Fusheng Temple Pagoda, Song dynasty brick pagoda in Dengzhou, China

The Fusheng Temple Pagoda is a seven-storey octagonal brick pagoda in Dengzhou, Henan, with its door facing south. It stands 38.23 metres high, built entirely of grey bricks with white mortar joints outside and red clay inside. Its walls carry over 2,000 brick reliefs of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, arhats and lotus patterns.

Built on 25 February 1032, in the tenth year of the Northern Song Tiansheng era, the pagoda originally had thirteen storeys. It was damaged in fighting at the end of the Yuan dynasty and reduced to seven storeys. The monk Ziyan rebuilt it in the early Ming Hongwu period, and in 2006 it was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.

The name Fusheng Temple Pagoda is also rendered as the Fan Pagoda. Its walls carry more than 2,000 brick reliefs in 25 types — seated Buddhas, bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, arhats, musicians and lotus patterns — set around semicircular arch doors on the north and south faces, with vine and flower motifs carved around the openings.

You can view and explore the pagoda and its surroundings at your own pace, with a brief visit being sufficient to take in the structure. The location near Gucheng Street makes it easy to reach from central Dengzhou.

In 1988, while repairing the pagoda, workers found a palace beneath the tower chamber, 4.6 m deep. Excavation that July and August yielded a gold coffin, a silver outer coffin, a gilt silver ewer with two dragons and a purple-red glass gourd.