Santasi faces Diancang Mountain in the west and Erhai Lake in the east. You can see its towering figure in the clouds miles away. Entering the spacious courtyard, I saw three towers standing in the middle of each other (see cover photo).
Three pagodas, built in the reign of Fengyou in Nanzhao (823 ~859), were built first, and then the south and north pagodas. According to legend, these three pagodas were designed and built in Dali by craftsmen Gong Tao and Yi Hui in the Tang Dynasty. According to Nanzhao unofficial history, there are 65,438+065,438+000 bronze buddhas on the tower, using more than 40,500 kilograms of copper, with an extraordinary load.
After the earthquake and war, Chongsheng Temple has long since disappeared, and only three pagodas stand tall. This fully reflects the intelligence and superb architectural skills of the ancient working people, and also reflects the close cultural ties between the people of the Central Plains and the people of all ethnic groups in the border areas of Yunnan. The Three Pagodas are important historical relics in China, and are listed as one of the national key protected cultural relics by the State Council.
Among the three pagodas, the Great Pagoda, also known as Chihiro Pagoda, is 69. 13 meters high, and it is a square brick cornice tower with a grade of 16. Except for overlapping, they are all plastered with white plaster. There are niches on all sides of each floor, facing two niches for Buddha statues, and the other two niches are windows. The directions of two adjacent windows are staggered alternately, which is beneficial to lighting and ventilation in the tower. The tower is equipped with a wooden skeleton, and the top floor can be reached by stairs.
During the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, tourists often climbed the tower to overlook it and wrote poems and inscriptions on it. At the four corners of the tower, there is a golden-winged bird cast in copper. According to legend, this bird can suppress dragons and monsters in Erhai Lake. There are metal pagodas, treasure covers, treasure tops and golden roosters at the top of the tower.
The bottom is inlaid with the four characters of "Yongzhen Mountains and Rivers" engraved on marble. It was written by Sun Shijie, a descendant of Mu Ying who was named Duke of Guizhou by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty. The font is vigorous and resolute. The south and north towers are both 43 meters high, and are 10 octagonal brick towers with dense eaves. The exterior decoration is a pavilion with columns at each corner, flat seats on each floor, chess games on the fourth and sixth floors, and embossed windows under the eaves. There is a gold-plated pagoda at the top, which looks very gorgeous.