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Wooden Pagoda is located in about 70 kilometers away from Datong. It is the only extant large wooden pagoda in China and also the tallest among ancient wooden buildings of the world.
Built during the Liao Dynasty (about 1056), this wooden pagoda has about 900 years of history. It has a height of about 67.3 meters, and a 30 meter long diameter at its bottom. It has 5 floors and 6 eaves if you look it from outside, In fact, every floor has inner layer, so, it has 5 floors outside and 4 floors inside, 9 floors together. The image of Sakyamuni is in the middle of first floor which looks grand and solemn, gives people mysterious feeling. There are 6portraits of Buddha in the wall with proper proportion and bright color. " Feitian" (one of fresco) beside the Buddha head look active and plentiful, glowing with health and radiating vigor, it is a masterpiece among fresco. There is a sitting Buddha who faces to four directions on the 3rd floor. There is a sit image of Sakyamuni in the middle of 5th floor,8 Bodhisattva sit around it. As there are no inner floors in the center of the pagoda, the image looks more solemn and grand. All these used structure-gap well and designed very scientifically.
Except the 4-meter-high stone ground, the wooden pagoda did not use any nail or rivet, all materials are wooden and connected by 50 kinds of base-mat. Every floor was supported by wooden pillars from inside and outside, about 60 kinds of inclined beams, wooden stumps and short pillars were used between the wooden pillars, thus, formed a wooden structure of repeated beam. So, the wooden pagoda looks solid and beautiful.
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