Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty wrote a poem about the pagoda: "From afar, I have seen the beauty of the pagoda, but when I get closer, it is difficult to see and turn over it." Viewers are all amazed by the vastness of the project, the spectacular shape, and the fine carvings, and they can't help but stand in awe.
There is still no information on the specific year when the Daming Tower was built. However, according to analysis by archaeologists, the Daming Tower was indeed built in the Liao Dynasty.
Based on the words "Eighth day of April in the fourth year of Shouchang..." written on a brick found on the tower during maintenance in 1982, it is believed that the Daming Tower should be the site of the reign of Tong Liao and the Second Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It was built between the 15th and 4th years of Shouchang (1007-1098 AD).
The Daming Pagoda is located in the Liao Zhongjing site in Nancheng Village, Tianyi Town, Ningcheng County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The original name should be Daning Pagoda (there is still a "Poetry on Daning Pagoda" written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, which is a homophonic misreading of the Ming Dynasty). It is more than 120 kilometers away from Chifeng and more than 20 kilometers away from Tianyi Town, Ningcheng County.
Extended information:
Cultural relics in the pagoda
On the tall facade at the bottom of the Daming Pagoda, a huge lotus throne holds up the eight pillars of the Haitian Buddha Kingdom. In Buzhou, there is a Buddhist niche built on the top of each facade in the center, and there are tall round Buddha statues with Buddha light on their heads, kind eyebrows and kind eyes, looking down on the world.
Among the many ancient pagodas in our country, the largest one is the Daming Pagoda of the Liao Dynasty. Today, while this largest solid brick pagoda in China shows its majestic appearance to Chinese and foreign tourists, it also buries many hidden things. secret.
It is said that there is a large underground palace under the Daming Pagoda, which houses the statues of Sakyamuni Buddha and his disciples. Ninety-nine and eighty-one ever-burning lamps are lit on the altar in front of the Buddha, and there is a particularly large oil lamp in the middle. It is also very bright. No matter how much oil devout Buddhists add to these oil lamps, it will not overflow. No matter how long they do not add oil, the oil will not decrease, and the lamps will still be bright.
But one year, a young monk still went in along the passage to refuel, but he was never seen coming out again. When other monks went to look for it, the passage had long disappeared.
According to Li Yi, according to the general rules for building pagodas, there should be an underground palace in the center of the pagoda base, which is a place where Buddha relics and other objects are placed. When the county was cleaning up the base of the tower in 1986, they conducted trial excavations directly south of the tower, but the underground palace was still not found at a depth of 7 meters. For fear of endangering the safety of the tower, they did not dare to excavate the base or body of the tower. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the location under the tower. Whether there is an underground palace or not.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Da Ming Pagoda