Iron Pagoda

Hours & Admission Price Peak Season
Jan.-Dec.
07:00-19:00
20 Low Season
Jan.-Dec.
07:00-19:00
20 Address & Phone +86 378-2826629 Beimen Street, Kaifeng City, Henan Province Transportation One can take bus No. 1, 3, 20 to get there. Notes

Located in the northeast of Kaifeng, Iron Pagoda is the first pagoda in China and the symbol of Kaifeng City. It is renowned for its exquisite architectural design and magnificent structure.

Originally called Kaibaosi Pagoda, Iron Pagoda was firstly built in the year of 1049 during the North Song Dynasty (960-1127) with a height of 55.88 meters. Although called Iron Pagoda, it was not made of iron, but of red, brown, blue and green glazed bricks. As the main hue is reddish brown, the pagoda looks like iron from afar, hence its name. It is located in the northeast of Kaifeng and is the first pagoda in China and the symbol of Kaifeng City. It is renowned for its exquisite architectural design and magnificent structure.

History

The construction of the Iron Pagoda is related to sarira. It is said that the sariras of Buddha Sakya was divided into eight shares evenly and distributed to eight kings of ancient India; the share of Magadha was occupied by King Asoka 200 years later. Asoka stored the sariras in 84,000 pagodas and distributed to different places, including a pagoda in Zhejiang of China. During the war, the Emperor Taizu in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) got the sariras and consecrated them in Kaibao Temple Pagoda in Kaifeng City.

The Structure of the Iron Pagoda

As a thirteen-layered, octagonal pagoda, Iron Pagoda is 55.88 meters high and modeled after wooden counterparts. The bottom storey is about 4 meters wide and decrease step by step. Looking from afar, the Iron Pagoda looks exquisite and magnificent. It was built with different size of glazed bricks. The doors, windows, pillars, brackets, bracket supports and pent roofs are all modeled after wooden ones and pieced together rigorously. Iron Pagoda has been weathered in the wind and rain for thousands of years, but remains firm. It was prized as the first pagoda in the world and was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 1961.

The outer walls are inlaid with more than fifty ornamental designs, including images of sitting Buddha, bodhisattvas, kirin, jade Buddha, heavenly kings, lions, unicorns, musicians and flowers, etc. All of these images are modeled exquisite and shown vividly. Lanes are provided in the pagoda and one can climb up the 168 steps to view the beautiful scenery of the city. Viewing the city in Iron Pagoda is considered to be one of the "eight tourist must-sees in Kaifeng".

Welcoming Buddha Hall

To the east of the Iron Pagoda, there is a giant hall with double hipped roof, lacquered ridgepoles and painted girders. Built in 1983, the hall was supported by 24 big poles. 96 lions in different shapes are carved on the baluster. A Buddha sculpture with a height of 5.14 meters and a weight of 12 tons is laid in the hall. He is the Amitabha of the western Elysium and also known as the Welcoming Buddha.

Kaifeng Culture