Five Pagoda Temple

Five Pagoda Temple, also called Jingangzuo Dagoba ("Precious Pagoda of the Buddhist Relics of the Diamond Throne"), used to be one building of the Cideng Temple. Cideng Temple had been ruined and only the five pagoda remains and got its present name. It is located in the older part of the city in the vicinity of Qingcheng Park.

Construction of the temple began in 1727 and was completed in 1732, built of stone and bricks, the temple is 13 meters high and is composed of three parts: the base, the seat and the top (five pagodas). In the lower seat there are exquisite inscriptions of Diamond Sutra written in Mongolian, Tibetan and Sanskrit. The upper part of the base is a niche for a statue of Buddha and four Devarajas. The vivid carvings and designs on the pagoda are finely made, and it is representative of the architectural achievements that were made in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911).

Five pagodas standing side by side on the seat, the central one has seven stories while the rest on the four corners are all five-story high. In the first floor of these pagodas, there are brick carvings of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Bodhi trees and so on. While in the floors above there are a great number of niches for statues of Buddha in different shapes totaling 1563. Only the pagoda in Zhenjue Temple in Beijing resembles the shape of this one. However in terms of the art of architecture, the pagoda in Hohhot is more exquisite.

In addition, an astronomical chart and two Buddhism pictures are carved delicately onto a wall behind the pagodas, which are valuable cultural relics.