Stupas and Pagodas        2008-5-29 14:57:19

o be the graveyard of Buddhists.
    One of such forests belongs to the famous Shaolin Monastery in Dengfeng County, Henan Province. With its 220 brick pagodas, it is the resting place of the abbots and senior monks of the monastery who lived at various times under several dynasties, from the Tang to the Qing, spanning a thousand years. It is the forest of pagodas of the largest scale and built over the longest stretch of time.
    The pagodas, mostly decorated with carvings and inscriptions, are generally of three to seven storeys and of varying heights up to 15 metres. They are of different forms: square or hexagon in crosssection, a column, a cone or a vase in shape, with straight or curving lines.
    Another rare "forest of pagodas" lies in the vicinity of Lingyansi (Temple) in Shandong Province. It compirses 176 pagodas of a variety of attractive forms, also built at different times since the Tang Dynasty.
    These pagodas, in Henan, Shandong and elsewhere, are a valuable storehouse of information about various sects of Chinese Buddhism, and about the arts of sculpture and architecture of different ages.