The site of the Three Pagodas of Congsheng Temple is located at the piedmont of the Zhonghe Peak of Cangshan Mountain. The pagodas built of bricks are one big and two small, and they lean upon Cangshan Mountain, and face the Erhai Sea to the west, standing as three rival powers with imposing appearance.

The main pagoda of the Three Pagodas is the Grand Pagoda, also called Qianxun Pagoda, set in the middle, and was established during the King Quan Fengyou reign of the Nanzhao Kingdom (824-859). The main pagoda is 69.13 meters high, with 16 layers, and in the first layer there are 16 layers of dense eaves with elegant arc profiles. The pagoda body has a thick holy loop structure, with vertical internal walls, and wooden stairs lead to the top. At the bottom of the pagoda, there are two layers of tall bases, where the pagoda body is so seated on, the upper layer of the base is made of bricks, which is 2.07 meter high, and the lower base is surrounded with handrails and pillars.

This pagoda has a similar appearance and structure with the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, the Pagoda of the Songyue Temple in Henan, they are typical dense-eaved brick pagodas of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and are really masterpieces of that time. In the middle of each layer's facade of the main pagoda there is a shrine where sits a white marble joss, and the pagoda top is rolled into round shape. During the repair of the main pagoda in 1979, 3 bronze carving plates were discovered in the basement of the pagoda, recording repairs in the year of 1000, 1142 and 1154, respectively, as well as many josses, Bodhisattva statues, hand-written sutras, bronze mirrors, porcelains, magical instruments, prints, lutes, coins, various small pagoda models, and gold and silver crafts. In the basement of the pagoda, over 600 precious relics such as porcelain josses, small pagodas, Sanskrit Sutra and paternoster prints were also excavated, which have significant historical, cultural and artistic value. Among those, graphic volume ofVajira Path Classics, and handwritten translation ofthe Pure Land Sutraandthe Great Nirvana Sutraof the Tang Dynasty are most precious relics, and of high historical and cultural value, and being precious substantial material for research into the history of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms.

The two small pagodas seated in north and south are 70 meters away from the main pagoda, respectively, and they are both 42.19 meters high with an octagonal plane. The bodies of these two pagodas are coated with white mud. The pagoda base has two layers, and there are joss niches and josses in eight sides of the first layer. Except that the second and the eighth layer of the pagoda body are carved with stone josses in their opening side of joss niches, the rest layers are engraved with propitious clouds, lotus thrones, and vase, etc, showing luxuriance and solemn. On the top of each pagoda, there are 3 bronze calabashes, and the pagoda is in a unique shape with Song Dynasty architecture style, and its construction should have been in the Dali Kingdom Era in the 11thcentury.

The former Congsheng Temple used to have a magnificent layout, but it was destroyed in the late Qing Dynasty, the Three Pagodas of the temple, though experiencing weather erosion and some intense earthquakes through more than 1,000 years, stand imposingly erect and win the fame far and wide at home and abroad, becoming a symbol of tourism in Dali and even Yunnan Province.

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