Mudan Evening News All Media Reporter Meng Xin
Among the many ancient buildings in our city, a seemingly indifferent "small stone pagoda" made of stone outside the village of Tianta, Dada Set Town, Chengwu County, has an "extraordinary" historical status and value, it is called the Wolverine Pagoda, a building of the early Tang Dynasty, with exact It is the earliest surviving ground building in the southwest of Lu, with high historical, artistic and scientific research value, which has survived weather erosion, war and human destruction for thousands of years, and was recognized as the eighth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in October 2019.
Hiding in the farmland outside the village, it stands for a thousand years "hosting" rural memories
"Reclining Tower? You're talking about Tianta, right? It's in the east end of the village. We have this ancient tower near our village." At about 10:00 a.m., under the guidance of villagers, Mudan Evening News full media reporter saw the tower more than a hundred meters away from the east side of Tianta Village, only to see the tower and its protection fence outside, surrounded by green crops on three sides, there is only a tarmac lane passing by, and the tower body from a distance, slightly dilapidated, gray appearance, "low" stance The pagoda, walking under the tower and looking up at the tower, all stone dry structure and shape, so that its ancient and heavy atmosphere, the carving on the tower has been slightly blurred, but the stone statue inside the tower is still clear and realistic.
"This tower for the early Tang Dynasty ancient architecture, more than a thousand years later, although the appearance of our city's Juno Yongfeng Tower, Yuncheng Tang Tower as majestic, tall, but its own two identities: the earliest surviving ground building in southwest Lu, the national key cultural relics protection units, it shows the historical status and value it holds." Chengwu County Museum curator Guo Li pointed to the reclining tower in front of the reporter told.
Guo Li told reporters, according to historical records, lying around the Tower of the original size of the temple --- Xing Shan Temple, but in the early twentieth century destroyed in the war, leaving the evening drums and morning bells, Sanskrit curl, the tower name is also slowly lost in history, after the Tian in Ming Hongwu years from Shanxi moved to live in Juno, the branch and moved the tower next to build a village, so take the village name Tian Tower Village, the tower is also near the residents named by word of mouth "Tian Tower". It was not until 2007 that the name of the tower was officially restored to "Wolverine Tower" when the "Wolverine Tower stone foundation" was unearthed.
"This tower seems to be built carelessly, even hooked seams are not, but in my childhood memories, this tower is an integral part of the school every day, passing by, weekend playmates to meet here, farming time to come to the tower to cool off, get married when passing by this tower to get off the incense ...... our village, there is no people on the This tower is not familiar with the original not enclosed, the villagers often come to incense wish, wish-fulfillment, is a spiritual support." The village villagers Tian Yu told reporters.
"In September 2016, Wolverine Tower completed the first phase of the repair and protection project, in 2018 completed the second phase of environmental management work, and now a small square for villagers to relax next to the tower, usually the villagers also take good care of the tower, after all, this tower witnessed the village from the establishment to the development of today's changes, the years leave cracks, is the wrinkle of time, each Villagers have deep rural memories of this tower." Chengwu County Museum Director Guo Li introduced.
The dry lime stone base is gathered in an iterative manner, "pocket-sized" but ancient and heavy
"Wolverine Tower is very small, appears a little 'pocket', its bottom side is 5.45 meters long from north to south, 5.04 meters long from east to west, 5.82 meters high on the ground, the tower base area only covers 27.46 square meters, apparently a little 'pocket '." Guo Li introduced to the reporter.
The Mudan Evening News all-media reporter learned that the Wolghua Tower is an all-bronze structure, loft-style, square in plan, dry-built and without the use of adhesives. The whole tower is composed of three parts, namely the tower brake, the tower body and the base, with seven layers. The ground surface now has five layers, the bottom layer has a tower room, south-facing, 1.5 meters deep, the east and west walls have a 90 cm high, 56 cm wide, 11 cm thick, respectively, a piece of statue stone. The tower body is mostly built by the Han tomb stone box, each layer of the tower eaves have three layers of arch, arch with rafters, the eaves roof is a gentle slope, each layer iterative collection, the wall, arch, eaves and other parts of the proportion of coordination, the study of the Tang Dynasty stone pagoda architectural art more important physical reference value.
