DaBaoEn Temple
]From they were built in 1412(the 10th year of YongLe), DaBaoEn Temple and its nine-storied LiuLi pagoda were once a wonder of Nanjing in their 425 history, till they was destroyed in TaiPingTianGuo war.
The engineering and construction of DaBaoEn Temple was huge and complicated. Under the order of Ming Chenzu (Zhu Li), the temple was built under strict royal standards of palace, Zheng He was the general director of this project. It took 19 years of 10,000 soldiers and impressed farmers to finish this temple.
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The most famous building of DaBaoEn Temple was its LiuLi pagoda, which had 9 stories and 8 sides, 32zhang and 9chi high, the whole exterior of the pagoda was covered with glazed tiles (Liuli). With its red, orange, green, white and black colors and various sculptures of fairy, sheep, lion, elephant and snake in glazed tiles, the pagoda had a splendor appearance. |
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In 1856 of the TaiPingTianGuo War, for the North General was afraid this famous pagoda would be used as siege-fort by enemy, he commanded destroyed the DaBaoEn temple and its pagoda, this wonder disappeared from then on. This is the scene on former temple gate site now. | ||||||
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The Incense-offering river was filled into an allay, this is a bluestone of the bridge ever on this river. |
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The original site of DaBaoEn temple now is ZhengXue Road
Community. On ZhengXue Road community center, a map illustrated
the previous main structures of DaBanEn temple.
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The tile debris of DaBaoEn Temple found by residents here, displayed in the community center. |
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In spite of 600 years have past, these tiles remain in beautiful colors. | ||||||
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A fragment of stone baluster.
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On south, there is the Left Stele of DaBaoEn Temple, built in the 22nd year of longle, only the stone tortoise remain, the stele of it had been destroyed. | ||||||
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Ancient well on north of DaBaoEn Temple relic. | ||||||
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At the end of this
visit of DaBaoEn Temple relic, I had a surprise: |
A resident of
ZhengXue Road community, Mr. Liu showed me his personal
founding, a couple of fragments of beams of DaBaoEn Temple. These beautiful fragments had delicate sculptures of lotus flower, a typical figure was used in Buddhist buildings. |
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Residents of ZhengXue Road community friendly helped me. Right:
Mr. Liu; Left: Mr. Dou Changxi, the only alive witness of underground palace of DaBaoEn temple, who reached the interior of underground palace in 1940s.
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Current scene of the relic, where the community is under a remove plan by Nanjing government for a rebuilding of the DaBanEn Temple to commemorate the coming 600th anniversary of Zheng He. | ||||||
