Chengtian Temple Pagoda 承天寺塔

About Chengtian Temple Pagoda

The original monument belonged to the Western Xia period, while the standing tower was rebuilt in 1820 after an earthquake destroyed its predecessor. Its layered eaves and raised base provide a compact architectural visit within the old city. The former provincial museum grounds here should not be confused with today’s Ningxia Museum in Jinfeng.

The pagoda was built in 1050, during the infancy of Emperor Yizong, commissioned by the empress dowager (没藏皇后) to protect his reign and to house pieces of the Buddha's skull bone in an underground chamber; a commemorative stele records the exact date. The temple was completed five years later, and in 1055 received a set of the Tripitaka from the Song emperor Renzong. By the Ming Hongwu era the temple had already been destroyed, leaving only the pagoda; the Ming prince Zhu Zhan (朱栴) undertook its renovation, completed by his grandson Zhu Suikan (朱邃坎) in 1469.

A major earthquake struck near Yinchuan in 1738 and destroyed the pagoda; the present tower, rebuilt in 1820, kept the same scale and largely preserved the Western Xia style. In 1939, Japanese bombing killed 42 people sheltering in an air-raid shelter on the temple grounds, though the pagoda itself was undamaged. The pagoda was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in 2006.

Although the pagoda appears to have thirteen storeys from outside, it actually contains eleven. Each storey's eaves carry an iron bell at its corners, the roof is built of green glazed brick, and the pagoda is topped not by a canopy but by a large octagonal, peach-shaped green finial.

What to look for

• An octagonal brick body rises through eleven storeys.
• The raised base and layered eaves preserve the form of the rebuilt pagoda.

Location & getting there

Getting to Chengtian Temple Pagoda

Navigate to Chengtian Temple/Western Pagoda in Yinchuan’s Xingqing old-city area. Check whether the courtyard and tower interior are open separately; the presence of historic internal stairs does not guarantee climbing access.