The south side of the tower has a tower room at the bottom of the tower, and the two walls of the tower room have a stone statue on the east and west walls respectively, and the two stone statues have a Buddha niche on the front, and the left and right sides are decorated with line engraved seawater patterns. East wall stone statue of Buddha niche carved in relief: a layer of flying; the middle of the second layer for Shakyamuni, the left side in turn for Ananda and riding the lion Manjushri Bodhisattva, the right side in turn for Gaya and riding the white elephant Puxian Bodhisattva, under the seat of two Rex, on both sides of a servant; the third layer for 11 supporters; the fourth layer for 15 supporters. The right side of the niche is inscribed with the words "Emperor Shenwu of the Holy Gods of the Tang Dynasty", while the left side is inscribed with the words "Empress Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty made offerings to the Buddha".
"Although the reclining pagoda is made of dry stone layer by layer, but the shape is ancient, simple and dignified, the pagoda shape is simple and simple, thick and generous, after thousands of years of wind and rain erosion, war trauma and human destruction, still standing tall, which shows that our ancestors at that time in the selection of materials, construction, design and other aspects already have a high construction technology." Chengwu County Museum Director Guo Li introduced, "Buddha statue using a combination of round carving, relief carving, line carving, meteorological, law magnificent, the spirit of the art of Buddha carving and the expression of the form of perfect unity, the expression of life and vitality and the heart of the Buddha, fully reflecting the ancient people's superior wisdom and creativity."
From the building belonging to the ground, Wolverine Tower in the Tang Dynasty belonged to Jinxiang County, and then to Juno County, now belongs to Chengwu County Dada set town, the tower records the historical changes in the southwest region of Lu, is an important physical data to study the political, economic and social changes in the region. Chengwu County Museum Director Guo Li introduced, Wolverine Tower basically maintained the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty, heritage buildings in the form of characteristics, materials and technology features to retain the original state of history, stone statue carving art style highlights the characteristics of the Tang Dynasty Buddha statue, the historical and material remains recorded by the stone statue inscriptions can be mutually corroborated.
Protection and development, "living fossil" reclining tower may welcome a new life
With a history of more than 1,300 years, the Wolwata has also been targeted by "bargain hunters". In the exhibition hall of Chengwu County Museum, there are two seemingly ordinary but long-established statue monuments. They were originally used as architectural accessories, belonging to the first floor of the tower room east and west walls of the Wolverine Tower, stolen in 1996, later recovered by the public security authorities. "In 2000, some unscrupulous elements dug a hole and buried explosives on the south side of the Wolverine Tower, and the explosion led to the collapse of some stones on the southeast side of the first floor of the Wolverine Tower, but fortunately the theft was not successful." Guo Li lamented.
In the 1960s, the original top two floors of the tower and the tower brakes were artificially destroyed, in order to protect this heritage of more than 1,300 years, Chengwu County at all levels and parts to take a number of protective measures.
In 2014, Chengwu County People's Government in accordance with the requirements of the re-establishment of the Wolverine Tower protection marker, and re-established the Wolverine Tower heritage protection team. In September of the same year, Chengwu County Cultural Relics Administration of Wolverine Tower repair and protection project to request a project, and signed a contract with the Cultural Relics Protection Center of Shandong Province for the repair and survey and design of cultural relics protection units. in December of the same year, the Shandong Provincial Bureau of cultural relics in Chengwu County Wolverine Tower repair and protection program was approved and proposed amendments.
In January 2016, through public bidding and Shandong Province Cultural Relics Engineering Company signed "Chengwu County Wolverine Tower repair and protection contract", and notarized. in June of the same year, Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Engineering Company began to repair the Wolverine Tower. 3 months later, the first phase of the Wolverine Tower repair and protection project completed. 2018, the second phase of environmental management work also completed construction. and in the provincial, municipal and county-level cultural relics protection units and the third national census of immovable cultural relics have archives and electronic files, now stored in Chengwu County Cultural Relics Archives, by a dedicated person responsible for the custody.
"At present, the Wolverine Tower has been incorporated into the smart city management system, the implementation of monitoring by the SkyNet system, heritage protection officers can also view the heritage site before monitoring." Guo Li said, in addition to the joint belonging to the local police station, do a good job in the scope of the Wolvera Tower site involved in security prevention work and the residents of the district about heritage laws and regulations publicity and education work. And in addition to the heritage protection team daily patrol inspection of the entire site, the county's cultural heritage authorities also carry out regular and irregular safety and security inspections.
The next step, the county to do a good job on the Wolverine Tower protection management and management of the surrounding environment at the same time, will rely on existing resources, in-depth excavation Wolverine Tower tourism development projects, so that protection, utilization and tourism combined, common development.
Wolverine Pagoda, a stone pagoda that still stands after a thousand years, carries too much historical information and rural memories, and is a living fossil of the history of southwest Lu.
