Pagoda Forest at Shaolin Temple, Buddhist cemetery in Dengfeng, China

The Pagoda Forest at Shaolin Temple is a walled cemetery of about 248 brick and stone memorial pagodas on roughly 14,000 m2 west of the monastery, at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain. The towers rise in stacked eaves to pointed finials, each on a low stone platform, and their tiers number one to seven, always odd.

The earliest memorial pagoda is that of Master Faru, dated 689 during the Tang dynasty. Inscriptions record a Japanese monk in 1339 and an Indian monk in 1564. Most of the surviving brick and stone towers were built under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911), and interments continue today.

Each pagoda's height and number of tiers indicate the rank and achievements of the monk buried within. The way these structures stand together shows how the community honored different levels of spiritual accomplishment.

The site sits about 280 meters southwest of the main temple, near the Shaoxi River. Plan enough time to walk through and examine the individual pagodas and their stone inscriptions at a comfortable pace.

Many of the roughly 240 ancient pagodas carry carved inscriptions that document Buddhist practices and calligraphy from different eras. These stones serve as a written record that visitors can still read and study today.