Is the Small Wild Goose Pagoda a lofted tower

Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an is a pavilion tower.

The architectural form of Loft Pagoda is derived from the pavilion in traditional Chinese architecture. The pavilion is a very important type of ancient building in China's history, long before the introduction of Buddhism, China's pavilion building has been quite common.

And the so-called pavilion tower is imitated the shape of the pavilion, the tower will be built into a multi-storey pavilion, the internal staircases and floors, you can climb, each layer of the external tower door and tower windows, between the two adjacent layers of the external waist eave, and in some cases, there are also flat seat and railing, for people to walk.

The pavilion tower is the mainstream of the development of Chinese tower, mostly seen in the vast area south of the Yangtze River, relatively few in the north. The earliest tower in China is the four square tower built in the White Horse Temple in Luoyang.

The tower can be enshrined in the pavilion, and can be used by monks and other visits. Some of the tower also has a military lookout function, such as Beijing Liangxiang Haotian tower. Building materials are wood or stone bricks, and some towers are decorated with stone carvings or glazed surfaces.

Historical value:

Small Wild Goose Pagoda was built in the first year of Jinglong of the Tang Dynasty (707) and has been well preserved until now, with a history of more than 1,300 years, and it is one of the earliest precious examples of the pagoda, which is a form of Buddhist architecture, being introduced into the Central Plains.

The shape and structure of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a representative work of the early dense-eaved pagodas in China, which influenced the construction of dense-eaved masonry pagodas in many areas of China. Yunnan, Sichuan and other regions of the Tang and Song period of the dense eaves tower, although each with its own local characteristics, but still can be seen with the small wild goose pagoda inheritance relationship.