Qualla: Xumi Pagoda

Xumi Pagoda: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Zeus1234, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fourteen centuries is a long time to stand in one place. The Xumi Pagoda has managed it. Built in 636 AD, during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty, this square-base tower of stone and brick rises 48 meters above the grounds of the Kaiyuan Monastery in Zhengding, Hebei Province. It is one of the oldest well-preserved pagodas in China, a survivor from an era when the Tang dynasty was still consolidating the empire that would become medieval China's golden age.

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Image: User:Zeus1234 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Xumi Pagoda: Emperor Taizong's Tower

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Zeus1234, CC BY-SA 3.0. The year 636 AD places the Xumi Pagoda's construction early in the Tang dynasty, during the reign of one of China's most celebrated emperors. Taizong had secured the throne in 626 after a period of fratricidal conflict and was in the process of building the administrative and mil...

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Image: User:Zeus1234 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Xumi Pagoda: Stone and Brick Against the Centuries

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Zeus1234, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Xumi Pagoda's survival is partly a matter of material. Unlike the wooden halls that surrounded it, which have long since disappeared, the pagoda is constructed of stone and brick, materials that resist fire, the most common destroyer of traditional Chinese buildings. Its squa...

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Image: User:Zeus1234 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Xumi Pagoda: A Broken Statue Made Whole

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit E2568, CC0. For centuries, a statue associated with the pagoda was incomplete, its left side broken off and missing. The gap was simply accepted as the price of time. Then, in 2000, during an excavation at a nearby street, workers discovered the missing fragment. The reunion of statue and fr...

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Image: E2568 | CC0

Xumi Pagoda: Zhengding's Forest of Towers

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Windmemories, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Xumi Pagoda does not stand alone in Zhengding's architectural landscape. Within this small county north of Shijiazhuang, the Lingxiao Pagoda, the Guanghui Temple Flower Pagoda, the Chengling Stupa of Linji Temple, and the great Longxing Monastery all cluster within walking di...

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Image: Windmemories | CC BY-SA 4.0