The Songyue Pagoda, constructed in 523 CE, is located at the Songyue Monastery on Mount Song, in Henan province, China. Mount Song, known in Chinese as Song Shan ( Simplified Chinese: 嵩山 Pinyin: Sōng Shān is one of the Taoist Five Sacred Henan ( is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National [1] Built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, this pagoda is one of the few intact sixth-century pagodas in China and is also the earliest known Chinese brick pagoda. The Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏 Pinyin: běi wèi 386 - 534) also known as the Tuoba Wei (拓拔魏 Later Wei (後魏 or A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered Tower with multiple Eaves common in China, Japan, Korea [1] Most structures from that period were made of wood and have not survived. [2][3]
The spread of Buddhism dramatically influenced Chinese architecture. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Chinese architecture refers to a style of Architecture that has taken shape in Asia over the centuries By the sixth century, Buddhism had spread with tremendous momentum throughout China: Chinese culture was adjusting and adapting its traditions to include Indian Buddhism forms of worship. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country [2] The Chinese transformed the rounded earthen mound of the South Asian stupa into the towering pagoda to house the sacred buried relics of Buddha at its core. A stupa (from Sanskrit and Pāli: m स्तूप stūpa, literally meaning "heap" is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance carefully preserved with an air of Veneration as a tangible memorial Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder [4][2][3]
The unique many-sided shape of the Songyue Pagoda suggests that it represents an early attempt to merge the Chinese architecture of straight edges with the circular style of Indian Buddhism. The perimeter of the pagoda decreases as it rises. The perimeter is the distance around a given two-dimensional object As this is seen in Indian and Central Asian Buddhist cave temple pillars and the later round pagodas in China, the changing pagoda shape over time supports the Indian Buddhist origins of the style. Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south A column in Structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural [2]
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Style
The Songyue Pagoda is unique in form, being twelve-sided. The tower is 40 m (131 ft) high and built of yellowish brick held together with clay mortar. A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar. Mortar is a workable paste formed by mixture of Cement, Water and fine aggregate Masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between [2] It is the oldest and larges surviving pagoda and was built at a time when, according to records, almost all pagodas were of wood. [4][3]
The pagoda has a low, plain brick pedestal or base, and a very high first story characteristic of pagodas with multiple eaves, with balconies dividing the first story into two layers and doors connecting the two parts. Pedestal (from French piedestal, Italian piedistallo, foot of a stall is a term generally applied to the support of a Statue or a Vase The ornamented arch doors and decorative apses or niches are intricately carved into teapots or lions. An arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight (e APSE standing for Ada Programming Support Environment is a program or set of programs to support Software development in the Ada programming language. The niche in classical architecture is an Exedra or an Apse that has been reduced in size retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse A teapot is a vessel used for steeping Tea leaves or an herbal mix in near-boiling Water. At the base of the door pillars are carvings shaped as lotus flowers and the pillar capitals have carved pearls and lotus flowers. Nelumbo nucifera is known by a number of common names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, and sacred water-lily In several traditions of Architecture including Classical architecture, the capital (from the Latin caput 'head' forms the crowning member After the first story there are fifteen closely spaced roofs lined with eaves and small lattice windows. Latticework is an ornamental, lattice Framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of Building material, usually Wood or The pagoda features densely clustered ornamental bracked eaves in the dougong style ornamenting each story. A bracket is an architectural member made of wood stone or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight Dougong ( is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important elements in traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Inside the pagoda, the wall is cylindrical with eight levels of projecting stone supports for what was probably wooden flooring originally. [3] Beneath the pagoda is an underground series of burial rooms to preserve cultural objects buried with the dead. The inner most chamber contained Buddhist relics, transcripts of Buddhist scriptures and statues of Buddha. A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance carefully preserved with an air of Veneration as a tangible memorial [5]
At its core, the Songyue Pagoda has a massive central brick pillar with every story connected to it. The stairs, passageways, walls, balconies and eaves are all built of brick or stone and connected together and to the core pillar, producing an integrated whole. The floors were supported by arches and stacked bricks around the central pillar. [5] Viewing the Songyue Pagoda from the outside, the elegant contour is of a smooth parabola, a towering, graceful edifice demonstrating a high level of artistic design. In Mathematics, the parabola (pəˈræbələ from the Greek παραβολή) is a Conic section, the intersection of a right circular [3]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b Yetts, 124. The Chinese Pagoda is a Landmark in Birmingham, England. It is a stone carving of a Chinese pagoda, carved in Fujian, China Dhamek Stupa (also spelled Dhamekh and Dhamekha) is a massive Stupa located at Sarnath, 13 km away from Varanasi in the state of
- ^ a b c d e Xinian, Fu (2002). Chinese Architecture -- The Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, English Ed. , Yale University Press, pp 86–87, 89. ISBN 0-300-09559-7.
- ^ a b c d e Songyue Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng of Henan Province. china. org. cn. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul
- ^ a b Ching et al, Francis D. K. (2007). A Global History of Architecture. New York: John Wiley and Sons, p. 275. ISBN 0-471-82451-3.
- ^ a b Structures of Pagodas. china. org. cn. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul
References
- Yetts, Perceval W. "Writings on Chinese Architecture," The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs (Volume 50, Number 288, 1927): 116–131.
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