellow River, and it won't take a hundred years. Affected by river erosion and wind, the pagoda will be naturally straightened and become the first pagoda in our world.

However, people are not as good as heaven, but the stupa of Kaibao Temple was burned in thunder and fire 55 years after it was built. During the period of Song Renzong, the pagoda of Kaibao Temple was rebuilt in Fangshang Temple. In order to avoid being burned again, combined with the building technology at that time, the building materials were changed from pure wood to glazed bricks and stones, and the current tower was built.

Because it is inlaid with brown glazed tiles, it looks like brown iron casting, so it is called "iron tower".

Since its establishment, it has experienced 18 gale, 15 flood and 37 earthquakes, and it has also been planned in modern times. After more than 900 years of wind, rain and lightning, it still stands.

It is said that when the predecessor of this towering pagoda was designed and built, Yu Hao, a famous architect in the Northern Song Dynasty, installed thousands of plastic Buddha statues and bodhisattvas on the pagoda of Kaibao Temple at the beginning of design and construction. It was the tallest pagoda in the capital at that time and was called the "crown of the world" by people at that time.

Second, the architectural features of the tower: whether viewed from a distance or from a close distance, the name of "the first tower in the world" deserves its name (1).

The shape of the tower is an equilateral octagon with 13 layers. The total height of the tower is 55.88 meters, and the width of each surface at the bottom is 4. 16 meters, which decreases step by step. The tower is made of patterned bricks with more than 50 patterns such as lions, musicians, bodhisattvas, Kirin and Tian Fei. Vivid and natural, beautiful and realistic. It can be said that it is the art of masonry carving in Song Dynasty.

Kaibao Temple Pagoda is famous for its extraordinary and unique architectural technology. Its design skillfully combines Indian stupa with China architecture, and completely adopts the traditional ancient architectural style of China. The wooden structure is carved with Kirin and Tian Fei. And the masonry is very harmonious, groove and groove. Kaibao Temple Tower is not only tall and straight, but also beautifully decorated. There are many blind windows and bright windows, which can not only be seen.

The bricks and stones of the Kaibao Temple Tower are closely combined by various structural bricks of different shapes and sizes. These structural bricks and stones of different sizes, like wooden structures specially chiseled with axes, have eyes and tenons, which are assembled together and closely combined.

(2) Appreciate the magnificent features of the tower from different angles:

Looking at this towering tower from a distance, the brown tones and iron glazed tiles create a rich temperament of the tower, just like a cast iron and copper building. The momentum is amazing. It is silent in the storm of nature, overlooking the collapse and noise of all beings and the irregular prayer activities around the pagoda of Kaibao Temple. The irregular prayer activities around the pagoda of Kaibao Temple are that pilgrims and monks on the right rotate around the pagoda to express their admiration and respect and pray for their families.

Take a closer look at this glass tower. From top to bottom, the whole tower body of Kaibao Temple Tower is embossed, beautifully decorated with glass and vivid carving art, from outside to inside, all the way to the cornice corner of the tower top, dripping water and small hooks are all over the body. Every place shows the charm of works of art, which are exquisitely carved and beautiful, and combine the top quality products of glass craft in the Northern Song Dynasty.

As far as decorative art is concerned, the iron tower itself is a perfect giant art that combines small works of art. Moreover, glass, a special material, is insulated and lightning-proof, which avoids the accident of being burned by lightning again in heavy rain. Another material feature of ceramic tiles and stones is that they can be high in compressive strength, firm and reliable, and also give the Kaibao Temple Tower a magnificent appearance that will not be corroded by wind and rain and damaged by lightning and electric shock.

(3) Look at the exquisite color of the tower from the perspective of "masonry";

In the Ming Dynasty, glazed Buddha bricks were embedded in the place where the tower core column was facing the bright window. Through this protective layer, the tower core column is protected from wind erosion. From a distance, this tower looks like a wooden pagoda, which is exquisite, because the engineers who designed this tower used imitation wood structure to imitate the pavilion pagoda in architectural design, that is to say, it is neither a wooden pagoda nor a pavilion pagoda. Structural bricks of different sizes are closely combined together.

The standardization and modeling of masonry shapes can build all kinds of wood-like structures, which represents a new milestone in the construction of China stupa. These component features make our Kaibao Temple Tower occupy an important position in the long history of Buddhist architecture in China. The thick and exquisite tower core column is beautiful and practical, which not only makes the core structure support the tower wall to resist external forces, but also adds a beautiful, meticulous and unique appearance to the tower.

Bricks and tiles in different positions on the outer wall of the tower have their own component functions and uses. They are closely connected with the boarding lane through the pylon, which is seamless and extremely strong, so they have strong earthquake resistance and can be bombed by Japanese artillery. Although the tower wall and cornices at all levels at the back of the tower have been damaged to varying degrees, it still stands in the clouds and stands still.

The unbreakable and firm resistance of the iron tower adds a fantastic color to our pagoda itself, and its towering tower body also makes the belief pillar of folk Buddhism more indestructible. As a stupa, after so many natural and man-made disasters, the tower can still stand because of the protection and illumination of the Buddha, which is why we pray around the stupa.

According to legend, if you circle the tower three times on the left and three times on the right, the Buddha will bless your life. At that time, the tower, like a hibiscus, broke through and was graceful, making the appearance of the tower stretch out and tall and graceful.

From the inside of the Kaibao Temple Tower, including masonry and building roads. Around the tower center, there are roads with 168 steps. On the fifth floor, you can see the busy street view of Kaifeng City.

Contour to the seventh floor, you can see the lush vilen on the outskirts of Kaifeng; Contour to the ninth floor, you can see the vast and swift water in the sky-the Yellow River, and appreciate its Tianhe meaning; When the height reaches the twelfth floor, the clouds are wrapped around the whole body, which is like entering a fairyland. It is one of the eight famous scenes of Bianjing in ancient Kaifeng. And today's iron tower has tilted to the southeast as Mr. Yu Hao said.

Conclusion: As one of the famous pagodas in China, Kaibao Temple Pagoda is the most influential and outstanding representative among the brick pagodas in the Song Dynasty, because it is the tallest pagoda in China with a magnificent and vigorous artistic style of a set of glazed works in the Song Dynasty, with a height of 55.88 meters.

As the largest glass art pagoda in China, Kaibao Temple Pagoda is an important work of art for us to study the architectural technology and glass technology in Song Dynasty. The existence of Kaibao Temple Pagoda is for us to better study the plastic arts, architectural science and art, decorative arts and the cultural and artistic connotation displayed by the pagoda itself, and to provide us with detailed and valuable physical historical materials.

It is even more fascinating to stand still in the world after eighty-one difficulties. It integrates historical and cultural knowledge, decorative arts, legends and architectural arts, and is a precious and rare historical witness. It stands tall, exquisite structure, magnificent, dotted with scenery, halberd refers to the blue sky, eye-catching, let you explore the ancient. On the winding ancient road, we watched it open.